What Is the Will of God and How Do We Know It?
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by John Piper
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Scripture: Romans
12:1-2
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Series: Romans:
The Greatest Letter Ever Written
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to
present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is
your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed
by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will
of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
The aim
of Romans 12:1–2 is
that all of life would become “spiritual worship.” Verse 1: “Present your
bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your
spiritual worship.” The aim of all human life in God’s eyes is that Christ
would be made to look as valuable as he is. Worship means using our minds and
hearts and bodies to express the worth of God and all he is for us in Jesus.
There is a way to live — a way to love — that does that. There is a way to do
your job that expresses the true value of God. If you can’t find it, that may
mean you should change jobs. Or it might mean that verse 2 is not happening to
the degree it should.
Verse 2
is Paul’s answer to how we turn all of life into worship. We must be
transformed. We must be transformed. Not just our external behavior, but
the way we feel and think — our minds. Verse 2: “Be transformed by the
renewal of your mind.”
Become
What You Are
Those
who believe in Christ Jesus are already blood-bought new creatures in Christ.
“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17). But now we must become what
we are. “Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really
are unleavened” (1 Corinthians 5:7).
“You have put
on the new self, which is being renewed in
knowledge after the image of its creator” (Colossians 3:10). You have
been made new in Christ; and now you are being
renewed day by day. That’s what we focused on last week.
Now we
focus on the last part of verse 2, namely, the aim of the renewed mind: “Do not
be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind,
[now here comes the aim] that by testing you may
discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” So
our focus today is on the meaning of the term “will of God,” and how we discern
it.
The Two
Wills of God
There
are two clear and very different meanings for the term “will of God” in the
Bible. We need to know them and decide which one is being used here in Romans 12:2. In fact, knowing the difference
between these two meanings of “the will of God” is crucial to understanding one
of the biggest and most perplexing things in all the Bible, namely, that God is
sovereign over all things and yet disapproves of many things. Which means that
God disapproves of some of what he ordains to happen. That is, he forbids some
of the things he brings about. And he commands some of the things he hinders.
Or to put it most paradoxically: God wills some events in one sense that he
does not will in another sense.
1.
God’s Will of Decree, or Sovereign Will
Let’s
see the passages of Scripture that make us think this way. First consider
passages that describe “the will of God” as his sovereign control of all that
comes to pass. One of the clearest is the way Jesus spoke of the will of God in
Gethsemane when he was praying. He said, in Matthew 26:39, “My Father, if it be possible,
let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you
will.” What does the will of God refer to in this verse? It refers to
the sovereign plan of God that will happen in the coming hours. You recall how Acts 4:27–28 says this: “Truly in this
city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you
anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the
peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to
take place.” So the “will of God” was that Jesus die. This was his plan, his
decree. There was no changing it, and Jesus bowed and said, “Here’s my request,
but you do what is best to do.” That’s the sovereign will of God.
And
don’t miss the very crucial point here that it includes the sins of man. Herod,
Pilate, the soldiers, the Jewish leaders — they all sinned in fulfilling God’s
will that his Son be crucified (Isaiah 53:10). So be very clear on this: God
wills to come to pass some things that he hates.
Here’s
an example from 1 Peter. In 1 Peter 3:17 Peter writes, “It is better
to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.”
In other words, it may be God’s will that Christians suffer for doing good. He
has in mind persecution. But persecution of Christians who do not deserve it is
sin. So again, God sometimes wills that events come about that include sin. “It
is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will.”
Paul
gives a sweeping summary statement of this truth in Ephesians 1:11, “In him [Christ] we have
obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of
him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.” The
will of God is God’s sovereign governance of all that comes to pass. And there
are many other passages in the Bible that teach that God’s providence over the
universe extends to the smallest details of nature and human decisions. Not one
sparrow falls to the ground apart from our Father in heaven (Matthew 10:29). “The lot is cast into the lap,
but its every decision is from the Lord” (Proverbs 16:33). “The plans of the heart
belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord” (Proverbs 16:1). “The king’s heart is a stream
of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will” (Proverbs 21:1).
That’s
the first meaning of the will of God: It is God’s sovereign control of all
things. We will call this his “sovereign will” or his “will of decree.” It
cannot be broken. It always comes to pass. “He does according to his
will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the
earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, ‘What have you done?’” (Daniel 4:35).
2.
God’s Will of Command
Now the
other meaning for “the will of God” in the Bible is what we can call his “will
of command.” His will is what he commands us to do. This is the will of God we
can disobey and fail to do. The will of decree we do whether we believe in it
or not. The will of command we can fail to do. For example, Jesus said, “Not
everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but
the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). Not all do the will of his
Father. He says so. “Not everyone will enter the kingdom of heaven.” Why?
Because not all do the will of God.
Paul
says in 1 Thessalonians 4:3,
“This is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual
immorality.” Here we have a very specific instance of what God commands of us:
holiness, sanctification, sexual purity. This is his will of command. But, oh,
so many do not obey.
Then Paul
says in 1 Thessalonians 5:18,
“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus
for you.” There again is a specific aspect of his will of command: Give thanks
in all circumstances. But many do not do this will of God.
One
more example: “And the world is passing away along with its desires, but
whoever does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:17). Not all abide forever. Some do.
Some don’t. The difference? Some do the will of God. Some don’t. The will of
God, in this sense, does not always happen.
So I
conclude from these and many other passages of the Bible that there are two
ways of talking about the will of God. Both are true, and both are important to
understand and believe in. One we can call God’s will of
decree (or his sovereign will) and the other we can call God’s will of
command. His will of decree always comes to pass whether we believe in
it or not. His will of command can be broken, and is every day.
The
Preciousness of These Truths
Before
I relate this to Romans 12:2 let me
comment on how precious these two truths are. Both correspond to a deep need
that we all have when we are deeply hurt or experience great loss. On the one
hand, we need the assurance that God is in control and therefore is able to
work all of my pain and loss together for my good and the good of all who love
him. On the other hand, we need to know that God empathizes with us and does not
delight in sin or pain in and of themselves. These two needs correspond to
God’s will of decree and his will of command.
For
example, if you were badly abused as a child, and someone asks you, “Do you
think that was the will of God?” you now have a way to make some biblical sense
out of this, and give an answer that doesn’t contradict the Bible. You may say,
“No it was not God’s will; because he commands that humans not be abusive, but
love each other. The abuse broke his commandment and therefore moved his heart
with anger and grief (Mark 3:5). But, in
another sense, yes, it was God’s will (his sovereign will), because there are a
hundred ways he could have stopped it. But for reasons I don’t yet fully
understand, he didn’t.”
And
corresponding to these two wills are the two things you need in this situation:
one is a God who is strong and sovereign enough to turn it for good; and the
other is a God who is able to empathize with you. On the one hand, Christ is a
sovereign High King, and nothing happens apart from his will (Matthew 28:18). On the other hand, Christ is a
merciful High Priest and sympathizes with our weaknesses and pain (Hebrews 4:15). The Holy Spirit conquers us and
our sins when he wills (John 1:13; Romans 9:15–16), and allows himself to be
quenched and grieved and angered when he wills (Ephesians 4:30; 1 Thessalonians 5:19). His sovereign will is
invincible, and his will of command can be grievously broken.
We need both these truths
— both these understandings of the will of God — not only to make sense out of
the Bible, but to hold fast to God in suffering.
Which Will Is Referred to in Romans 12:2?
Now,
which of these is meant in Romans 12:2, “Do not be
conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that
by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what
is good and acceptable and perfect.” The answer surely is that Paul is
referring to God’s will of command. I say this for at least two reasons. One is
that God does not intend for us to know most of his sovereign will ahead of
time. “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are
revealed belong to us” (Deuteronomy 29:29). If
you want to know the future details of God’s will of decree, you don’t want a
renewed mind, you want a crystal ball. This is not called transformation and
obedience; it’s called divination, soothsaying.
The
other reason I say that the will of God in Romans 12:2 is God’s will of command and
not his will of decree is that the phrase “by testing you may discern” implies
that we should approve of the will of God and then obediently do it. But in
fact we should not approve of sin or do it, even though it is part of God’s sovereign
will. Paul’s meaning in Romans 12:2 is
paraphrased almost exactly in Hebrews 5:14, which says, “Solid food is for
the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant
practice to distinguish good from evil.” (See another paraphrase in Philippians 1:9–11.) That’s the goal of this
verse: not ferreting out the secret will
of God that he plans to do, but discerning the revealed will
of God that we ought to do.
Three
Stages of Knowing and Doing the Revealed Will of God
There are three stages of
knowing and doing the revealed will of God, that is, his will of command; and
all of them require the renewed mind with its Holy-Spirit-given discernment
that we talked about last time.
Stage
One
First,
God’s will of command is revealed with final, decisive authority only in the
Bible. And we need the renewed mind to understand and embrace what God commands
in the Scripture. Without the renewed mind, we will distort the Scriptures to
avoid their radical commands for self-denial, and love, and purity, and supreme
satisfaction in Christ alone. God’s authoritative will of command is found only
in the Bible. Paul says that the Scriptures are inspired and make the Christian
“competent, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16–17). Not just some good works.
“Every good work.” Oh, what energy and time and devotion Christians should
spend meditating on the written Word of God.
Stage
Two
The second stage of God’s
will of command is our application of the biblical truth to new situations that
may or may not be explicitly addressed in the Bible. The Bible does not tell
you which person to marry, or which car to drive, or whether to own a home,
where you take your vacation, what cell phone plan to buy, or which brand of
orange juice to drink. Or a thousand other choices you must make.
What is
necessary is that we have a renewed mind, that is so shaped and so governed by
the revealed will of God in the Bible, that we see and assess all relevant
factors with the mind of Christ, and discern what God is calling us to do. This
is very different from constantly trying to hear God’s voice saying do this and
do that. People who try to lead their lives by hearing voices are not in sync
with Romans 12:2.
There
is a world of difference between praying and laboring for a renewed mind that
discerns how to apply God’s Word, on the one hand, and the habit of asking God
to give you new revelation of what to do, on the other hand. Divination does
not require transformation. God’s aim is a new mind, a new way of thinking and
judging, not just new information. His aim is that we be transformed,
sanctified, freed by the truth of his revealed Word (John 8:32; 17:17). So the second stage of God’s will of
command is the discerning application of the Scriptures to new situations in
life by means of a renewed mind.
Stage
Three
Finally,
the third stage of God’s will of command is the vast majority of living where
there is no conscious reflection before we act. I venture to say that a good
95% of your behavior you do not premeditate. That is, most of your thoughts,
attitudes, and actions are spontaneous. They are just spillover from what’s
inside. Jesus said, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The
good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out
of his evil treasure brings forth evil. I tell you, on the day of judgment
people will give account for every careless word they speak” (Matthew 12:34–36).
Why do I call this part
of God’s will of command? For one reason. Because God commands things like:
Don’t be angry. Don’t be prideful. Don’t covet. Don’t be anxious. Don’t be
jealous. Don’t envy. And none of those actions are premeditated. Anger, pride,
covetousness, anxiety, jealousy, envy — they all just rise up out of the heart
with no conscious reflection or intention. And we are guilty because of them.
They break the commandment of God.
Is it
not plain therefore that there is one great task of the Christian life: Be
transformed by the renewing of your mind. We need new hearts and new minds.
Make the tree good and the fruit will be good (Matthew 12:33). That’s the great challenge.
That is what God calls you to. You can’t do it on your own. You need Christ,
who died for your sins. And you need the Holy Spirit to lead you into
Christ-exalting truth and to work in you truth-embracing humility.
Give yourself to this.
Immerse yourself in the written Word of God; saturate your mind with it. And
pray that the Spirit of Christ would make you so new that the spillover would
be good, acceptable, and perfect — the will of God.
John Piper (@JohnPiper) is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org
and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For 33 years, he served as
pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is author of more than 50 books.
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