The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Panorama City, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from the tape, GC 70-19, titled "Bible Questions and Answers."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE. Copyright 2000 by John MacArthur Jr., All Rights Reserved.

Question

If everything happens in the will of God, then why do people say, when you’re doing something wrong, “Oh, that’s not in the will of God; that’s not the will for your life”…if everything is in God’s will?

Answer

The answer to the question is that you have to distinguish between God’s will, in the sense of what He permits, and God’s will, in the sense of what He desires, and God’s will, in the sense of what He loves or what is a reflection of His pure, holy will. In other words, let’s go through those three.

There is that big, large category of things that are the will of God only in the sense that He permits them. We just talked about one, where God, for His own purposes, allows Satan to cause David to number Israel. Or God allows Satan to tempt Eve in the garden or God allows Satan to tempt Christ or God allows Satan to tempt us. There are calamities that are the result of sin and fallenness. There is even eternal hell. In the big scheme of things, God wills (in a general sense) that those things happen. But only in the sense of allowing them. He gives a certain latitude, a certain space, a certain freedom to mankind to function within his fallenness and He wills that sinners have the liberty to express their sin, and also wills that, in the end, they will be judged. That is His broad will.

Secondly, there is a narrower sense in which God permits certain things that don’t reflect His righteous nature, but they achieve His righteous purpose. And we just had an illustration of that. God allows or permits, specifically, Satan to cause a numbering in Israel that produces the need to judge, which God--or, the occasion to judge--which God had already planned to do. So, there are things in a narrower sense which, though they are sinful in themselves and do not express His righteous will, He uses for His own ends. For example, God allows believers to be persecuted. You could ask, “Is it God’s will that Church be persecuted? Is it God’s will that Christians be martyred? Is it God’s will that the apostles be killed? Is it God’s will that Paul had his head cut off and Peter be crucified upside down? Is it God’s will that missionaries be boiled in a pot and eaten by cannibals? Is it God’s will that they be massacred?” Etc., etc.

Well, in a sense--more than just the general sense that God tolerates evil--there is the secondary sense that God permits certain things, sinful things that happen to His people because they perfect their faith, because they strengthen the church, because they allow the believer to be stronger and more effective. And the great illustration of that, of course, is Peter in Luke 22. Jesus says to Peter, “Satan desires to have you, that he might sift you like wheat” and you know, if you were Peter, you’re going to say, “Well, you told him no, right? You told him he couldn’t have me?” And the Lord says, “No, I told him yes, because after he’s sifted you, you will be able to strengthen the brethren.” In other words, “there will be an impact in your life. You’ll be stronger spiritually because of what you’ve suffered through this defection and this denial. And I’m going to let Satan do this to you because I know the end result is going to be great strength.” And, it was in the case of Peter.

The same is true of Paul in II Corinthians 12, where Paul has a thorn in the flesh, a messenger from Satan, an angel from Satan: a demon, and this demon is tearing up the Corinthian church and Paul says, “This is greatly disturbing.” So, three times he prays that the Lord will remove that demon, the Lord would stop that disaster going on in the Corinthian church, and the Lord never does it because the Lord says, “It’s in your weakness, and it’s in your humbling that you become strong.” So, there is a category where God allows sinful things to happen to His people because there is a strengthening and there’s a deepening and there’s an elevating of their spiritual capacities by that.

And then, thirdly, there is that will of God, which is the perfect and precise reflection of His holy character. And that is always righteous and holy and good. So, it is too general to say everything is God’s will if you mean by that, everything is a direct expression of His holy nature--it isn’t. There are many things that He allows, in the broad sense of allowing sinners to sin, there are some things that He allows in the life of a believer that in themselves are sinful, but produce righteous ends. And then there is that specific expression of His will, which, in fact, is righteousness itself. And when the Bible talks about doing the will of God from the heart, to believers, what it means is He wants you to behave in a manner that is consistent with His own righteous nature. That is, He wants you to do what is holy and righteous.

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur’s Questions and Answers" by:

Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
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