In James 4:8, James, the brother of Jesus says, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts you double-minded.”
In the mid-19th century, Danish existential philosopher and Christian, Sören Kierkegaard, picked up on these words and noted that to will one thing is to exhibit purity of heart. And that stands to reason, given what James says about the need to be cleansed from double-mindedness. But Kierkegaard goes further. He states that, if it is possible for a man to will one thing, then what he wills must be good. Now, I don’t want to get way down in the weeds here, but I think that what Kierkegaard is pointing to is exactly where we are headed this Sunday in a message entitled, “To Will One Will.” The texts to which we turn are both from the Gospels – Luke 4:1-13 and Matthew 6:5-13.
If you are a regular reader of the e-newsletter I don’t have to remind you where we’ve been since beginning our new series, Jesus Wins, three weeks ago. In the first week we noted the “full stop” or “hard break” in the Genesis record between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. When God created in verse 1, everything He created was perfect, for as we noted, a perfect God can only produce what is perfect. But by the time you take a breath for verse 2 you find that a gigantic shift has occurred. The perfectly created order has become marred. The Bible says, “The earth was without form and void…” The Hebrew says, “The earth became a wreck and a ruin.”
Someone mentioned to me recently that they didn’t believe any of that. They said that they believe that verse 2 and following is an elaboration of verse 1. In other words, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” and verse 2 and following is how He did it. Now if that’s true, how do you explain the wreck and ruin? How is the formless, shapeless void explained? If God created ex nihilo, “out of nothing,” how is shapeless matter and energy explained? This is particularly puzzling given that beginning in verse 2 we see the entire godhead determining, hovering, and speaking things into being.
While I respect his opinion, I beg to differ. Indeed, I believe that the puzzle pieces of Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14 go a long way to explaining what happens to the perfect creation of verse 1. As we outlined in our last two messages, the one whom God had anointed as prophet, priest, and king over His perfect creation succumbed to the sin of pride, saying in his heart, “I will make myself like the Most High,” causing the Most High, in all His righteousness, to judge Lucifer. He cast him down from the presence of God (the Mountain of God). He dislodged him from his three-fold office. And yet, as we noted last week, while he is sentenced his eternal punishment is not yet exacted – prompting the question, why? Why would God allow this fallen angel to promulgate evil after God’s work beginning in verse 2?
This week and in coming weeks we will seek to answer such questions by beginning where Kierkegaard began – the will. One of the recurring themes on which nearly everyone opines at some point in their life is the matter of free will. The clear evidence of Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, is that no one since Adam had a free will with respect to divine righteousness. As Paul points out in Ephesians 2, our will is bound in sin prior to any choice anyone makes to surrender to God. (If you doubt that read Romans; Galatians; John 6, 14, 17; Ephesians, and Bondage of the Will by Martin Luther.) But for our purposes this Sunday, I want you to consider one simple fact – before Lucifer’s sin there was only one will in all of existence. And that will was God’s will. God’s will had no rival or challenge. To will one will was easy, because there was only one. But when in the heart of Lucifer his own will took control, two wills emerge. From that point on there was no longer one will in the universe, but two, and everything changed.
This week we are going to dig into all of that. Not only is it important for our knowledge of God and His Word, it’s critical for what God has freed us in Christ to do and to be.
In preparation for Sunday you may wish to consider the following:
1. What is meant by the words, “The first matter of importance of any godly sermon is that it must be “therapeutic”?
2. What are some common answers to the question, “Why does God permit evil?”
3. Why did Marx call religion “the opiate of the people”?
4. What do you make of Luke 4 and the close proximity between Jesus’ baptism and His temptations in the wilderness?
5. What is Satan saying to Jesus in verses 5-6(a)?
6. How do the words of Satan in verses 5-6(a) relate to Jesus’ words to His disciples in Matthew 6:5-13? (Note the footnote after verse 13.)
7. How does II Corinthians 4:4 relate to the presence of two wills?
8. What does Jesus’ response in Luke 4:8 say about willing one will?
9. Why would God allow the presence of a rival will in the universe?
10. What does this tell us about God and His character?
See you Sunday!
