If you follow Jesus, sooner or later the question is going to come up:
What is God’s will?”
We love God. We want our lives to please God. But how on earth can we figure out what God really wants?
A full century after the Pentecostal movement drew our attention to the presence of the Holy Spirit, we assume that if just quiet down God will whisper the answer in our ear.
But that approach isn’t guaranteed.
- How do we know that the voice we hear isn’t just our own hopes and longings?
- What if we are actually hearing our own neuroses and brokenness?
For Christians in the Reformed tradition back in the 16th century this question came in slightly different packaging. They asked what kinds of actions God would count as “good.”
Here it is in the Heidelberg Catechism, that classic Reformed summary of Biblical Christianity:
91 Q. What are good works?
A. Only those
which are done out of true faith,
conform to God’s law,
and are done for God’s glory;
and not those
based on our own opinion
or human tradition.
Many Protestants hear the phrase “good works” and jump to the conclusion that the people asking the question are trying to earn their salvation. That is not the case here at all.
Notice that the first criterion is that works become “good” (i.e. approved by God) when they grow out of faith — and it is faith that has brought us into the grace of Christ, forgiveness of sins, justification, righteousness.
If you don’t start with faith, nothing at all will make your actions fulfill God’s will.
Faith, that gut level heart and soul relationship of trust in God and his promises, changes your motives: you want your actions to bring glory to God, not to yourself.
If you don’t want the greater glory of God, nothing will make your actions into God’s will.
But once you have that kind of faith there is a clear place to look to understand God’s will for you: the Law, meaning the Ten Commandments, God’s own classic summary of what human life is supposed to look like.
This is actually one of the subtle but clear markers that the Catechism really is Reformed in its orientation. Calvin and the Reformed tradition see God’s law as good and useful—crucial really—for people of faith. God’s law is not merely there to convict you of sin or to control our worst behavior out of fear of punishment.
So instead of laying out the Ten Commandments in the beginning of the Catechism, they saved them for the end.
Now we have faith. Now we love God. Now we long to know what we should do day by day to please God.
What is the will of God?” we ask.
Try these ten things,” God answers. “When you get these down, come back and we can talk.”
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I would love to hear from you in the comments! How do you find God’s will? What role does God’s law play in your Christian life?
Thank you for your insight. It seems, to me anyway, that there’s always been an uneasy tension between faith and works in western Christianity. I don’t really see this tension in eastern Christianity, perhaps because salvation is articulated very differently.
In the west, sin has been understood as transgression and penalty. Thus, salvation is judicial: we need to be punished for our sin, and that punishment is death. Christ, however, steps in with a sacrificial death. This is understood as atonement, and it becomes a form of appeasement, which then begs the question about whether God is wrathful or not. Of course, by grace, we are forgiven and justified by the work of Christ on the cross.
In the east, on the other hand, sin is understood as bondage and sickness; through the fall we all “caught the disease.” Thus, salvation is transformative: God becomes man through the Incarnation, which infuses humanity with divinity. Thus allows humanity to be recreated, or transfigured into what it was meant to be. This makes atonement more about recapitulation (Ephesians 1:10). By being transfigured, we are able to have union/communion with God and become deified, or share in the God’s divine life. In this view, “good works,” is a way of uniting ourselves to God – sharing in his life.
There was once a heresy called monothelitism, which debated about whether Christ had two wills or one. Eventually the orthodox (small “o” and large “O”?) teaching was that Christ had two wills (divine and human) to match his two natures. However, they fully cooperated together. I guess this is how I would see the relationship between “good works” and salvation. If salvation is about union with God (Incarnation – Transfiguration – Deification), then it would make sense that doing God’s will – i.e., good works – would bring one into a closer union with God. In short, we would be acting just like Christ – the two wills would be acting in union with one another. In this view, one doesn’t “earn” salvation, but rather one cooperates with the process of Transfiguration that begins with the Incarnation and, God willing, ends with our deification.
Thanks, Fr. Dustin.
You are surely right about the uneasy relationship between “faith” and “works” in the West. Concern particularly focuses on the question of whether what one does behaviorally has a positive effect on attaining salvation. The classic Protestant answer is that no, nothing that one does on one’s own can lead to salvation. Grace always goes first, and only then, when harmony is restored between a person and God, can one’s deeds be counted “good.”
The question at this point of the Catechism is not whether deeds contribute to salvation, but rather, something like “Now that I have salvation, how can I know what is genuinely good to do in God’s sight?”
I would like to ask about “grace,” since the argument is that this comes first. My question is: in what way would the Reformers (or the Heidelberg Confession) define “grace?”
My understanding of the words comes from the 1st century classical world. Grace, and faith were words that originally described an economic relationship between a client and a patron. In this context a tradesman (e.g., a painter, carpenter, blacksmith) would have a patron, who was the major benefactor of this particular tradesman. Often the patron would use his influence to the benefit of the tradesman’s business; that is he would do favors for the tradesman. The authors I’m citing below say that the closest thing we have to this today is the first scene from the first Godfather movie. There, people are asking the Godfather – on the day of his daughter’s wedding – for favors. They want him to use his influence to their benefit. The Greek term used for these favors was χαρις (grace). In return for these favors, the tradesman was expected to be loyal to the patron and give him priority of business. This loyalty was called πιστις (faith). To me, it seems St. Paul uses these terms in this context – God becomes our patron.
Perhaps this fits into what you’re saying above? You said, “Now we have faith. Now we love God. Now we long to know what we should do day by day to please God.” But, perhaps, if St. Paul was working with his 1st century context, wouldn’t “faith” be a part of those good works, in the sense that we demonstrate our loyalty (faith) through our actions (good works)?
Citation: E. Randolph Richards, and Brandon J. O’Brien, Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible (Downers Grove: IVP Books, 2012), pp. 163-166.
The term has a range of meanings in Scripture, and different shades have been emphasized in various theological periods and traditions.
We could go minimalist here, leaving the specific Reformation Protestant definition in the background and simply say “Grace is God’s part of the process.” God’s gracious initiative comes first, and we do not find our way to salvation without it.
The point of the post, though, is that once we find ourselves in Christ, we want to please God. We want to know God’s will. God’s law provides much wisdom about what his will is going to look like — and it will lead us more reliably than our own insights.
I agree that step one is falling in love with God again and the reconciliation of us to God made possible through His grace and gift of Jesus Christ.
I agree that the 10 commandments give great insight into the heart of God and knowledge regarding “acceptable” behavior in both vertical and horizontal relationships. I do see the commandments as good, though I see the point in the conversation above regarding the differing perspectives between east and western Christianity.
However, I was somewhat put to pause with the idea that once you get the 10 commandments down, then speak to God about his “further” will? Perhaps I misread the intention or mis-interpretted your comment.
I don’t think we ever fully get the commandments “down”. We sin or turn away from God often. Hopefully and prayerfully, less often this year than last and this day less than yesterday as we grow further in love with God and seek to do what would best make our loved One happy.
I think my question still lies within the details. For example, I know that God would never ask me to do something against those commandments. I know God would never want me to do something against one of Jesus’ commandments in the New Testament. I know that God would never want me to do something that scripture says is an abomination or abhorrant to him.
But I see a lot of space after those things which are left in the open, so to speak. Again, an example. Today.
We all have 24×7. How do I know I am best using my time for God. In Psalms it says “teach us to count our days”. Be aware of time. It comes to mind that if done for God’s glory, even when I am washing dishes, or doing laundry for my husband, if being a faithful steward of my time is an expression of love both toward my husband and toward God, is that not then “doing God’s will”?
So often, I think that many consider God’s will as the center of the Target, a bull’s eye and everything else — even if pointed toward the target — directing our lives in their entirety toward God — is somehow missing the mark. I just don’t see that as truth. I think it is the direction of our intentions and the motive of our hearts in whatever we do – to do it for God’s glory. Of course, as you can see above, I do not think that we can therefore do anything we want, as there are clear directions and information in the Bible which tell us when the “whatever” is facing the wrong direction and opposite or missing the mark of what God would have from us.
So here I am. I will leave you with a question. If I am feeling a tug on my heart to do something that could honor God, but is outside my comfort zone, and I’m not really sure of my motives, how can I tell if that particular thing is or is not God’s will? Am I left in the quagmire until somehow a burning bush appears to clarify my motives or tell me that the tug is getting stronger, and I am simply to be obedient to step one?
Thanks Susan! It is great to hear from you.
I was winking when I said “Once you get these down…” My point is that we never do master them and indeed continue to fall short and need to get up again, seek grace, and move forward.
I was thinking of this Reformed view of the Commandments as the shape of God’s will in contrast to the frequent tendency in our culture to assume that God has very detailed specific instructions to offer each of us about all aspects of living: that we should seek a direct word from God for all kinds of things. God does give direct personal guidance to people in Scripture and today — but in Scripture it seems to be when something very big is at stake. Most of the time, most of our attention can focus on things God has already shown us very clearly to be his will.
The situation you describe at the end it seems to me like the parable of the talents. Christ gives us resources and says “Invest them! I’ll be back.” The servants are given great freedom to use their smarts to decide what would be a good place to invest. Some reap bigger returns for their master and some smaller, but the only one who got in trouble just did nothing.
Don’t know if that clarifies at all. I’ll re-read all this later and see — or you can let me know your thoughts.
Dr. Hansen, Wow, originally I thought I’d learn the most just from reading your blog, but the real learning comes from reading the responses to others. I never knew that the East thought of sin as an illness and that Grace was like the cure. I liked how Susan talked about us honoring God in everything we do, and yes, I too caught your statement (didnt’ know you were winking) about when we get those 10 down come back and let’s talk.
Faith & Trust, to me this is the steps necessary for us to take in our relationships in our lives, not only with God, but with my spouse, my children, co workers, etc…I have faith in God and in doing so, will be wise to now trust him as well, for in my opinion if I dont trust him, then I really dont have faith. I have faith in wife, so now I can trust her in every situation, when she leaves the house I dont even think that she is cheating on me or doing something that would harm me, seems to me that if I can put this kind of trust in a sinful human that I sure ought to be able to put even more in the divine creator God….OH why do I fail to trust more???? Guess it’s called control, heck, I know better for me than God does, dont I? (winking of course here)!