There are abundant grounds for the opinion
that God’s will is not mere omnipotent authority. He has
omnipotent authority, but being moral, he must have
regard for moral considerations in the exercise of that
authority. In other words, God’s will, must be a moral
will, and we have every reason to believe that it is a
morally good will. Ample proofs of this may be produced.
A few of them will be considered later.
To view God’s will as only omnipotent
authority, exercised in an unlimited way, and without
regard to moral consideration, is to cast a dark pall
over life and to make it hemmed in by necessities on
every side. It is, then, a joyless, hopeless round of
compulsion, and we, the slaves of God’s stern
determination. “With such a view, religion will be
slavish, a dull, sullen resignation, or a painful, weary
round of unwelcome duties and reluctant abstainings.” It
will, in fact, be an unwholesome, unsatisfying religion
devoid of all those qualities that make for human
happiness. It can lighten no burdens, soothe no sorrows,
assuage no grief, or bring the light of hope into no
life. It will baffle hope, and render love toward God
impossible. Such a view of God, and the religion that is
based upon such a view, is not that view of God nor that
religion revealed in the Bible.
The religion of the New Testament has, all
through it, the pealing of joy-bells, the warmth of
love, the brightness of hope, the peace and contentment
of soul-rest, the delightful sense of harmony with all
that is good in the universe. This is not, mere theory,
nor a picture of the imagination, but, as millions have
proved, it is capable of realization in daily life, in
the practicality of personal experience. This fact has
an important bearing upon the nature of God’s will, for
the blessedness of the Christian life is the fruit of
the operation of that will. To the Christian, therefore,
God’s will is not a thing to be dreaded and feared, but
that which is the ground of his hope, the source of his
confidence, and the strength of his soul
His Will Not Inscrutable
In the Book of Job the question is asked,
“Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find
out the Almighty unto perfection?” (chap. 11:7). To
suppose, as some do, that we can know nothing of God’s
will (if he has one for us) relating to our conduct or
pertaining to our affairs, is to leave us in midnight
darkness. As previously stated, we can and do know
something of God’s will. It is not hidden in the depth
of his ever-veiled majesty, nor is it known only in some
distant region. It is known upon earth. Knowledge of it
is not confined to a few sublime souls who dwell apart
in a favored relation, souls who have found some special
way of rising above their fellows and living on a plain
unapproachable by the mass of mankind. Neither is it so
obscure and uncertain and so enveloped in mystery that
we shall ever be wandering and inquiring, but never
ascertaining what it is. We are commanded: “Be ye hot
unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.”
(Eph. 5:17) Paul also speaks of being “filled with the
knowledge of his will.” (Col. 1:9)
Since God is related to mankind in the moral
sphere, it is but natural to suppose that he would
reveal his will to man. And it is a well-known fact that
those men who rise highest in the scale of moral being
are those who suppose themselves to be cognizant of the
will of God. So, when the Bible speaks of “having made
known unto us the mystery of his will”. (Eph. 1:9) those
who have most developed their moral sense and who would
be most likely to know the will of God, if it were
revealed, are the very ones who do suppose themselves to
know it. To them this Scripture means an actual fact in
their own experience, a fact testified to by their inner
consciousness. It is as much a reality to them as any
other fact that they know. While they do not believe
that they have found out the Almighty to perfection, or
that they know all the mystery of his will, yet they do
know much of his will, especially as it relates to them.
And this confidence that they know God’s will, is to
them, the one great outstanding fact of their spiritual
life---it is unquestionable based upon reality.
The Determining Factor
The scope and direction of God’s will is to
be determined by his character. Character goes far
toward determining purpose. If we know that a man’s
character is good, we expect his purpose to be good. We
expect the operations of his will to be a manifestation
of his good character. We are told that man was created
in the image of God. This does not relate to his
physical image, for God has no physical image---he is a
spirit. Man’s likeness to him, therefore, must be a
mental and moral likeness. This signifies that man and
God are both alike in the principles of their
characters. So, when we know the principles of man’s
character and its relation to his will, we know by
analogy God’s character and its relation to his will.
Character results from the use of the will.
If the will habitually acts in an evil manner, the
character becomes harmonious with such actions.
Therefore one’s nature may be said to consist of the
attitude of his will, or to be the reflection of his
will. Thus when God’s character is determined, the
principle upon which his will operates is at the same
time determined.
If God’s will were to be exercised wrongly,
that is, according to wrong principles, his good
character could not be maintained. He would no longer be
what he is, for his character would be changed. He is
not a tyrant, forcing his will upon us without regard to
our rights or needs He is not whimsical, acting without
principle, as some men act. He is not selfish, nor
cruel, nor arbitrary. Therefore, none of these
characteristics show themselves in the operations of his
will. God is under obligation to himself to preserve his
character, just as a man is under obligation to himself
to preserve his character. Man injures himself if he
does anything contrary to good character. So God will,
and must will and act in harmony with his character.
Thus he can do nothing contrary to his character.
God’s good character is represented in the
Scriptures as the ground of the Christian’s faith in
him, and also the ground of his actions. “Good and
upright is the Lord: therefore will he teach sinners in
the way” (Psa. 25:8). This shows that the hope, not only
of the righteous, but of the wicked, lies in the fact
that God is good and upright. There are two facts set
forth in the foregoing text regarding the character of
God. First, he is good; that is, he is kind, loving,
sympathetic and merciful. Second, he is upright; that
is, he is just, righteous, faithful and holy. These two
characteristics of goodness and uprightness blend in his
character and balance each other. They both have weight
in determining what his will shall be and how it shall
be exercised.
Men, sometimes, have been so strongly
impressed with the thought of God’s uprightness, or
righteousness, that they have lost sight of his
goodness. The Puritans were an example of this. They
were a stern, inflexible people, with an intense love of
righteousness. They were very strict, sometimes even to
harshness, and exacting in their religious and moral
requirements. Their life lacked warmth and beauty many
times, but they developed a moral fiber and sense of
justice that has left its mark deep in the consciousness
of succeeding generations.
At the present time, men have lost sight of
the righteousness of God to a great extent. Much is
being said about his love. His goodness and mercy are
highly extolled. The idea that he will punish men for
their wickedness is held to be contrary to his love.
This unbalanced idea of God’s character leads to serious
perversion of moral truth. It is making men lose sight
of the principles of justice and right, and to lose
their sense of ill-desert when at the same time they are
guilty of misconduct. This causes them to have wrong
ideas of the will of God, and makes him appear, as a
consequence, a soft, good-natured, tolerant, indulgent
being, practically devoid of moral sensibilities. God is
both good and upright. He has all those attributes which
goodness implies. At the same time he has all those
attributes which belong to uprightness. He will not
depart from uprightness to be good. He will not depart
from goodness to exercise judgment. Therefore, his will
acts with due regard both for goodness and
uprightness---the two are never separated in their
action upon his will.
We shall now refer to a few of his attributes
and the relation of these attributes to his will. He
declares that he is holy, saying, “Be ye holy, for I am
holy.” The operations of his will, which determine his
activities and the quality of his will, are always holy.
The reader has within his own mind, no doubt, a fairly
clear idea of what holiness means when applied to God.
It means moral perfection, purity of motive and action,
and unselfish devotion to right. On the other hand, it
signifies both passive and active opposition to all
those things that are contrary to holiness. Since this
is true, human sinfulness must ever be against God’s
will and contrary to his purpose in the individual life.
Therefore he can never excuse sin---he can never wink at
it. Hence each sin must have its recompense. God is also
the embodiment of truth, and for this reason he requires
men to be truthful, sincere, honest, and loyal to the
principles of truth in their characters and in their
lives.
God is just. He is absolutely just; so the
requirements of his will never do man injustice. He
never requires what he ought not to require. He never
lays upon us duties that are too great for our strength.
He never exacts sacrifices that go beyond our ability to
make. He never calls for service that is unreasonable.
He will not act toward us in any way that infringes upon
our moral rights, or any other rights. He will never
condemn the righteous, nor approve the wicked. All the
injustice of mankind meets his condemnation, and though
he permits man freedom of will, even when man misuses
it, there is, nevertheless, a meting out of justice in
the end, the balancing and evening up of all things. All
the inequalities of life will be compensated. God’s
character and will at the last will be vindicated. His
justice will shine out clearly, so that all men must
eventually approve his course.
God is merciful. “His mercy endureth
forever.” “Mercy rejoiceth against judgment.” So that
all the tenderness and kindness that mankind needs are
revealed in the goodness of God’s will toward them. When
the angel hosts sang the praises of God on the night of
the nativity, the burden of their chant was “glory to
God” and “good will to men.” His goodness sends rain
upon the just and upon the unjust, and loads us with the
material blessings of the harvest. God is “loving” ---
“God is love.” The will of the loving God must be good.
He is faithful; he is long-suffering, and so his will is
the manifestation of these qualities. He is reasonable;
therefore, his actions are never arbitrary. Back of them
all is a reason which justifies them. His reason may
transcend human reason, but still be is reasonable, and
ever acts on principle---never from whim or caprice.
Another of his qualities is dignity. There is
a certain attitude of dignity that characterizes all
true greatness. So there is a dignity about the actions
and will of God that renders them worthy of his
greatness. This fact is often lost by religious
enthusiasts, who go to extremes of demonstration and do
foolish and unseemly things, believing them to be the
will of God. God never acts in an unseemly way, neither
is it his will for his children to do so. There is a
quiet dignity about the really Christ-like Christian, a
dignity that has in it nothing of pride or superiority.
That dignity precludes the practice of those things
which are contrary to themselves. God’s dignity is the
dignity of moral worth. The dignity of the Christian
partakes of the nature of the dignity of God in kind,
though, of course, not in degree. Every revelation of
God’s will must be in harmony with the dignity of his
person and character. When man understands the true
import of his revelation, he is impressed with its
loftiness and worthiness.
Since God’s character is very clearly
revealed in the Scriptures and in human experience, we
may, therefore, know the character of his will. We may
be assured that if we may seek to know that will we can
have the confidence that when we learn it, it will be
for our best interests---for the exaltation and blessing
of our lives---and in keeping it we shall find the
fullest fruition of our highest hopes.
