God's Wills Of Decree, Desire, And Direction 07

August 25, 2013

I have often wondered how the will of God can be both to save the wicked (1 Timothy 2:4; Ezekiel 18:23) and to punish the wicked (Psalm 5:5,6; Psalm 55:23). Today in Sunday School, I read in a Kevin de Young book Just Do Something that there are three wills of God.

The first is God's will of decree. This is what will come to pass. No one can change this. "For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed" (Malachi 3:6). "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8). Predestination. Election. Foreknowledge. These are all intertwined. If God is not sovereign over time, then He is sovereign over nothing.

The second is God's will of desire. He does not delight in the death of the wicked, and he does desire that all see His glory. And it appears that every now and then, He may change His mind (emphasis on "appears"). "When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it" (Jonah 3:10). He swore to Jonah that He would destroy Nineveh, but when they repented of their sins, He decided not to destroy them. He was able to follow His desire of not slaying the wicked because they repented. Without their repentance, He would have had to act out of His desire and destroy Nineveh. So it is reasonable to assume that every time a soul is sent to hell (1 Samuel 2:6), God acts outside of His will of desire. And within it as well (Psalm 21:9).

The last is God's will of direction. This is the way He guides our every steps (Psalm 139:9,10). This is like the tender hand of a shepherd, and we should not deny it. Our role in God's will is that we should accept it and follow it. I should not fall into the hyper-Calvinist view of our role in life. That's like Jesus telling Peter to drop his nets and Peter replying with "But at Your word... the fish will jump in anyways so make them jump." God wants to work through us. God wants to bring about His will. God's will shall be done.

~The Fragile Grey Heart

Philippians 2:13: "For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure."