Christianity Oasis Forum

[Netchaplain]

God “desires all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth” (1Tim 2:4), for He is “not desiring that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” (2Pet 3:9). Is God’s will being done in all? Yes! Is God’s desires being done by all? No. Thus His will and desire are being done only in the believer. Though God’s desire is that nobody perishes, His will is that those who “have done evil” are to inherit “the resurrection of damnation,” and those who “have done good” are to inherit “the resurrection of life” (John 5:29).

“It is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Phl 2:13). This is a work that every individual believer undergoes. Wherefore, if this “work” be not externally evident, it reveals the absence not only of the Father’s work within, but also that of the presence of the Spirit within, in “bearing witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God” (Rom 8:16).