1 Timothy 2:3-4 “For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, (4) who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
We have seen that God’s will in the earth has two facets to it, i.e. His perfect will and His permissible will. The question is then asked as to whether the salvation of mankind falls within God’s perfect or His permissible will for men. And so in this section we will answer that question by looking at what scripture has to say on the subject. God is good, and in fact our Lord Jesus taught us that God is the only one who is good (Luke 18:19). And so it is precisely because God is good that it is not His will that anyone should perish. In the above quoted passage of scripture the Holy Spirit confirms that truth to us by revealing to us that it is the express will of God that all men should be saved and that none should perish. In other words it is God’s perfect will that all men should be saved.
John 3:16-17 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (17) For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”
God cannot lie, and so when He says that it is His desire that all men should be saved, we can interpret other scriptures in the light of that truth. When our Lord Jesus was on the earth He reinforced the truth that God’s desire is that all men should be saved, for in the passage of scripture quoted above Jesus taught us that God gave His Son for the whole world, not just for a select few. So why did God give His Son for the whole world? Clearly God did that because it is His perfect will that all men should be saved.
Ezekiel 33:11 “Say to them: 'As I live,' says the Lord God, 'I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die O house of Israel?”
In the above quoted passage of scripture God makes it very clear to us that it is not His desire that even the wicked should perish, for He appeals to them to turn from their wicked ways so that they may live and not perish. Clearly if God does not desire that the wicked should perish, then He certainly doesn’t desire that anyone should perish. And so this passage reinforces the truth to us that it is the perfect will of God the Father that all should be saved and that none should perish. Sadly however not all men are saved and in fact most perish. And so because most men perish, we learn a very clear truth from these passages of scripture, which is that God’s perfect will is not done in the lives of most men. Nevertheless even though God’s perfect will is not done in the lives of most men, from what we have seen in the above quoted passages of scripture, the salvation of all men remains His perfect will for all mankind.
Michael E.B. Maher
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