What is God’s Will for my Life?
One of the often asked questions from believers is “What is God’s will for my life?” Generally, this question revolves around wanting to figure God’s will for a career, a spouse, or a big decision, among other things. This last week I was asked about God’s will for the salvation of unbelievers. Peter wrote, “This Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).
Is it God’s will that everyone be saved? It sounds like it when you read 2 Peter 3:9, then add 1 Timothy 2:4 (“who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth”), and Ezekiel 18:23, 31 (“I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live) then wrap it up with Ezekiel 33:11 (Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why then will you die, O house of Israel?”).
But there are several things we need to understand in answering a question like this:
God is not a universalist who will bring everyone to faith or else all the judgment passages become null and void.
God is not heartsick and wringing His hands in heaven over stubborn sinners who won’t exercise their free will (actually limited free will due to sin's effect) and come to Christ. Scripture is clear that the mind, desire, and will of the fallen sinners isn’t totally free, but unrighteous (Rom. 3:10–12), unwilling (John 5:40), unable to please God (Rom. 8:9), unable to accept the things of God or understand them (1 Cor. 2:14), dead (Eph. 2:1–3), blinded by Satan (2 Cor. 4:4), darkened in understanding and excluded from the life of God (Eph. 4:18), just to name a few. Therefore, if it were up to you and your will to choose salvation, you and I would never be saved.
God is not uncaring or unloving towards the lost because He is only desiring the elect or predestined to repent.
The answer to the question, “Is it God’s will that everyone be saved?” is found in understanding the three nuances of God’s will or desire in Scripture.
God has a will of decree. This is His Sovereign will that chooses to do “whatever He pleases” (Ps. 115:3, 135:6; Rom. 9:15, 18) and will not be altered by anyone. It assures that “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me” (Jn. 6:37), and “no one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him” (Jn. 6:44) or “unless it has been granted him from the Father” (Jn. 6:65). Not all are “the chosen” or “the elect” of God (Mat. 24:22, 24, 31; Luke 18:7; Rom. 8:33; 2 Tim. 2:10). God sovereignly chooses sinners in spite of themselves by the lavish display of His grace, so that no one can boast before Him (1 Cor. 1:26–31).
God has a will of demand. This is revealed by His commands and prohibitions that express what is morally right or wrong. One of those commands is that believers proclaim the gospel to sinners who need a Savior and the Lord uses this witness to transform hearts by granting forgiveness of sin and eternal life.
God has a will of desire. This expresses His compassion for all sinners. This is what we see expressed in 2 Peter 3:9, 1Timothy 2:4, Ezekiel 18:23, 31, and 33:11. We see this in how Jesus wept over Jerusalem and the peoples rejection of Him and the judgment that would come (Luke 19:41–44). We see this in Paul’s sorrow and unceasing grief for the hardened Jewish sinners in which he expressed a willingness to be accursed if it meant the salvation of the Jews (Rom. 9:1–3; 10:1).
In the end, Scripture teaches that God decrees some things which He doesn’t desire (for example: the death of Christ was predestined to happen, but it required hateful sinners to accomplish it—Acts 2:23).
God does not desire the evil nor directly cause the evil, but His decree permits that evil will happen for a higher purpose or good.
When evil people do evil deeds (like kill the Lord Jesus Christ) which are decreed by God (planned and permitted), the evil people are fully responsible for their sin and cannot blame God.
In the first sermon ever preached in the church, Peter proclaimed that Jesus Christ was “delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God” yet he also said “you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death” (Acts 2:23).
We hold these two “wills” of God (decree and desire) in tension. God decrees salvation only for His elect, but He desires the salvation of all.
Sometimes these truths are hard to process and accept, but we always need to keep in mind God’s perspective when He say things like this: “'For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,' declares the Lord. 'For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts'” (Isa. 55:8–9) and He “works all things after the counsel of His will” (Eph. 1:11b), and “How unsearchable and His judgments and unfathomable His ways…for from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. Amen” (Rom. 11:33b, 36).
God’s will is always the best and the highest and we can pray like Paul did for the Colossians: “We have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding” (Col. 1:9), and follow the example of our Lord and Savior when He said, “not as I will, but as You will” (Matt. 26:39).
Pastor Jef
“3 things Jesus never said: 1. You will be healthy. 2. You will be wealthy. 3. You will be successful.
3 things Jesus said: 1. You will be hated. 2. You will have trouble. 3. You will suffer.”