Becoming a theologian: God's Will

Today, we will start looking at some of God's attributes of purpose. These attributes are the ones that deal with how God makes and carries out His decisions. Today we will be looking at God's will. We will be looking at the following aspects of God's will:

1. What do we mean by God's will?
2. God's necessary will
3. God's free will
4. God's secret will
5. God's revealed will

What do we mean by God's will?

Wayne Grudem in his Systematic Theology says "God's will is that attribute of God whereby He approves and determines to bring about every action necessary for the existence and activity of Himself and all creation."

In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will,

Ephesians 1:11

• God accomplishes all things according to His will.
• In other words, everything is accomplished according to His plan.
• Who is doing the accomplishing? God is

God's necessary will

God said to Moses, "I am who I am..."

Exodus 3:14a

• God's necessary will refers to what He must do because of who He is.
• Because of His righteousness and holiness, God can not tolerate sin. To do so would be to deny His nature.
• Because of God's truthfulness, we know that He cannot lie.
• Can you think of any other examples of things that God must (or cannot) do that are part of His necessary will?

God's free will

"You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being."

Revelation 4:11

• Did God have to create all of creation? No.
• God's free will refers to the things that He has done/will do because He wants to.
• To help understand the difference between necessary will and free will, let's consider the following. You boys are children and you are obligated or required to obey your parents. The things on this list are necessary because you are obedient children are part of your necessary will. The things that you do because you want to are part of your free will.
• Get dressed for the day. Necessary
• Clear your dishes Necessary
• Play with legos free
• Brush your teeth Necessary
• Play Star Wars Lego Wii free

God's Secret will

The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.

Deuteronomy 29:29

• God's secret will means that we don't know everything that God wills. Some of His plans for us may be secret.
• When we consider God's wisdom and God's knowledge and know that we can't fully have His knowledge and wisdom, we can begin to imagine that there are some things we just can't know of God's will.
• There may be parts of His will for us that are secret because we might not obey if we knew.
• There may be parts of His will that we just don't need to know.
• There may be parts of His will that we don't need to know now, but will be revealed to us in the future

God's revealed will

• We can also see from the verse in Deuteronomy that God has revealed things to us and those belong to us.
• One of the main places where His will is revealed is the Bible
• Can you think of other places where His will is revealed?
• Let's compare some of these things to see if they are examples of His secret will or His revealed will.
• Worship God only Revealed
• Love the Lord, your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength revealed
• What are you getting for your next birthday Secret
• Why not all of our neighbors love God secret