The Will of Man Versus the Will of God

There are two worlds, set over against each other, dominated by two wills: the will of man and the will of God, respectively. The old world of fallen nature is the world of human will. There man is king and his will decides events. So far as he is able in his weakness he decides who and what and when and where. He fixes values: what is to be esteemed, what despised, what received and what rejected. His will runs through everything. “I determined,” “I decided,” “I decree,” “Be it enacted.” These words are heard continually springing from the lips of little men. And how they rejoice in their fancied “right of self- determination,” and with what comic vanity do they boast of the “sovereign voter.” They do not know, or re-fuse to consider, that they are but for a day, soon to pass away and be no more.

Time, like an ever rolling stream, Bears all its sons away;
They fly forgotten as a dream Dies at the break of day.
The busy tribes of flesh and blood With all their cares and fears,
Are carried downward like a flood
And lost in following years.
—Isaac Watts

Yet in their pride men assert their will and claim ownership of the earth. Well, for a time it is true that this is man’s world. God is admitted only by man’s sufferance. He is treated as visiting royalty in a democratic country.

Everyone takes His name upon his lips and (especially at certain seasons) He is feted and celebrated and hymned. But behind all this flattery men hold firmly to their right of self-determination. As long as man is allowed to play host he will honor God with his attention, but always He must remain a guest and never seek to be Lord. Man will have it understood that this is his world; he will make its laws and decide how it shall be run. God is permitted to decide nothing. Man bows to Him and as he bows, manages with difficulty to conceal the crown upon his own head.

When we enter the kingdom of God, however, we are in another kind of world. It is altogether other than the old world from which we came; always it is different from and mostly it is contrary to the old. Where the two appear to be alike it is only in appearance, “the first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven” (1 Corinthians 15:47). “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6). The first will perish, the last abides forever.

Paul was made an apostle by the direct call of God. “No man taketh this honour unto himself ” (Hebrews 5:4). Among men we see that noted artists sometimes ap-pear before royalty and their appearance is called a “command performance.” However gifted they may be and however famous, they dare not intrude into the king’s presence except by royal call, a call that amounts to an order. That call leaves no place for refusal except at the risk of affront to majesty. And with Paul it was not otherwise. God’s call was also his command. Had Paul been running for political office the voters would have determined the outcome. Had he been trying for a place in the literary world his own abilities would have decided that place for him. Had he been competing in the prize ring his own strength and skill would have won or lost for him. But his apostleship was not so determined.