Our Conduct and God’s Will - A’Brakel

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Grant

Puritan Board Graduate
Hoping this serves to edify you on this most wonderful Lord’s Day:

“God did not create man in the image of His will, but in the image of His holy character, and has given unto man a law which is consistent with this holy character. As far as we are concerned, however, the law of God is the rule of holiness. We need not ascertain whether something is consistent with the holy character of God in order to establish a basis for obedience. Rather, we ought to ascertain what God has been pleased to command us, and thus we must “prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Rom 12:2). We are obligated to do everything according to the will of God. “Doing the will of God from the heart” (Eph 6:6).

Having seen, upon considering His will, how His commandment is congruent with His holy character, this foundation for obedience also inherently obligates us towards God, in whose image we were created and are re- created, to follow Him and to manifest the presence of His image in us. Although our intellect is too limited to comprehend how every commandment is congruent with God‟s holy and righteous character as expressed in each commandment, the will of God is our regulative principle. If we are cognizant of this, we have a sufficient rule to live by. Even if the commandments of God did not issue forth from His holiness and justice, but merely from His majesty and sovereign prerogative to command—as was true for many special and ceremonial commands which proceeded only from the will and good pleasure of God—all creatures would still be obligated by the will of God. One need not search out whether all that God commands is just, for the will of God validates everything as just and good. God says, “I will,” to which the believer responds, “Amen.”
(1) Believers so love the will of God‟s command and consider it so sovereign that they esteem all His precepts to be right (Ps 119:128). They join Paul in saying, “Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good” (Rom 7:12). The law of the Lord, being His will, is their joy, their delight, and the object of their love. “O how love I Thy law! it is my meditation all the day” (Ps 119:97).
(2) A believer, loving that law, does not merely acquiesce in the will of God‟s command, but the soul offers himself to the Lord to do His will, willingly submitting himself to the Lord‟s will. God‟s will is his will and his will is swallowed up in God‟s will.
(3) The soul is ready and prepared to walk in the pathway of the Lord‟s commandments. He delights in the law of God according to the inner man, confessing with his whole heart, “I delight to do Thy will, O my God: yea, Thy law is within my heart” (Ps 40:8).
(4) In his entire walk he focuses upon the will of God in order to regulate everything according to this will.
(5) The will of God is not merely a regulative principle. It is simultaneously an urgent motive, prompting the soul to be diligent, sincere, and persevering in doing God‟s pleasure.
(6) Even though there is great reward in the keeping of God‟s commandments and one may and must be quickened by it to a godly walk, the will of God is nevertheless the loftiest, most influential, and endearing object of affection. Blessed is he who relates to the will of God in such a manner, submitting himself to it in his walk both in prosperity and adversity.”

From A’ Brakel’s, A Christian’s Reasonable Service, Volume 1: The Essence of God, Page 120-121:detective:
 
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