God’s Will Unraveled: Finding Joy and Tension in His Revealed Plan

God’s Will Unraveled: Finding Joy and Tension in His Revealed Plan

Last month’s article covered how God and man’s self-will work together to bring about God’s decreed purposes. This month, we will explore God’s will further by examining His contingent purposes toward the human race.

People often say to me, when I share Christ with them, “I wish God would reveal Himself to me,” or they ask, “Why has He hidden Himself from me?” I have the great privilege of showing people that God has gone to great lengths to reveal Himself and does not hide. He has revealed, and continues to reveal, Himself to us in several ways. In this article, I will cover three ways we can understand God’s will more clearly and bring together the last few months’ articles to form a bigger picture of what God has revealed to us in Scripture through all three of His wills.

God has clearly revealed what He wants for us.

The first catechism I taught my daughters was the Westminster Shorter Catechism #1:

What is the chief end of man?

Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.

How do we glorify God? We glorify God by understanding Him and His will for our lives. It is in this pursuit that we begin to enjoy God and realize what true joy really is.

Returning to the people I’ve listened to and shared with over the years, God is not silent. He speaks to us through His Word if we are willing to read and apply it to our lives. He told Adam and Eve to enjoy but not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Did they listen? No. Instead of continuing to enjoy God without the burden of sin, they chose (second cause) to disobey and broke one of the first laws God gave. This is a picture of rejecting God’s will and attempting to find joy in our own.

God was not silent with Adam and Eve, nor has He been silent with us. He has revealed what He wants. Here is a summary: Repent from your disobedience and believe the Gospel. This is the beginning of understanding and enjoying God. In short, the blessing of true joy comes from having a relationship with the one true living God. It can be broken down into two options: 

1.      Enjoy God through repentance and faith. 

2.      Face the consequences of your sins.

This is laid out in Scripture with an “if-then” description: If you obey My Word, I will bless you; if you disobey, I will curse you. God’s contingent will is laid out for Israel in the Old Testament.

What will happen if we obey His commands?

“And if you faithfully obey the voice of the LORD your God, being careful to do all His commandments that I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.” (Deut. 28:1) 

What do we see God communicating to Israel? If you obey My commands, then I will bless you. Israel’s blessing was contingent upon their obedience to the Lord’s commands, which they failed to do. How is this worked out in the New Testament covenant? 

God has brought those whom He is saving to the realization that we cannot be righteous through our own obedience. We can only be righteous through:

“…and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” (Mark 1:15) 

It is best explained like a two-sided coin. A coin is singular but has two sides. We must repent and believe the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. The blessing of God is received through belief (faith). Faith in what God did on the cross reconnects you to a relationship with your Creator. This brings true joy back into your life. We can take heart in this good news. What happened in the Old Testament if Israel chose to disobey? What happens today if people choose to remain in sin?

What will happen if we disobey His commands?

“But if you will not obey the voice of the LORD your God or be careful to do all His commandments and His statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.” (Deut. 28:15) 

God is faithful to do exactly what He says. For example, Israel’s disobedience led to their enslavement in Babylon. God told them in advance what would happen if they continued to disobey. It was contingent upon their actions. 

1.      A blessing of God’s presence through obedience. 

2.      The consequence of God’s curse for disobedience.

The curse is brought about by disobedience. Whether we are looking at Old Testament Israel or modern man in rebellion against God, disobedience brings the curse, and only belief or faith can break that curse.

Altogether, God gives us a picture of necessary will (creating nature to act a certain way), causal will (first cause: God; second cause: man), and contingent will (“if-then” blessing or curse). These three wills are seen in Scripture: 

Necessary will: “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.” (Gen. 8:22) 

Causal will: 

First Cause (God): “Our God is in the heavens; He does all that He pleases.” (Ps. 115:3) 

Second Cause (Man): “…but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Gen. 2:17)

“So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.” (Gen. 3:6)

Contingent will: “But if you will not obey the voice of the LORD your God or be careful to do all His commandments and His statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.” (Deut. 28:15)

It is through these three wills of God that we can begin to understand how God has acted and continues to act with His creation. Applying this truth will open you up to understanding God and help you come to terms with what brings true joy—resting in the wisdom and knowledge of the Lord.

I set out to write these articles to create tension in your life. This tension is called understanding God as He has revealed Himself. Your unbelieving coworkers, relatives, and friends have much bigger issues than you do. At least you have a complex answer for life. They don’t. They can continue to deny God’s revelation to them, but it will not go well for them when they take their last breath on this side of eternity. This is why we are called to share the Gospel and live as Christians in this dark world.

Here are some application questions until next month: 

1.      How will you respond if your unbelieving friend says God has not revealed Himself? 

2.      What are two different ways God has revealed Himself to mankind? 

3.      What are the three categories of God’s wills in Scripture discussed in the last few articles (summarized in this article)? 

4.      How would you explain the causal will to an unbeliever?