(avg. read time: 5–10 mins.)
A question that every Christian must confront is, “What is God’s will for my life?” I see this question as having both a general and specific dimension to it (the latter of which will be the subject of the next installment). Too often, the specific element is dominant in this question and the answer sought for it. But the general element is directly answerable by Scripture, for it proclaims the lives to which the followers of God are called. Throughout its narratives, songs, poems, proverbs, teachings, parables, and prophecies God constantly calls out to humanity to follow him and thereby find who they were created to be. The message of Scripture concerning God’s will applies to all followers without exception, and thus examining what the Bible says in this regard will show what believers can be assured is God’s will for their lives.
God’s general will for humanity is revealed from the very first time humans are mentioned in the Bible in Gen 1:26–28. God creates humanity in the divine image and likeness and gives them the authority to have dominion over creation. This function is tied back with the idea of the image, which was used also for idols. What it means is that the image of a god was a representation/representative of that god’s presence. In the same manner, humanity, as the image-bearers of God, are to be representatives/representations on earth, ruling as God rules. A theme running through the rest of the Bible concerns what it means for humanity to represent God. This is essentially what undergirds the many ethically focused portions of the Bible. They are not arbitrary and they are not simply lists of rules and checklists to keep up with, but are rather directions to what it means to reflect and represent God in the world. The point from the very beginning is that humans, to be completely human in the original sense, must discern what it means to represent God and that doing so is the will of God.
Without getting into an incredibly complex hermeneutical issue concerning the relationship of the Torah to believers of the new covenant, which I hope to discuss another time, what must be said for now is that the Torah was also the revelation of God’s general will for his followers. But in approaching the Torah, one must interpret and apply it in light of later, more complete revelation in Jesus Christ. One must also keep in mind that the Torah was, like many ancient law codes, didactic in nature, especially as no law code attempted to be comprehensive. These law codes heavily emphasized the wisdom of the judges and the followers to interpret and apply the laws, as well as to be able to discern the course of action in the face of the question of what to do when someone violates a law. The Torah was intended to direct the Israelites in what it meant for them to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Exod 19:6). But by its nature, it was incomplete. The Torah taught followers righteousness primarily by reference to the external signs of following God and maintaining purity, but it was not designed to transform inner inclinations, attitudes, motivations and so on which one needed to follow the Torah. Thus, even when people seemed to follow the Torah, they missed its intent of forming a godly character if they did not have the inner impetus to follow the Torah, which was the source of the prophetic critiques of Israel and Judah (e.g., Isa 1; Jer 6; Hos 6; Amos 5; 8; Mic 6; Mal 2–3). These critiques also reveal God’s general will, but the culmination of them in Jesus reveals God’s general will the most clearly. This theme of revealing God’s will for all humanity is ubiquitous throughout Jesus’ teaching and life, but for brevity I will consider only two manifestations of it: the Sermon on the Mount and the status of Jesus in his teaching (and the teaching of the rest of the NT).
The Sermon on the Mount represents Jesus’s mission statement for his followers, identifying what it means for a person to live as one belonging to the Kingdom of God. Thus, one can be assured that this group of teachings reveals God’s general will (Matt 7:24–27). Further, the Sermon on the Mount presents a more holistic ethical instruction expanding on the traditional righteousness presented in the Torah. I only consider a couple examples here to keep this reflection relatively short, and so I limit comments to portions of Matt 5. The Beatitudes identify as blessed those who embody a variety of virtues, being poor in spirit, mourners, meek, hungry and thirsty for righteousness or justice, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, and who persevere in persecution for the sake of righteousness/justice. These are the characteristics of those who will inherit the kingdom of heaven/God and all that is thereby entailed. As such, we can be sure when we read about these characteristics and seek to embody them that we are in touch with the general will of God for us. These are of course characteristics that must be expressed externally, but they are decidedly holistic in involving both the internal and the external. The poor in spirit are humble and embody that humility in how they act. The mourners are those who are heartbroken over something about the present state and respond to it with repentance (both internalized and expressed in repentant living), prayer, and so on. The meek are those who have surrendered themselves to God and embody that meekness by living peacefully and peaceably (in the sense of shalom, rather than what is often described as “peace” today). Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness or justice are perhaps the most obvious demonstration of the combined internal and external emphases, since hunger is an internal characteristic that they seek to address by external action. Those who are merciful act externally to show generosity in doing deeds of deliverance or, more specifically, offering compassion in action, forgiveness, healing, aid, and steadfastness, because they themselves have received these from God. Purity in heart itself implies the correspondence of external and internal through singularity of purpose, devoting all that one is to God. The peacemakers are those who seek to embody and spread the peace—as in harmony and wholeness (shalom)—that they have with God, who loved them and offered them peace even when they were enemies. Those who persevere through persecution for the sake of righteousness/justice are those who hold fast to what they have internalized in allegiance to God in opposition to external pressures to assimilate.
Other teachings in this chapter directly expand on commands from the Torah, of which I will only focus on the first two (5:21–30). The first part of each teaching quotes the Ten Commandments as traditional righteousness (vv. 21, 27). The second part of each then illustrate the problems that can still arise even when following the letter of the commandments (vv. 22, 28). It is noteworthy that these parts do not contain any imperatives, although they are often mistaken for being such. The second part of the murder teaching diagnoses a vicious cycle in which a person can still be caught in harboring excessive anger toward one’s brother or sister, manifesting in the examples of strong language. The second part of the adultery teaching diagnoses the vicious cycle as lusting. Both of these vicious cycles can lead to murder and adultery, but they are also problems in themselves that the letter of the Torah in itself does not address. The third part of each teaching contains the actual imperatives instructing Jesus’s followers on how to transform the situations in which they are caught in the vicious cycles (vv. 23–26, 29–30). One thereby participates in God’s delivering grace from sin by taking the initiatives in peacemaking and removing one’s sources of temptation. These themes of deliverance and peace, along with others present in the Sermon on the Mount, are also marks of the promises of God’s kingdom in the OT, and thus one can know that these are part of God’s general will and always shall be (Isa 9:1–7; 11; 25–26; 32–33; 35; 40:1–11; 42–43; 49; 51–54; 56; 60–62). The Sermon on the Mount and the rest of Jesus’s teachings represent explanation of what he meant by the two greatest commandments: to love God with one’s entire being and to love one’s neighbor as oneself (Matt 22:34–40//Mark 12:28–34//Luke 10:25–27). Just as they summarize the Law and the Prophets, they summarize God’s will for humanity.
God’s general will is also revealed in the person of Jesus Christ and following his way of life coincides with following God’s will. This has often been described in terms of Christ as “example,” but I think the point goes deeper than that (even if it includes it). I will need to go into more detail on this one day when I explore what I call “narrative christological solidarity,” but what I can say for now is that it involves participation in Christ and not merely an imitation of Christ, as if Christ is utterly separate from us and does not himself enable us to live like him. Jesus commanded his disciples to follow him in loving as he has loved (John 13:15; 15:12–13), but that same text also speaks of the Holy Spirit given to his followers who will enable them to live as he lived. The rest of the NT also emphasizes embodying Christlikeness as part of worshiping God, following the life he wills for his people. Believers are to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in death in order to attain his resurrection (Phil 3:10–11). This reference to the extremes of Jesus’s life, and indeed to key gospel events, entails knowing also what led to them and thus knowing the whole of Jesus’s story. In the same letter, believers are told to have the mind of Christ by sharing in his humility (Phil 2:5–11). Elsewhere, imitative participation is called for in reflecting Jesus’s self-denying and self-giving love (Rom 15:5–6; 1 Cor 8:1–11:1; Eph 5:1–2), as well as his perseverance (1 Pet 2:18–25). The letter to the Hebrews, the first work I will use to discuss “narrative Christological solidarity,” also points believers to Jesus in the context of temptation, as Jesus is the one who underwent all temptation but ultimately overcame it all (4:14–16). Likewise, the NT more broadly emphasizes identification with and incorporation into Christ (Rom 6–8; 1 Cor 15; Eph 2; Col 3; 1 Pet 3:18–4:11; 2 Pet 1:3–11). Through these various ways, we are shown that following the way of life present in Christ is clearly part of fulfilling God’s general will.
But humanity is not capable of living the Christian life alone; they need the power of the Holy Spirit, for only divine power can form a new creation (Rom 8; 2 Cor 5). The part of believers is thus to submit to the sanctifying work of God, acknowledging their need for his power (Rom 5:1–5; 2 Pet 1:3–11). The marks of the Kingdom are the work or the fruit of the Spirit (Rom 12; 14:17; Gal 5:22–23; Eph 4:1–6, 32; Phil 2:1–4; Col 3:12–17). Clearly, submission to the Spirit is necessary to following God’s general will.
This examination is extremely brief, but it nevertheless makes clear a few major elements of discovering God’s general will. First, we must understand our created purpose as God’s representatives. Second, we must understand how this purpose informs and fits with the ethical story of the Bible. Third, we must follow Christ’s teaching and the expositions by his disciples who also sought to determine how to incarnate his way of life, understanding that they require the whole person to obey. Fourth, we must participate in Christ’s life in understanding what it means to incarnate his teachings. Finally, we must submit to God in order to receive the power to live the Christian life and to be formed into a new creation capable of doing so. These elements are inevitable parts of following God’s general will and they hold for all people. Whatever else may be involved in determining God’s will (namely in the specific dimension), these things are surely crucial.