Was THAT God’s Will?

Is everything that happens God’s will, what God wants? An expectant mother has a miscarriage. A teenage driver is killed when a drunk trucker barrels through a red light and T-bones his car. A dear friend or relative develops dementia or cancer or ALS (“Lou Gehrig’s Disease”). Did God personally intend each of these outcomes?

Some will say, “Yes. Because God is in control, whatever happens is just what God wanted to happen.”

Perhaps such interpreters read Ephesians 1:11, which reads, “In [Christ] we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will …” They take that text to mean that God directly predetermines every intent, every word, every action, and every apparent accident in human experience.

Even when a flood takes hundreds of lives, or a foreign army invades a neighboring nation, they conclude, “That was God’s will. God is in control.” When one dies, no matter the circumstances, they say, “It was just his predetermined time to go. God called him to die when and how God wanted.”

Yet even a cursory reading of scripture reveals that such is not the case in every situation. On the one hand, for example, it was God’s will or desire that Jesus would go to the cross. However, Jesus agonized over his own decision, the conflict between his will and his Father’s will. In other words, God the Father granted Jesus the freedom to choose whether to do his will or not.

Mt 26:38 Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” 39 And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”

Notice what else Jesus said about his freedom to choose or reject the cross.

Mt 26:53 “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? 54 But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?”

Jn 10:17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

Jn 12:27 “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”

Here are a few other quick examples of God’s will allowing free human will.

It was God’s will for the Pharisees and lawyers to be baptized by John, but they rejected that purpose and refused to be baptized (Luke 7:30).

It was Jesus’ will for Jerusalem to come “under his wings” and be saved from the coming Roman destruction, but the people were not willing (Matthew 23:37-39).

No one in the Bible ever escaped their personal responsibility for sin by claiming, “It was just God’s will that I sin.”

It is God’s will that no one will perish, and yet those who choose to continue in sin actually will perish (2 Peter 3:9).

A study of God’s will must include three elements:

God’s Decrees – those “no-matter-what” guaranteed promises, purposes, and outcomes.

God’s Desires – those things that God wants us to do or not do, but that he does not force us to do or not do against our own free will.

God’s Directions – those matters in which God has given us instructions as to how to please him, again without coercion.

We must be careful not to oversimplify the will of God. As the scripture says …

Ro 11:33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” 35 “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” 36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.