Class Outline:

Sunday December 25, 2022

 

Every day we are to pray that God’s will be done in our lives and it is our desire that it is done in all others as well.

 

The will of God has two aspects that are important to us, and which are very closely related.

 

Obedience to God’s will.

Accepting what happens as God’s will.

 

It was God’s will that we have service on Christmas.

 

It was the will of God to give us His Son.

 

HEB 10:1-10

For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near. 2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins? 3 But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. 4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. 5 Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says,

 

"SACRIFICE AND OFFERING YOU HAVE NOT DESIRED,

BUT A BODY YOU HAVE PREPARED FOR ME;

6 IN WHOLE BURNT OFFERINGS AND sacrifices FOR SIN YOU HAVE TAKEN NO PLEASURE.

7 "THEN I SAID, 'BEHOLD, I HAVE COME

(IN THE SCROLL OF THE BOOK IT IS WRITTEN OF ME)

TO DO YOUR WILL, O GOD.'"

 

8 After saying above, "SACRIFICES AND OFFERINGS AND WHOLE BURNT OFFERINGS AND sacrifices FOR SIN YOU HAVE NOT DESIRED, NOR HAVE YOU TAKEN PLEASURE in them" (which are offered according to the Law), 9 then He said, "BEHOLD, I HAVE COME TO DO YOUR WILL." He takes away the first in order to establish the second. 10 By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

 

It is fascinating to see how this is worded.  The Law was a shadow and not the form. The Greek word “form” is eikon, which is usually translated “image.” It is a term that is often used for the Lord Jesus Christ as well as for the human race, and in a special way for the new humanity.

 

The Lord Jesus gave us His nature. Partnering with it is through acceptance and obedience (preferring God to self).

 

The beauty of this is that Jesus gave us His nature.

 

Man was made in God’s image (GEN 1:26-27; 1CO 11:7). This means that man is a visible representation of God, a being corresponding to the original. What effect did the fall have on our image? God still says that we are His image (GEN 9:6; 1CO 11:7), and therefore the image is not entirely effaced. All mankind still has Godlike qualities, such as love of goodness and beauty, none of which are found in the mere animal, but in the fall man ceased to be a perfect vehicle for the representation of God. God’s grace in Christ has accomplished more than what Adam lost.

 

God’s response to this:

 

COL 1:15

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

 

COL 3:9-10

Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, 10 and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him.

 

In Heb 10, the image of God bowed to the will of God. He kept the commandments and He accepted everything that happened to Him, including death on a cross.

 

HEB 10:5-10

Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says,

 

"SACRIFICE AND OFFERING YOU HAVE NOT DESIRED,

BUT A BODY YOU HAVE PREPARED FOR ME;

6 IN WHOLE BURNT OFFERINGS AND sacrifices FOR SIN YOU HAVE TAKEN NO PLEASURE.

7 "THEN I SAID, 'BEHOLD, I HAVE COME

(IN THE SCROLL OF THE BOOK IT IS WRITTEN OF ME)

TO DO YOUR WILL, O GOD.'"

 

8 After saying above, "SACRIFICES AND OFFERINGS AND WHOLE BURNT OFFERINGS AND sacrifices FOR SIN YOU HAVE NOT DESIRED, NOR HAVE YOU TAKEN PLEASURE in them" (which are offered according to the Law), 9 then He said, "BEHOLD, I HAVE COME TO DO YOUR WILL." He takes away the first in order to establish the second. 10 By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

 

For every one of us, God’s will in our lives is going to include a certain amount of suffering that is outside of what suffering we cause ourselves by sin.

 

This is when acceptance or yielding becomes our most important response.

 

Acceptance:

MAT 26:42

"My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done."

 

Control of life is an illusion. Only God has control. We are to simply rest in Him and trust, like the birds and the lilies, and not be anxious.

 

“Your will be done,” is the exact same wording in His prayer that He taught us. He addresses Father, as He told us to do. He gets right to the petition that applies to the situation. He is not a slave to formality.

 

Doing the Father’s will was the sustenance of the Lord, JOH 4:34.

 

Think of the implications of this. What is to fill us and satisfy us is doing the will of the Father. If it satisfied our Lord, and it did, then it is a guarantee to satisfy us.

 

JOH 4:31-34

Meanwhile the disciples were urging Him, saying, "Rabbi, eat." 32 But He said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about." 33 So the disciples were saying to one another, "No one brought Him anything to eat, did he?" 34 Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.

 

In the context, some in Samaria have been evangelized by the woman at the well and they were coming out to Him. The disciples had also gone in to the city to get supplies. Jesus is likely evangelizing and talking to the people. He is doing the Father’s will and this is His sustenance.

 

How do we get to this place in our spiritual lives? The place were doing God’s will is what keeps us going. It is obvious that we would have to know God’s will. We would also have to love God’s will far above our own desires. We would have to actually be excited to do God’s will every day.

 

Jesus says that the Father sent Him to accomplish His work. This work is the purpose of Christ’s life. He knows this purpose and desires it. We each have a plan or predestination in which the Father has given us a ministry and work to do. These have been made for us before the foundation of the world. God cannot make anything that is not of the most splendid design and result. By faith, as Christ did, we have to buy into that and then make God’s will our daily food.

 

John’s Gospel emphasizes the deity of Christ more than the other gospels, and with it, John emphasizes the Lord’s obedience and acceptance.

 

Looking for anything to accuse Him of, the religious leaders tried to use the Sabbath against Him.

 

JOH 5:16-17

For this reason the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because He was doing these things on the Sabbath. 17 But He answered them, "My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working."

 

God is working. When we submit to His will, in all circumstances, He is working through us.

 

JOH 5:30

“I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.”

 

JOH 6:35-40

Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. 36 "But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe. 37 "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. 38 "For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39 "This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. 40 "For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day."

 

In order to fulfill the will of the Father, that He lose nothing, but save all who would be given to Him, He would have to endure the cross.

JOH 7:14-18

But when it was now the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and began to teach. 15 The Jews then were astonished, saying, "How has this man become learned, having never been educated?" 16 So Jesus answered them and said, "My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me. 17 "If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself. 18 "He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.

 

The evidence of its origin is in God’s will itself. We will know with certainty that our life is divine. God’s will and truth reveal themselves for what they are, but only to those who believe them and do them.

 

The epistles entreat us to do God’s will.

 

ROM 12:1-2

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

 

The result is that we will prove or confirm to ourselves and to others that which is good, well pleasing, and perfect.