For I came down from heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me.
—John 6:38
In the will of God we have the highest expression of His divine perfection. In all nature, the will of God is done. For this, man was created with a free will, so that he might have the power to choose and do God’s will; however, deceived by the Devil, man committed the great sin of doing his own rather than God’s will.
Jesus Christ became man to bring us back to the blessedness of doing God’s will.The great purpose of redemption was to make us and our wills free from the power of sin, and to lead us again to live and do the will of God. In His life on earth, He showed us what it is to live only for the will of God.
We must not think that this cost Him nothing. He says repeatedly, “Not my will,but the will of the Father,” to let us understand that there was in very deed a denial of His own will. That man has a will other than God’s is not sin. It is when he clings to his own will when it is seen to be contrary to the will of the Creator that sin occurs.
Child of God, one of the first marks of conformity to Christ is simple obedience to all the will of God. Begin by a willing and wholehearted keeping of the commands of God’s holy Word. Go on to a yielding to everything that your conscience tells you is right, even when the Word does not directly command it. In this way, you will gain more direct insight into God’s will. “If any man will do His will, he shall know” (John 7:17).
And if it ever appears too hard to live only for God’s will, let us remember wherein Christ found His strength: it was because it was the Father’s willthat the Son rejoiced to do it. “This commandment have I received of my Father” (John 10:18). This made even the laying down of His life possible. Let it be our chief desire to say each day, “I am the Father’s beloved child,” and to think of each commandment as the Father’s will.