Thy Will Be Done 

By Arthur J Licursi

 

The regenerated child of God is identically equipped as Jesus of Nazareth was when He walked the earth as “the Son of man.” Our relationship with the Father as our Father is as His was. We should note that Jesus of Nazareth did not live by self-preference or His own will, but according to the life and will of the Father. This is the nature of Christ today, who lives in us as our life.

It is because Jesus knew something we likely do not yet entirely believe, that He was able to overcome all. Consider these of the many statements of Jesus that show us how sure and secure Jesus was in His relationship with the Father. John 10:30 I and my Father are one. Jesus and the Father bear the one eternal life of God the Father.  John 3:35 The Father loveth the Son.            We also are one with the Father, as we now bear His life, and His love. Thus Jesus, as the “Son of man,” could and did fully submit to the Father’s will.

Jesus knew that His place was to trustingly submit to the will of  the Father. John 5:30…I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me. John 4:34 Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, John 6:38 For I came …, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. John 10:32 Jesus answered , Many good works have I shewed you from my Father, John 15:15 …for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. John 8:28 …but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.

In John 5:30 we see that Jesus limited or denied His own self in all that He did, not do His own will, but the will of the Father. Paul likewise commends us to self-control in Gal 5:23, in the KJV “temperance,” in the Greek is “egkratia,” better translated as“self-control.” In John 10:32, 15:15 and 8:28 we see that Jesus only spoke what the Father gave Him to speak. Jesus did not exert His “self” as independent from the Father. I sometimes do, and therein is the problem.

Jesus denied His self, yielding to the will of the Father, in the face of temptation when He could have taken matters into His own hand. We see this in Jesus’ exchange with the Devil. It is clear from the following that Jesus did not speak a word apart from the Father’s will.

Matthew 4:1-4 Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. ² And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungered. 3 And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. ⁴ But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Which of us doubts that Jesus could make bread out of stones? Of course He could. But Jesus would not assert His own self. He told the Devil that He would only do things according to what came from His Father’s mouth – whatever God the Father told Him or permitted Him to do. If that were me, I would have said – “Sure, I’ll make you (the Devil) into stone too!” By doing so, I would have been lawless. Jesus lived by the “law of the life” of the Father in Him, by which He knew the Father’s will. Doesn’t this sound quite like that which we also have – “the law of the Spirit of life” in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:2) that dwells within our spirit, for us to live by? Thus Paul says Galatians 5:16 …Walk in (by) the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust (desire) of the flesh.

Some might still ask, “If we are equipped the same as Jesus was, then why don’t we live overcomingly as He did?” Religion has often distorted our view of God and our relationship with God. We must come to know and/or trust that we are securely His children, just as Jesus of Nazareth was. Our Father loves us as He does Jesus. John 14:20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. (I know that Jesus is speaking in John to the Jews but this same truth applies to we of the dispensation of grace, who have been regenerated by the life and Spirit of Christ and are “in Christ.”) We see in John 14:20 that Jesus not only considers us one with Him and the Father, but they are indwelling us. Not only this but we can be assured that by that indwelling life of the Father we are the Father’s children, seen in Jesus following statement assigning us to the Father as our Father also. John 20:17 …go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God. Paul confirms this truth of the Fatherhood of God for us today, as seen in Romans 8:16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: Romans 8:15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Paul again confirms this saying, Galatians 4:6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Jesus is one with the Father’s life and we also, by Christ’s indwelling Spirit, have the Father’s life, making God our Father.

This above is true and wonderful, but some might say, “but I still have weaknesses and I often fail.” The truth is that we also have a fallen Adamic sinful human body that came from Adam, called sinful flesh. In this way we also is as Jesus was; Jesus’ body descended from Adam, via Mary’s body. It was Mary who gave Jesus bodily tissue and bone, with sin in it (Rom 7:17-20, 8:3). It should be noted that in the synoptic Gospels that list the genealogy of Jesus, in every case from Abraham to Joseph the expression "begat," meaning one born of his seed, is used, but it is not said that Joseph begat Jesus, for Jesus was begotten by the Holy Spirit before Joseph and Mary came together. Joseph is simply said to have been “the husband of Mary,” “of whom was born Jesus.”

We know Jesus’ true life (zoe, spirit life) of His Spirit came from God the Father, who is spirit. We know that Jesus never committed a single act of sin; we’ve seen this that He never even spoke apart from the Father, or to do anything apart from the Father’s will (John 5:30). The only way scripture could say that Jesus could be “tempted in all ways as we are” (Heb 4:15) was for Him to have a sinful body as we have. We have sin indwelling in our bodies (Rom 8:3, 7:17-20).

So we have the Father’s life in our spirit by the indwelling Spirit of Christ, and also sin in our bodies, which came from fallen Adam – this is as it was for Jesus of Nazareth. Again, “Why do I still have a problem, when Jesus was able to overcome?” The answer to this is seen back in the beginning of this article – Jesus knew He was okay by the Father’s life in Him. Yes, in His humanity Jesus was “as we are,” thus feeling and hearing the lies of the tempter as we do, but the key was that Jesus did not live by His own will to respond to, or to control situations; rather He lived by the will of the Father. Jesus knew who He was, that He had the Father’s overcoming spirit life within Him (just as we have) and He trusted the Father to the very end, the killing of His body.

Paul said we are “killed all the day long,” as “sheep for the slaughter,” Rom 8:36, and that we will suffer what he called a “momentary and light affliction,” by which we might gain an eternal weight of glory” 2 Cor. 4:17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; The greatest suffering for we who are His and who seek Him in a deeper way, is that of loss of control in our daily lives. It may be health, wealth or relationship; in the end it’s all ultimately out of our control. The Father has set this stage of our life for the realization of our crucifixion, of our old independent, controlling, self. We too must turn to trust Him in all things, as Jesus did, and Christ will supply us with His indwelling peace and rest; these two, peace and rest, are the markers of our overcoming by His life.

Most of us have been taught to pray to ask God for help so we can escape suffering, so we can have our way. Some of you may have read my writing concerning Paul’s prayers, wherein I explain that for the believing and trusting Christian there is no more need for petitioning God to do something for us – its all been done and its all found in Christ. I explained that I no longer find myself petitioning God for anything, but I do enjoy a confident trusting intimate fellowship or communion with Him who dwells in me as my very life.

Paul’s six main prayers were each for, revelation, enlightenment, understanding or knowledge of the gospel for the believing saints, or for that the gospel to be preached.  But there is one genuine and necessary prayer for every believer, to come to out of their own volition, and it is summed in just these few words – “thy will be done.”

In the following we see the humanity of Jesus in His suffering and the struggle He genuinely endured in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Matthew 26:36-46 Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder. 37And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. 38Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me. 39And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. 40And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour? 41Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. 42He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done. 43And he came and found them asleep again: for their eyes were heavy. 44And he left them, and went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words. 45Then cometh he to his disciples, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46Rise, let us be going: behold, he is at hand that doth betray me.

 

We should note from this that Jesus of Nazareth was so very human, truly the Son of man. We all know that He petitioned the Father to take away the cup of suffering that He knew He was to endure, for our sins and the sin of the world. How many have noticed that He prayed this THREE times? That means Jesus said “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me” and three times he said “nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt” three times.

 To me this is significant. It means that Jesus petitioned the Father to take away the problem, but then yielded. But then He took it back by petitioning the Father once again, only to yield again, and then to petition a third time, but to yield a final time. Doesn’t this show us the true struggle Jesus had in this? Since we know Jesus never sinned, we can then deduce that in His heartrending exchange and struggle to yield to God’s will there was no sin. This should be a comfort for we who in our heart desire to yield to do the will of God, as Jesus did.

To all this you might say, “I just don’t have the faith to trust” – but that is not true, you have Jesus Christ in you as your faith, for you to live by (Gal 2:20b KJV). God has made Jesus to be so available; He’s in us as our overcoming life. We can turn our heart within to yield to Him. We need only to cling to Him, the One that makes us one with the Father, the One who is fully yielded to the Father, as us, so we then will be there also. John 17:24 Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory (expression), which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.

The question is, will we let go to yield to Christ in us, saying “Thy will be done”? He is our peace and rest; He is the overcoming life in us. We must let go to trust Him in all things. <END>