Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them - do you think they were guiltier than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”
(Luke 13.1-5, NIV)
The phrase “the will of God” has been so misused and abused that it leads us to confusion in our minds; but more seriously, when we are in need of a solid faith which can provide comfort and peace during hard times, the phrase “the will of God” adds to our torment and suffering. “It is the will of God,” we are told in times of despair and sorrow, but just what is the will of God?
When a loved one dies we call it the will of God, though the measures we took to prevent death and to restore life could hardly be call fighting against the will of God. When sadness, disease, and calamity overtake us, we say with resignation and without joy, “God’s will be done,” when just the opposite of His will has been done.
In order for me to understand the will of God I have made a division. There is an intentional will of God or God’s ideal plan. There is a circumstantial will of God or God’s working of His plan in the midst of the circumstances of a sinful world. There is an ultimate will of God or God’s final realization of His purpose. I do not want to suggest that God’s will is somehow divided or that God’s will changes from situation to situation. The division is intended only for our understanding.
Let us look at the Cross. It was not the intentional will of God that Jesus should be killed, but that He should be followed. Those who say that God intended Jesus to die on the Cross should remember that His execution was the will of sinful men and women.
When Jesus was faced with the sinful circumstances of this world and was faced with the dilemma of running away or being crucified, in those circumstances the Cross was God’s will. The ultimate will of God in the case of the Cross is that God’s purpose of redeeming you and me for abundant and eternal life will still be reached. God’s will is done, not in spite of the circumstance, but through them. Nothing can defeat God. God works for good in all things.
Let us today concentrate on what I am calling the circumstantial will of God. As an illustration let us use the younger children, even the infants, in our church family. The mothers and fathers of these children naturally dream and even plan for their children’s futures. As the children grow into teens and young adults they (the daughters and sons) participate more and more in this planning and dreaming.
Let us say that the intention of one family is that a particular child grows up to become a lawyer. The mother and father help the child develop through preschool, kindergarten, elementary school, middle school, and into high school. College is planned and money is saved with an eye toward law school. But something happens. Maybe one of the parents becomes gravely ill or a financial reversal occurs. The situation changes, and instead of a smooth path through college and Law School, after high school graduation the child must take a full-time job to support the family.
The parents did not intend this path. The child did not intend it. The circumstances dictated the choices for the child that were either to walk away from the family or support the family. The right choice in the circumstances is not what was intended in this case. Only in the right choice shall the ultimate goal be realized.
I have divided God’s will into three parts - intentional, circumstantial, and ultimate - and we are focusing on God’s circumstantial will or His will in the world. There are, however, two aspects of God’s circumstantial will. One aspect is natural, and the other is spiritual.
Let us look at the Cross again. Given the sinful nature of the world, it was God’s will that Jesus should be betrayed, tortured, crucified, and left to die. God did not set aside nature and its functions in order to spare Jesus. When nails are driven into human ankles and wrists, skin and muscle and tendons are lacerated and torn; severed vessels spurt blood; pierced nerves burn with pain. As a human body hangs like that for hours on a cross, first the attempt is made to push from the ankles and pull from the wrists in order to fight gravity and allow the lungs to fill with air; but slowly endurance fails and gravity pulls the body into such a position that breathing is impossible and the body suffocates. Even the Son of God will die given those circumstances of nature. The forces of nature carry out their functions and are not deflected even when nature is used by evil.
How is it that natural circumstances are such that a Creation that God had made good can hurt the Son of God, and you and me, by pain, disease, and calamity? It is because we live in a fallen Creation - fallen from God’s intention and into sinful circumstances.
In Genesis we read “cursed is the ground (Creation)” because of sin. Paul writes that “all nature is groaning in travail” under the weight of sin. This sinful world has created natural circumstances in a Creation which has been warped and twisted by sin.
There is a second aspect to the circumstantial will of God which we shall call the spiritual aspect.
Jesus did not just submit to death. Jesus took hold of the situation. Given the circumstances which this fallen world produced, it was not only God’s will that Jesus die on the cross, but that His death would be a positive and creative response to evil. His death would force good to come from evil circumstances. His death would defeat sin. The Cross, therefore, is not for the Christian a symbol of death, but it is a symbol of God’s triumphant use of evil circumstances toward His purpose - God working for good in all things.
I am not going to let this sinful world get the better of me or get me down because there are no circumstances which can finally defeat the ultimate will of God. The Lord God omnipotent reigns.
The pastor is continually confronted by the question as to whether a disease in a person is the will of God. The important answer is, no. The will of God for all of us is perfect health. But those are not the circumstances of this fallen world. God, however, has a will within the circumstances.
I suppose God created germs, even germs which cause disease. Why? I do not know. I believe that God created all things, and all of us, for good. But those are not the circumstances with germs or people. Creation has been warped and twisted from God’s intention by sin. Now, in these fallen circumstances, when a germ invades a body the result is disease.
Remember there is a natural aspect to the circumstances which is the disease itself. But there is also the spiritual aspect. The person with the disease and those around him or her can respond in such a way that others are taught by their faith. A saint after all is not a person who goes through life untouched by suffering. A saint is one who in the midst of his or her own suffering touches others with the presence of God.
Just maybe I have been approaching circumstances from the wrong end, or the wrong aspect. I have started from the natural aspect of the circumstances and said, “God, change these circumstances for me or for this person.”
God, however, did not send Jesus to change the circumstances first. God sent Jesus to change us. The healings of Jesus in the New Testament were done to point us toward God. After Jesus came there was still oppression and abuse and disease. Jesus came in order for you and me to know God, to love God, to start a new, abundant, and eternal life with God. It is only when you and I and the world change in relation to God - the spiritual circumstances change in our lives - that the natural circumstances will change. Instead of approaching my circumstances from the natural aspect, maybe I need to approach from the spiritual. “God, given my circumstances how can I love you more? How can others encounter your love through me?”
Still, I think, “God, it is a bit casual of you to let these things happen if they are not your intention. It is careless of you to let sin create these circumstances.”
That is what I would like to say to God. Well, I guess I just did.
Why did God allow all of this? I do not have a quick answer. I suspect the answer is somewhere in our freedom to choose or reject God’s love and in God’s desire to have a loving relationship with us; and in order for our choices to be real there must be results. This is just my exploration of the problem.
Jesus never said, “Follow Me and I’ll answer all your questions,” or “Come to me all who labor and I will give you all the answers,” or “I came that you might have all your questions answered.” He did say, “Follow Me and you will go invite others to me,” and “Come to me all who labor and I will give you rest,” and “I came that you might have life to the fullest.”
I do know that there is one constant in God’s will for me and you. There is one constant running through God’s intentional will, God’s circumstantial will, and God’s ultimate will. The one constant is God loves me and you. God wants to love us. God wants us to love Him. I will take that constant in any circumstance. I will take that constant and a few less answers.
Knowing God loves me makes certain that no circumstance in my life is either meaningless or the final word. Every circumstance is filled with meaning because in each one I encounter the God who loves me and I can say in every circumstance to those around me, “My God and I stand together.”
And no circumstance is the final word. The final word belongs to the God who loves me.
Let me read you two passages:
[I have experienced] far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I have received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I have been beaten with rods; once I was stoned. Three times I have been shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brethren; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And apart from other things, there is the daily pressure upon me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant? If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulations, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, “For thy sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, not life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all Creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Those passages were written by the same person. His name was Paul.
In every circumstance let us seek to say as Paul said in Romans 8.31: “What shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who (or what) can be against us?”
If we can only trust where we cannot see, walking in the light we have which is often like feeling our way along in the dark; if we do in faith that which we believe to be God’s will in the circumstances which evil thrusts upon us; we can rest assured that when these circumstances collide with our faith and trust and courage from God, that God’s will shall be done. In this faith we shall draw from these circumstances something big and splendid, full and true, abundant and eternal.
