Submission to the Will of God

John 4:31-34 The great keynote of Jesus' life is submission to the will of God. His uniqueness lies in the very fact that He was the only person who ever was or who ever will be perfectly obedient to God's will. It can be truly said that Jesus is the only person in all the world who never did what He liked but always what His Father liked.

He was God-sent. Again and again, the fourth gospel speaks of Jesus being "sent" by God. There are two Greek words used in the fourth gospel for this sending. There is "apostellein", which is used seventeen times, and "pempein", which is used twenty-seven times. That is to say, no fewer than forty-four times the fourth gospel speaks, or shows us Jesus speaking, about His being sent by God.

Then once Jesus had come, again and again He spoke of the work that was given Him to do. In John 5:36 He speaks of the works which His Father has given Him to do. In 17:4 His only claim is that He has finished the work His Father gave Him to do. When He speaks of taking up and laying down His life, of living and of dying, He says, "I have received this command from My Father" (10:18). He speaks continually, as He speaks here, of the will of God. "I have come down from heaven," He says, "not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent Me." (6:38). "I always do," He says, "what is pleasing to Him" (8:29). In 14:23 He lays it down, out of His personal experience and on His personal example, that the only proof of love lies in the keeping of the commandments of the one a person claims to love. This obedience of Jesus was not, as it is with us, a spasmodic thing. It was the very essence and being, the mainspring and the core, the dynamic and the moving power of His life.

It is His great desire that we should be as He was. To do the will of God is the only way to peace. There can be no peace when we are at variance with the King of the universe. (Daily Devotions)