Gospel

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Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:2b (NIV)

This past week, I asked God to give me a message for our Sunday school class. He placed it on my heart to speak about His will. At first, I rejected the idea. That wasn’t something I felt I could speak on with so little time left to prepare. So, I tried to work on another subject.

However, while thinking about ideas for this other topic, the subject of God’s will came up once again. That’s when I settled on the idea and began praying and searching the scriptures for some answers.

After much prayer and study, I concluded that God’s will is one will, but three parts. We see these in Romans 12:2b. The first part is the “good will" of God. The second is the “acceptable will" of God. Finally, there is the third part called the “perfect” or "mature will" of God.

Let’s begin with the good will of God. We see an example of this in Matthew 7:21-23 (NLT). "Not all people who sound religious are really godly. They may refer to me as 'Lord,' but they still won't enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The decisive issue is whether they obey my Father in heaven. On judgment day many will tell me, 'Lord, Lord, we prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.' But I will reply, 'I never knew you. Go away; the things you did were unauthorized.”

There are two keys to understanding these verses. The first key is the word “enter.” The second key is the word “will.”

Jesus said those who fail to do the will of God cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. What did He mean?

To better understand what our Lord meant, we must start with the word “enter,” as in “enter the kingdom of God.” We see this in the book of John, when Jesus tells Nicodemus the only way we can enter the kingdom of God is to experience a new birth or spiritual birth.

When Jesus said that these people could not enter, because they did not do the Lord’s will, He wasn’t talking about believers who had missed God's calling for their lives. No, He was speaking about unbelievers; people who had not yet entered the kingdom of God. It is impossible for anyone to enter the kingdom of heaven twice. We are either in the kingdom or we are not in it. Jesus is clear when He said: these people cannot enter the kingdom of God. Meaning, these people were never members of God’s kingdom.

Now, what is it that kept these from entering? They failed to carry out His will. What part of His will did they miss? They failed to carry out God’s good will. In other words, they failed to receive Christ as their Lord and Savior.

We find reference to this part of His will in John 6:40 NLT. It reads: “For it is my Father's will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life – that I should raise them at the last day."

With this in mind, we can conclude that these verses do not refer to Christians who fail to carry out God’s will for their lives, but unbelievers, who try to do the Lord’s work without proper authorization. Because they never received Christ as their Savior, they failed to carry out the Lord’s good will or requirement to enter the kingdom of God. Even though they performed mighty miracles, they were not His. Therefore, the Lord rejected them. He told them bluntly, “I never knew you.”

Therefore, the good will or God’s general will is for us to come to Jesus and receive Him as Lord and Savior. Without taking this first step, we will forever remain outside the will of God.

Author:Lynn Sheldon, http://godfirerevival.org, [email protected]

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