The old Chris­ti­an Doct­ri­ne says in ac­cor­dan­ce with the Bib­le: ”God, who has cre­a­ted us, has inst­ruc­ted us to obey his will in our li­ves. God has made his holy will known to us in his law. God’s law re­qui­res us to be truth­ful, righ­te­ous, and pure in thoughts, words, and deeds.” God’s good will is the law of life, me­ant to pro­tect the life cre­a­ted by him and all things that are holy and pre­ci­ous in it. God wants all pe­op­le to pos­sess eter­nal life.

In the Lord’s pra­yer we pray that God’s good will would be done in the world of pe­op­le as it is done in he­a­ven. Ac­cor­ding to Lut­her’s Small Ca­tec­hism, God’s will is done on earth in that ”God dest­ro­ys and pre­vents all evil plans and po­wers, such as the will of the Ene­my and our sel­fish mind. - - He al­so strengt­hens us and helps us to re­main strong in his word and in faith un­til the end of our li­ves. This is his good and mer­ci­ful will.”

Go­vern­ment is from God

God uses tem­po­ral go­vern­ment to main­tain his good will and so­cie­tal or­der. The Bib­le tel­ls us that go­ver­nors do not car­ry the sword in vain. Go­vern­ment is a ser­vant of God and imp­le­ments the pu­nish­ment of wrong­do­ers. (Rom. 13:4.)

We should re­mem­ber in our pra­yers those who have been gran­ted the po­wer of go­vern­ment in our so­cie­ty, ”so that we could live a qui­et and pe­a­ce­ful life in all god­li­ness and ho­nes­ty” (1. Tim. 2:1–2). This is one of the ways in which we can pro­mo­te God’s good will in our li­ves.

Many bad and evil things hap­pen in the world, and God does not pre­vent all evil pro­jects and mac­hi­na­ti­ons. Yet we should not blame God for this but rat­her our own evil na­tu­re. God has seen it fit to aban­don un­god­ly pe­op­le to their evil deeds: ” And even as they did not like to re­tain God in their know­led­ge, God gave them over to a de­ba­sed mind, to do those things which are not fit­ting” (Rom. 1:28).

Je­sus ful­fil­led God’s word

We do not al­wa­ys un­ders­tand that it is God’s good will al­so to give us ad­ver­si­ties and tri­als. When at such ti­mes we feel that God does not hear our pra­yers, we may be­gin to re­bel against him. We keep as­king why God al­lows all this to hap­pen to us, his own child­ren. It is so­me­ti­mes dif­fi­cult to ac­cept that God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, nor his ways our ways (Isa. 55:9).

As hu­man beings we can ne­ver ful­fill God’s will. Like Paul, we must ad­mit: ”For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) not­hing good dwel­ls; for to will is pre­sent with me, but how to per­form what is good I do not find. – – O wretc­hed man that I am! Who will de­li­ver me from this body of de­ath? I thank God – through Je­sus Christ our Lord!” (Rom. 7:18–19, 24–25.)

Ul­ti­ma­te­ly, Paul’s exc­la­ma­ti­on con­tains the same ho­pe­ful en­cou­ra­ge­ment that we hear in the mes­sa­ge of the choir of an­gels on Christ­mas night: ”Glory to God in the hig­hest, and on earth pe­a­ce, good will to­ward men!” (Luke 2:14.) Je­sus died on the cross and the­re­by ful­fil­led God’s law comp­le­te­ly on our be­half: ”For I have come down from he­a­ven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. This is the will of the Fat­her who sent me, that of all he has gi­ven me I should lose not­hing, but should rai­se it up at the last day. And this is the will of him who sent me, that eve­ry­o­ne who sees the Son and be­lie­ves in him may have ever­las­ting life; and I will rai­se him up at the last day.” (John 6:38–40.) God wants that eve­ry­bo­dy should be­lie­ve in him and should have ever­las­ting life.

Je­sus said as his last words: ”It is fi­nis­hed!” (John 19:30). This com­forts our he­arts.

Text: Jor­ma Ki­vi­ran­ta

Pub­lis­hed: Sii­o­nin Lä­he­tys­leh­ti 6/2008

Trans­la­ti­on: S.-L. L.

Jul­kais­tu eng­lan­nin­kie­li­ses­sä kie­li­liit­tees­sä 11/2013