God's Will: Our Sanctification

"And he gave life to you... all of us lived in another time in the desires of our flesh and thoughts..." (Ephesians 2:1, 3).

It is wonderful to realize that when the Lord, by his Spirit, made his home in us, he completely changed our life. It is not that he now takes our old nature –which is and always will be sinful– and begins to reform it like someone who organizes a disordered room, but that he exchanges our life for his. Now in our spirit there is another Life; now in our spirit there is Someone: the Spirit himself, who bears witness to our spirit that we are children of God.

At the beginning of our holy career, it is natural for us to doubt whether our old life was really exchanged for his. Our doubts arise because we still perceive in our members the law of sin: that evil is in us. Yes, even after the Spirit has taken us as his dwelling place, the law of sin continues in our members. Where, then, does the change occur in us after we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord?

We thank God for his Word, always so perfect! In the Epistle to the Romans we find an answer to that question: "But I see another law in my members, which rebels against the law of my mind..." (Rom. 7:23). In other words, there is now a new law in our mind, which hates sin. The internal testimony of our conversion is not the absence of the law of sin in our members, but the presence of a new law in our mind.

All of us can say that, before the Lord gave us life, we lived in the desires of our flesh and thoughts. Our desire (conscious or unconscious) was to do the will of our flesh and our thoughts. We were slaves. But thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! Now his Spirit dwells in us and there is a new law. We no longer want to sin, but we want to know and obey the holy will of God. We no longer want to be and walk like fools, but we want to know what the will of the Lord is.

It is true that there are particular aspects of God's will for each of his children, but it is also true that there are general aspects of God's will that apply to all of his children. "For the will of God is your sanctification" (1 Thess. 4:3). These words, which were uttered to a group of young Christians in the Lord, are true and applicable to all of God's children.

All those who are truly born again can testify that although the law of sin is still in their members, there is a new law in them. In them there is a strong desire to know and fulfill the will of God. Knowing God's will and learning that only the life and power of Christ in us can perfectly accomplish that will is the work of a lifetime. And this long journey begins with the knowledge of a simple but fundamental aspect of God's will: our sanctification.

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