My Will/ God's Will

I recently bought a new house. During the course of the negotiations with the seller, my real estate agent made a comment to me that, “if it is the Lord’s will that you get this house, you will get it.” This common piece of advice was appreciated. It is good at all times to be reminded of God’s sovereignty over all things.

As I later sat at the bank, preparing to sign closing documents, I recalled that common piece of advice. However, in this later context, the comment took on a new flavor. The comment was not so much an expression of trust in God as it was an intellectual question. As I sat ready to sign the deed of trust and the many other documents that would make the property mine, the only thing that would indicate God’s will was my action. Potentially I could choose not to sign and the house would not become mine, subject of course to all of the legal ranglings that would ensue. Or I could sign and the house would be mine. In a sense, my will became God’s will.

Now I am certainly not arrogant enough to claim that I can veto the sovereign God who foreordains whatsoever comes to pass. He ordains my thoughts, attitudes and desires by making me who and what I am. He ordains my every action. And, yet, He works it out in my daily life so that I freely implement his decree. My actions become his decreed will in real space and time. I signed the closing documents and so the Lord’s will was that I should have the house.

In the contemporary debate regarding the efficacy of the sacraments, know as the Federal Vision debate, the claim is often made that to grant that the sacrament saves is to grant a salvation based on works. When I baptize my children, when I teach them to honor their father and mother, when I remember the Sabbath day before them, when they respond by honoring my wife and me, and when they respond by receiving faith in Christ, is their salvation based on works? Yes and no. Salvation is by faith alone, but faith is never alone. The sovereign Lord foreordains whatsoever comes to pass. The problem is that we do not know what His decreed will is until it happens. We must work His will out in real space and time. "The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” Deuteronomy 29:29.

There is really no difference between this and basing a claim of salvation on belief in Jesus by an adult. In that case, the “decision for Christ” is just as much a work as the baptism, the nurturing, the discipling and the decision. The only difference is that we live in the post modern era in which the intellect, “the decision.” is given ascendency on all matters. But if Scripture says, “Baptism now saves you” (I Peter 3:21), what am I to do with that passage? I must work it out. I will use God’s ordained means of grace to implement His decree in space and time, that I may do all the words of this law, which is Christ.