THE WILL OF GOD – Part Six –
God’s Will in Specific Situations
Last time we looked at the Special Revelation as it
relates to the Will of God in Ephesians 5.
Now, let’s look at God’s Will in Specific Situations.
When I get to this point in my Christianity 101
class, I often pick one likely looking couple.
It may be a bit politically incorrect, but I ask this couple “Who does
the cooking?” Generally that will be the
wife and I’ll ask her, “If you really wanted to please your husband by cooking
his favorite meal, what would that be?”
The wife will answer something like, steak or roast beef, though once I
got, “He’d ask me if we could go out to dinner.” Everyone gets a pretty good laugh at this
point, so I turn to the husband and I tell him that he may think I am letting
him off the hook, but this is not so.
Then I ask, “If you really wanted to please your wife by doing something
for her or buying her something, what would that be? I get answers like a romantic dinner or trip,
flowers, jewelry and the like. Never
have I heard, “Let’s sit down and watch as I use the remote to flip through the
channels!” For a good laugh, I do
suggest that from time to time.
Then I like to look at the class and ask, “Why do
you think they each know what the other likes?”
Almost always I hear that they are committed to each other
or that they understand each other.
My friends, it is the same with God. If you really want to know about God – His
likes and dislikes, it will take a commitment. So, if you want to know God’s Will, then the
first step is to make a commitment to Him.
The best place to talk about commitment is back to
Romans 12:1-2.
1 Therefore,
I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living
sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God‑‑ this is your spiritual act of worship.
2 Do
not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's
will is‑‑ his good, pleasing and perfect will.
(NIV)
Notice
that the last line of verse 2 tells us that when we make this offer or
commitment, “Then” we will know what is the Will of God. So if you want to know what is God’s Will,
(1) offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, (2) do not conform to the pattern
of the world and (3) be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
How
does one offer his body as a living sacrifice?
The first way to do that is to totally commit to God. Commit in learning, studying, submitting,
acting, listening, worshiping, telling, teaching and working. The word, offer, in the Greek is
“parasteesai,” which means to stand beside, recommend or aid. Some translate this “to present.” From the use of this word, we clearly see
that there is an active part that we must play.
We must do the presenting. We
must make the offer. And we must offer
ourselves as the sacrifice. The context
is that of an animal sacrifice that the Priest would give and is also the
offering or sacrifice that Jesus gave once and for all for us! But we are to do this while we are
living. Yes. Right here.
Right now.
Don’t
misunderstand me, this has nothing to do with salvation. We have talked about that before. We are saved by Grace, through Faith plus
nothing else. No works (so we won’t
boast about ourselves and what we did to earn salvation). This topic that we are looking at now is
about our commitment to God because we are saved.
The
word “holy” means without blemish. The
priest was only to accept an animal for sacrifice that was without
blemish. Then, that would be
pleasing and acceptable to God. This
should be our focus here. That is, we
want to be without blemish, holy, so that we will be pleasing and acceptable to
God. Note again, we are not talking
about salvation. Here we are talking
about our commitment to God that aids us in understanding the Will of God. Not that we can ever be holy,
but that God accepts us as holy. We are
“positionally” holy because of the finished work of Christ on the cross.
So how
much commitment does it take? There is
no way to sugar-coat this. A whole
bunch. A total commitment. After all, that is what Jesus did for us.
What is
meant by not conforming to the pattern of this world? “Suschematizo” means “to fashion alike.” Certainly we have to be in this world, as
Jesus was in this world, but the command here is that there is a pattern of
conduct and lifestyle in this world that we must avoid. We have seen some of this before, like sexual
impurity. Now, we are to conform ourselves to the pattern of Christ.
It
isn’t easy, but the command is to not be conformed to the pattern of this world
– like immorality, dress, speech, etc.
Let’s work on this together as the Body of Christ that was given for us
and the Blood of Christ that was shed for us.
Doug
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