God didn’t choose us to be saved. He wants all to be saved, 1 Tim 2:3-6 “For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who wills all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.”
He chose us to be holy and blameless. Eph 1:4 “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blame before Him in love.” He chose everyone who would believe in Christ to be holy and blameless.
Christ paid with His life. He made it certain with predestination. Eph 1:5 “having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will. And He did all this by His grace. Eph 1:6 “to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved.
So, God’s election is not to salvation. It is to perfection because we are in Christ. It is for our eternal security. We who trust in Christ as our Savior have this security. This is a spiritual blessing for the body of Christ alone.
Now, in verse 5, what is God’s will? I believe we can break God’s will down into 3 scriptural categories. His intentional will (thelayma), His circumstantial will (thelayma), and His ultimate, or determinate will or counsel (boulay).
When we look at His intentional will, the first thing we should see is this. We were created for His will (pleasure). The question we must keep in mind here, is: do we ever thwart God’s intentional will?
Rev 4:11 “You are worthy, O Lord, To receive glory and honor and power; For You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created.” Next, as part of this, He wants us all to love Him.
Mk 12:30,31 “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment. 31 And the second, like it, is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.”
1 Co 16:22 “If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. O Lord, come! Then, He wants us all to love one another.”
John 13:34 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”
1 Th 4:9,10 “But concerning brotherly love you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another; 10 and indeed you do so toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, that you increase more and more.
The question we must keep in mind here is: do we ever thwart God’s intentional will? In answer, we see that He wills all to be saved. 1 Tim 2:4 “who wills all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
But, because man totally rebelled against God, in order to receive salvation, man must believe God and do what He says for salvation. Mat 7:21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” Mat 12:50 “For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.” Heb 10:36 “For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.”
For us in this dispensation of grace, His will is found in Acts 16:31, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.”
Next, we see His will is that we be holy. 1 Th 4:3-8 “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, 5 not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God; 6 that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. 7 For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. 8 Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit.” Do we thwart His will here?
Then, we find His will is that we function in the local body. 1 Co 12:18,20-27 But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. 20 But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. 21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. 23 And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty, 24 but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, 25 that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. 26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. 27 Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually. But many are not obeying God in this way. But do all believers function in a local body? I’m afraid not.
Further, we find His will is that we all know the mystery. Eph 3:8,9 To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9 and to make all see what is the dispensation of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ. But most Christians do not even know what the dispensation of the mystery is.
Col 1:27 “To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ among you, the hope of glory.” Again, do all Christians know “what is the dispensation of the mystery”?
I’ve found from experience that a majority of “Christians” I have met, do not know “what is the dispensation of the mystery” is.
Bob Hill
