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God's Will
We find this expressed in the phrase, “it was meant to be.” While God counts the hairs of our head, there is no biblical evidence that he is picking, choosing, and guiding us in life’s daily decisions like I’ve listed above. Biblically, God’s will is to save all men (2 Peter 3:9). God divine purpose sets people apart who will help accomplish his mission. The book of Acts illustrates this well with Paul and Barnabas. We know the apostles were set apart for this purpose. Ephesians 4 gives us insight into God's wisdom in selecting leadership who will accomplish his purpose. Unfortunately, many contemporary Christian writers have convinced us that God is choosing to intersect and manipulate every point in our lives for his purpose (1). This thought aligns well with the Calvinist of the Reformed tradition that believes God is a controlling, manipulating God, forcing his will on humanity. In one sense, he has forced himself on us. He did this in the presence of Jesus, who invaded our world to satisfy God's love and justice. The purpose of the invasion was to prepares us to be “His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). As his workmanship, (2) the Holy Spirit will gift us for the benefit of others (2 Peter 4:10). In this way, we will find and do the will of God in our lives. The Spirit’s activity does not alleviate grace, as its gifts are of grace. Rather, by his guidance, we work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12). Truly God is wise as his covenant plan is secured by grace, empowered by the Spirit, and worked out though his elect.
Endnotes
(1) This seems to be the implication while not stated directly.
(2) This word is used in the Old Testament (LXX) to represent God’s creation. This was his work. “So far as God’s creative deeds are concerned, the Priestly account of creation (Gen. 1:1–2:4a) has in addition the word bārā’, which is reserved in the OT for the work of Yahweh. The LXX trans. bārā’ in Gen. and Isa. 41–45 by poieō.” (F. Thiele, “Ποιέω,” New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, Lothar Coenen, Erich Beyreuther, and Hans Bietenhard, eds. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1986), 1153.)
* This page is from is my book Non-Negotiable: Focusing on the Essentials of the Faith. The book goes into more detail on many more issues.
Last update: 6 September 2015
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