The Pathway to Proving God’s Will: Appreciating Mercies Received

My wife and I were recently traveling through a lonely section of Nevada on a trip from Arizona to Washington and took a wrong turn that added 30 minutes to our trip—not a big deal on a road trip over 18 hours in length. But what if you take a wrong turn away from God’s will and burn up 30 years of your life? For that matter, is God’s will findable? Can you even know what He wants you to do?

Romans 12:1-2 suggests there is a pathway to being able to prove God’s will. Notice how verse 2 ends: “that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (emphasis mine, NKJV¹). All that precedes these words in Romans 12:1-2a is the road map enabling you to prove the will of God. You may have all the desire in the world to go to San Diego, but if you choose Interstate 10 instead of Interstate 8, you will find yourself in Los Angeles. Being on the right road is absolutely essential. If you are on the right road, you will end up at the right destination! This thought ought to minister needed comfort to those who are genuinely submitted to and in pursuit of God’s will. Knowing God’s will is not a high stakes mystery hunt in which even the most dedicated Christians come up empty. The point of Romans 12:1-2 is to put you on the pathway that will ensure your ability to correctly ascertain what God wants!

In a blog series on “The Pathway to Proving God’s Will,” I have segmented this pathway into four parts based on the text of Romans 12:1-2:

1. Appreciating mercy received

2. Placing our bodies at God’s disposal

3. Refusing conformity to sinful culture

4. Renewing the mind through truth

Each of these four “pins” on the map is important to being able to discern God’s will.

The first is appreciating mercy received. In Romans 11 (the verses preceding Romans 12:1-2), Paul refers to God’s mercies three times. Ultimately, God has concluded that both Jew and Gentile—all—are under mercy because none believe. No one deserves any kind of saving work on his or her behalf because no one has believed. The words not believed here can be translated as not obeyed. The people have been disobedient, and disobedient people deserve only punishment. The wages of sin is death. To receive anything else is mercy. God has pitied our hopeless situation—under eternal, infinite wrath—and mercifully forgiven us.

On April 28, 1789, a mutiny was mounted on the HMS Bounty. Eventually, ten mutineers were brought to England for trial. Of the ten, six were found guilty. Three of the six were hanged; the other three were acquitted. Legally, they deserved hanging; instead, they received mercy. Can you imagine the emotional relief those three must have felt?

What kind of emotional relief should we feel? We, who have received so much mercy from God? The sinful woman in Luke 7:36-50 so felt God’s merciful forgiveness that it led to an act of spontaneity far beyond what she had originally planned. She planned to anoint Christ’s feet. She did not plan to cry. That was spontaneous. One act of spontaneity led to another as she then wiped his feet with her hair. She felt that she had been forgiven much and therefore she loved much (v. 47). Paul also never got over the mercy shown to him by Christ Jesus: I obtained mercy (1 Timothy 1:13).

Bob Jones Jr. was once asked why he refused the stage and seized the pulpit. He answered in the words of “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”: “Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.”

The only reason you or I can even think about doing God’s will is because of the mercy He has poured out on us through the death of his Son. Apart from His mercy, we would not even care about knowing His will, much less have the discernment to grasp what our Creator made us to do!

In Romans 12:1-2, Paul is about to issue a solemn admonition to the Roman believers—a kind of life-changing ultimatum that will put them on the pathway of discerning and doing God’s will. But all that he will enjoin them to do should be observed through the lens of God’s mercy: in view of mercy received, they are to journey down the pathway toward God’s will.

I urge you to take a moment to view your salvation through the lens of divine mercy. Give thought to the wrath you deserve. Draw near to the cross where God’s wrath was pacified. Thank the Lord Jesus, Who hung on that cross, for His sacrifice on your behalf. Discard any thought that somehow you deserved the salvation you have received. Review the gracious providences that led you to receive His mercy. Then, in light of such mercy, commit yourself afresh to seek and do whatever He wants you to do.