God's will is Perfect

Romans 12v2b

26^th April 2024

We've been thinking about how wonderful, how awesome, how perfect God is, and how we can - and should - respond to Him by offer ourselves as living sacrifices. Last time, we considered:

Romans 12-v2a
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

This how how we become authentic living sacrifices, godly people. We allow God to renew our minds, transforming us from the inside out. Paul continues:

Romans 12-v2b
Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will.

A single Greek word, dokimazo is translated as "test and approve" in the NIV here. The ESV has "by testing... discern". It can mean "test", "discern" or "approve".

If I understand this passage, following on from Paul's urging to have our minds renewed, he's saying that when we have the mind of Christ, we'll know and approve of God's will. When our mind has been renewed, we'll like it, we'll understand that it's perfect. I guess this means that, if we don't like some aspect of God's will, then there's some renewing of our minds still to be done.

God's will has three aspects:

• What God decides will happen, sometimes called the decretive will of God;
• God's ethical teaching, including all the moral precepts in the Bible, sometimes called the preceptive will of God;
• What God likes, sometimes called the dispositional will of God.

We know that the decretive, preceptive and dispositional will of God are all perfect, because God is perfect. Nevertheless, these different aspects of God's will can sometimes be in conflict. The most obvious example of this is the crucifixion of Jesus. We can be in no doubt that God decided that Jesus would be crucified - that's why Jesus came to earth. The crucifixion was God's perfect decretive will. He chose to make that sacrifice, giving Jesus over to evil men, so that we could be redeemed. However, His execution was unjust. It was judicial murder, contrary to the preceptive will of God. It was horrific, completely contrary to the dispositional will of God.

(We humans, made in God's image, have a similar distinction between what we choose to do, what action we believe to be right, and what action we would prefer. For us, too, they are sometimes in conflict. Whenever we "turn the other cheek" Matthew 5v39) we're inviting another person to assault us. And I sometimes help people when I would prefer to sit on the sofa and watch television. Our will is not perfect. We still make bad choices. We still have imperfect understanding of right and wrong. Not all our desires are pure.)

Because the process of being transformed by having our minds renewed is not complete, we still struggle to accept the will of God. This applies particularly to His preceptive will and His decretive will.

Disputing God's preceptive will

Many people today, including some Christians, refuse to accept some Biblical ethical teaching, whether it's God's instructions regarding sex outside marriage, or the different roles of men and women, or homosexuality, or care for the poor, or respect for elders, or many other things. We will argue with God, we will ignore the Scriptures or twist them to say what we want them to say. This is rebellion against God. When we're completely transformed by the renewing of our minds, we will no longer argue with God but will gladly embrace His moral teaching.

Disputing God's decretive will

Many people today, including some Christians, take issue with what God does and with what God chooses not to do, what God allows to happen, and what he prevents happening. Many of us criticise God (although, perhaps, not out loud) because He didn't heal this person, or provide a particular job for that person, or find a marriage partner for the other person, and so on, because he didn't prevent an accident from occurring, or a flood, or a war, or an earthquake. Although we knowing God to be both omnipotent and loving, we call His character or His judgement into question because things don't go the way we want them to. When we're completely transformed by the renewing of our minds, we will no longer argue with God's decisions but will gladly embrace His sovereign choices, trusting that he has good reasons for the decisions He takes.

Paul has said in verse 1 and the start of verse 2 that we should willingly sacrifice ourselves, we should want to be transformed into the likeness of Christ by allowing the Holy Spirit to change how we think and feel in view of God's mercy. That is, because God is so kind, so forgiving, and so generous to us. If it were not for the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ none of us would be saved, none of us could possibly be Christians. God's mercy to you and to me is that He was willing to die on the cross for us. It is vitally important to remember, especially in difficult times, that Christ has suffered more than we ever will, and yet God's will for Him was perfect.

Some of us are going through very hard times at the moment, and to believe God is perfect takes a great deal of faith right now. But God knows what He's doing. He has absolute knowledge, absolute wisdom, absolute love and absolute mercy. So His plan is absolutely perfect. It's very uncomfortable sometimes. It was certainly uncomfortable for Jesus when they nailed Him to a cross, but it's perfect.

The Psalmist understood this:

Psalm 19v7-10
The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul.
The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.
The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes.
The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever.
The decrees of the Lord are firm, and all of them are righteous.
They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold;
they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb.