2/1/2024 0 Comments Rename it perfec worldAs we offer our whole selves to Him, He transforms and redirects our lives. offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God-this is your true and proper worship” (verse 1). The process begins by consecrating ourselves to God: “In view of God’s mercy. Romans 12:1–2 tells us how we can know and fulfill God’s will. In our limited thinking and strength, God’s will seems strange, but it truly is good, acceptable, and perfect. In each of these cases, people obeyed the Lord, with the result that God’s plan was fulfilled perfectly. Jesus told the people at Lazarus’s tomb to roll away the stone, a seemingly pointless thing to do, since Lazarus had been dead for four days (John 11:17–44). What human sense did it make to walk around Jericho for seven days (Joshua 6:1–27)? What sense did it make for the widow of Zarephath to give Elijah her last meal (1 Kings 17:7–16)? For Naaman to bathe in the Jordan River seven times (2 Kings 5)? For Peter to cast his net on the other side of the boat after a night of fishing in vain (John 21:1–14)? When Jesus revealed His will that the disciples feed 5,000 people, Philip remonstrated: “Two hundred denarii would not buy enough bread for each of them to have a small piece” (John 6:7). God’s will revealed to Joshua probably didn’t seem to be good, acceptable, or perfect, either. God reminded Moses that God made man’s mouth and that He would help Moses speak and teach Moses what to say (Exodus 4:11). Moses gave excuses for why he could not do it, saying he was not “eloquent” of speech (Exodus 4:10). When God called Moses to go to Egypt and rescue the Israelites, he questioned God’s will, wondering if the people would believe him (Exodus 4:1). If His will includes suffering, or if it doesn’t make sense to us, we question it. This appositional construction is brought out in the ESV: “You may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Viewed this way, if you are doing good things that are pleasing to God and leading to your maturity, then you are doing God’s will.Īt times God’s will does not seem to us to be good, acceptable, or perfect. In Romans 12:2, the words good, acceptable, and perfect can also be taken as nouns that rename the will of God in other words, God’s will equals that which is good and acceptable and perfect. Scripture was given to make the believer “perfect” in the sense of “thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:17). God’s perfect will leads us to spiritual maturity. Following God’s perfect will makes us better reflections of God’s perfect nature. His perfect will has no defect and fully reaches the goal, purpose, or end that was intended. The believer who serves the Lord in a spirit of deference, love, and righteousness is “acceptable to God and approved by men” (Romans 14:18, ESV). Those who obey the will of God are acceptable to Him (Matthew 12:50). God’s will is acceptable, or pleasing, in that it is approved by God and fully pleasing to Him. God’s will for the believer is acceptable. God’s good will is revealed for our benefit and the benefit of those we serve. Every “good and perfect gift” comes from God (James 1:17), and “He withholds no good thing from those who walk uprightly” (Psalm 84:11). It is good because He is fully good (Luke 18:19) with no evil or darkness in Him (1 John 1:5). This three-fold description of God’s will can teach us more about who God is and His plan for us. Romans 12:2 reveals that the believer who is being transformed by a new, godly way of thinking “may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (NKJV).
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