What is God’s Will (Pt2)

Last week I asked the question: What is God’s will? Is it something that can actually be known? Is it clear or hidden?

The resounding answer from Scripture is “yes” : God’s will can be known. God has not left us in the dark. He has clearly revealed His will to us in His Word. While there are aspects of His will, His hidden purposes, and decrees, that remain beyond our understanding or ability to know, what He does require of us and what He wants us to know about Himself has been made plain. We must distinguish between God’s hidden will (what He has not revealed) and God’s revealed will (what He has made known in Scripture). Our responsibility is not to speculate about the former, but to obey the latter.

The Apostle Peter brings this into sharp focus. In 2 Peter, he addresses believers who were facing confusion and even mockery from false teachers. These teachers denied the deity of Christ and they scoffed at the promise of His return (2 Peter 2:1; 3:3–4). Their argument sounded like this: If Jesus is really coming back, then where is He? Why the delay?

That question is just as relevant for Christians today.  We look around at a world filled with evil, injustice, and suffering, mocking our faith, and we ask the same thing: How long, O Lord? We see tragedy, violence, and brokenness, and we wonder: God, are You there? Are You listening? Will You keep Your promises?

Peter answers with clarity and pastoral tenderness: “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness…” (2 Peter 3:9a). In other words, God is not late. He is not indifferent, and He is not powerless. What appears to us as delay is actually intentional.

Peter goes on: to say in verse 9, “…but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9b). That word “wishing” can also be translated “willing.” It refers here to God’s desire. Here we are introduced to a crucial aspect of God’s will, what theologians often call His “will of desire.” This refers to God’s disposition, to what pleases Him. God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He delights in repentance. He calls sinners to turn and be saved. As Paul similarly writes, “[God] desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:3–4).

So why has Christ not yet returned? Because God is patient. His delay is not a defect in His plan, but is His plan. He is, by His grace, patiently gathering in sinners. He is saving His people. He is extending mercy.

This distinction helps us avoid confusion. God’s “revealed will,” as seen here, tells us what He commands and delights in: repentance, faith, and obedience. He delights in the salvation of sinners. But His sovereign will (His “will of decree”) ensures that His ultimate purposes will certainly come to pass. Nothing can resist the will of God in this sense. And these “two wills” are not in conflict with one another, but they operate on different levels. What God commands, we must obey. What God has decreed, we can trust will certainly come to pass.

This truth is meant to fuel our urgency in proclaiming the gospel. If God is delaying judgment in order to save, then this present moment is a window of mercy. As commentator Michael Green notes, “The logical corollary of this verse is that Christians should use the time before Christ’s return for preaching the gospel, and telling others of God’s patience with them” (2 Peter and Jude, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, vol. 18). In other words, God’s patience is not meant to produce passivity, but urgency in mission.

But this raises a practical question: How do we make decisions within God’s will? If God’s will is revealed in Scripture, how do we apply it to everyday life?

Here is where a helpful framework comes into play. Rather than searching for mystical signs or subjective impressions, we are called to make decisions using Bible-saturated wisdom. One way to think about this is through four diagnostic questions: