THE WILL OF GOD
Hebrews 10:5-9; Matthew 11:28-30; Romans 12:1,2
I have been thinking about the will of God. This morning in the house we read in Genesis 22 about Abraham offering up Isaac. We often apply that scripture, “Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest” (Gen.22:2), to what God did in the offering up of Christ, which is right. It is also right to look at it from the point of view of what Abraham did as the “Friend of God” (James 2:23), relating to the will of God. God then honoured him because he did not withhold his son, his only son for whom he had waited and for whom he had asked God. Abraham loved Isaac very dearly and yet he did not withhold him because he understood that it was the will of God that he should be offered up.
I was thinking about this in relation to Hebrews 10. If we want to understand someone who is subject to the will of God, we need to look at Jesus in all that He was in His pathway for God. “Wherefore coming into the world he says, Sacrifice and offering thou willedst not; but thou has prepared me a body”. It was a body that would be given up. It would be seen here in testimony according to the will of God, but it would be given up at the cross. The body that had been prepared for Him in order that He would fulfil the will of God and be here as a testimony to God, would be given up according to the will of God.
The Lord could say in relation to this, “My Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me; but not as I will, but as thou wilt”, Matt.26:39. It involved what was going to happen and what He was going to feel, literally, in His body when He had to give it up in death – giving up that body in subjection to the will of God. “Then I said, Lo, I come (in the roll of the book it is written of me) to do, O God, thy will”. We can link this to the first chapter of Ephesians. What God did according to the good pleasure of His will (Eph.1:5), what He did according to the counsel of His will (Eph.1:11), these things were taken up in this statement: “Lo, I come (in the roll of the book it is written of me) to do, O God, thy will”.
The Lord Jesus understood the pleasure of God and the counsels of God in relation to His will, and He was devoted to carrying out that will. Thus He says prophetically, “Lo, I come (in the roll of the book it is written of me) to do, O God, thy will”. In verse 9 the scripture adds, “Lo, I come to do thy will”. What a pleasure it was in the sight of God to see One so committed. He saw it in part in Abraham, but He saw it in completeness in Christ, in this Man who was here to fulfil His will. What an example that is for us, beloved brethren – a blessed Man who would say “Lo, I come to do thy will”. The writer to the Hebrews adds, “He takes away the first that he may establish the second”. That refers to all the things that were going to be established by Christ filling out the will of God in subjection to Him, including the intensity of His sufferings and His going into death and being three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. It was all according to the will and the counsel of God. Christ is the supreme example of one who was subject to the will of God.
In Matthew 11 the Lord is speaking to His own, saying, “Come to me, all ye who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest”. While the Lord was carrying out the will of God here upon the earth, He enjoyed His relationships with His Father. There is a clear indication of this in the scripture, “take me not away in the midst of my days!”, Ps.102:24. In His life here the Lord enjoyed His relationships while He carried out the will of God. The prospect of that enjoyment ceasing for a time did not turn Him aside. We have had a touch recently in relation to the Lord’s face being set steadfastly to go to Jerusalem. That was in relation to fulfilling the will of God.
The Lord says, “Come to me, all ye who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest”. That is the rest of relationship, the rest that Christ enjoyed: the rest of His soul, speaking very reverently and carefully. There was no agitation with the Lord as He carried out the will of God. He was subject to God’s will, because He loved it. It was His food to do the will of God. He goes on to say, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest to your souls”. The yoke here involves becoming subject to the Lord’s will in a scene where His will is rejected. In taking on His yoke, we accept His will, we walk with Him, and we find rest to our souls in being conscious of divine affection and support. Responsibilities in the testimony that might have been arduous and burdensome become “easy” and “light” as we take on His yoke and learn from Him. The result is fruit for God, and spiritual blessing for us.
Beloved brethren, it is as we are in conformity to Christ, taking on the feature of subjection to God, that we learn to take on this yoke and to fill out our part in accord with the will God. It is the same will that is spoken of when the writer adds, “by which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ” (Heb.10:10). That will was bringing about all that love designed and we are to learn to move according to that will. “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me”. We can go through the gospels and see how the Lord moved, and what He did, and where He retired to; how He prayed and how He acted in relation to those who were opposed to Him. We see how He committed Himself to God’s will.
We were speaking recently about the Lord in John 4. He was “wearied with the way he had come”, John 4:6. That describes One who was ever subject to the will of God, literally wearied with the way He had come. Think of the Lord of glory sitting like that beside a well, physically tired because of the way He had come in subjection to the will of God. In Matthew 11, He says to those who come to Him, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me … and ye shall find rest to your souls”. It is the result of entering the pathway of doing the will of God.
That links with this passage in Romans 12: “And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God”. The Lord understood perfectly the goodness of the will of God, and we will be blessed as we accept that it is good, that the will of God is not an onerous thing. Abraham understood the will of God and what it was in its goodness, and what it was to be subject to it. If we go to Hebrews 11 we can see that Abraham believed that the God he knew was able to raise Isaac even from the dead. He was prepared to be subject to the will of God, believing that whatever it would be, would be good.
Are we willing to say that God’s will is acceptable? Beloved brethren, that is where the test lies. As we take the Lord’s yoke upon us and learn from Him, we begin to learn that the will of God is acceptable. It is what we learn as we take on the Lord’s yoke. It is how we learn to be subject to that will. It becomes acceptable to us. It is not something we push against. Why? Because of what it is in its character and who it comes from. It is “the good and acceptable and perfect will of God”. It is perfect in its result.
Eternity will be filled with persons who have been brought there by the will of God, having been formed and made perfect by “the good and acceptable and perfect will of God”. It is a wonderful thing, but it is also very testing because the will of God involves going against everything that we tend towards after nature. We have to learn that being subject to the will of God, though it may go against all that we desire or prefer naturally, is how we prove that the will of God is good, acceptable and perfect. Abraham knew that, and of course the Lord knew that. We need to find it so for ourselves. “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me … and ye shall find rest to your souls”.
May we be encouraged in it, for His name’s sake.
Word in meeting for ministry, Edinburgh
1 August 2023
Terry W Lock