WILLINGNESS

KEY VERSES:

¹⁴ …Jesus went up into the temple and taught. ¹⁵ And the Jews marveled, saying, “How does this Man know letters, having never studied?” ¹⁶ Jesus answered them and said, “My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me. ¹⁷ If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority. ¹⁸ He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is true, and no unrighteousness is in Him.”  (John 7:14-18 NKJV)

  Jesus taught the Doctrine of Yahweh. Although Jesus is both Man and God, His doctrine is not of men but God. At twelve years of age he taught adult leaders in the Word of God. Some theologians say that Joseph taught Jesus Scripture when they were exiled in Egypt. That is entirely wrong; that would be Joseph’s doctrine, but Jesus said “it is from God.” There are two doctrines: the Doctrine of God and the doctrine of men.
  For His servants that, “… the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed” (1 Tim 6:1; KJV). There are three key ideas in that passage: (1) Misappropriating another doctrine as God’s is blasphemous, (2) that the Doctrine of Christians must be the Doctrine of God, and (3) that the Doctrine of God is the Doctrine of His Name. What is Yahweh’s Name before the Messiah came? He was without Name; he said that “I AM WHAT I AM” (Exod 3:14). Yahweh was “Named” when he became Flesh. They called Him Jesus. (Mat 1:21). God is called “Jesus” and that Name means, “Yahweh Saves.” That is God’s Doctrine and Jesus the One who came to perform it.
  Elsewhere the Doctrine of God is referred to the “Doctrine of Christ” (2 John 1:9).  Yahweh, at Jesus’s birth was also called the “Christ” (Mat 1:16). But Jesus said that God’s Doctrine is not His own.
  Surely, He meant that the Doctrine of God is not the doctrine of men, because Jesus was both a man and God. Jesus spoke God’s Doctrine before He became incarnate (John 1:14). The Word that he spoke was the Words of God (John 1:1-2). Did Joseph teach Jesus the Doctrine of God? No, the Word of God was experienced by Jesus. They were Words that pre-incarnate Jesus said. The Doctrine of Jesus is the Word of God. God’s Doctrine is the Doctrine of the Messiah, called the “Christ.” When Jesus taught in the temple, it was not the doctrine of men, but the Doctrine that He spoke before He was born.
  Jesus didn't come to magnify Himself. He was humble Flesh. He spoke to magnify His Father in heaven. The Father sent Him, and to the Father, Jesus gave the glory. He didn’t come to glorify Himself but the Father. He came to serve His Father and mankind; not for what He experienced on Earth to be taught. The Doctrine of Christ was the Doctrine of God because it included only what God willed for Jesus and mankind.
   The crowd knew that Jesus never studied. They spoke truly. Joseph never taught Jesus nor anyone else. Jesus, from birth, knew the Doctrine of God because it was always His Doctrine without any confounding by the philosophy of men that Jesus would experience. In other words, the Doctrine of Christ was pure Doctrine because it was the uncontaminated truth of God. Men always contaminate the truth, but Jesus spoke unadulterated truth.
  Almost hidden within those passages is imperative Doctrine; and I never saw it until I read the New King James Version: “If anyone wills to do His will” (verse 17). Jesus never said, If anyone DOES His will, but “wills to do His will.” That phrase has significant implications; it is not what men do, but what men are willing to do. People fail at doing the Doctrine of God, and since God experienced the Flesh, He knew that it was hard to follow His own Doctrine. Paul elaborated on that about himself when he wrote, “…For what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I” (Rom 7:15). Jesus had said that in different words, “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak” (Mat 26:41).
  Thus, the human “will” is what must be given over to God. To be a Christian, the person’s will must be in harmony to God’s Will. What is God’s Will for His people? The Greatest Commandment; to love Him, and by the way, that is exemplified by loving others. The “Greatest Commandment” has a corollary, and that is to love others as you love yourself (Mat 26:36-40). Everyone inherently loves themselves. A measure of great love, is loving others that immensely. (I disagree with the entire concept of self-esteem because no ones hates themselves, according to Ephes 5:29).
  I repeat this often in my commentaries, but the “Ten Words” (Exod 20:1) are the “Ten Sayings of Jesus” and they are how to love God (1-4) and others (5-10). The Doctrine of Jesus is the Doctrine of God and the Ten Words are the Greatest Commandment operationalized. They are the metrics on how to love God and others. Can we DO them all without fail? Jesus understood that we could not, but it is not what we DO but what is inside; what people are willing to do even though they will fail on some Word.
  The problem with Calvinism is the practice of their doctrine; they need not WILL to do Jesus’s Ten Words. They see them as commands rather than God’s Will for them.  “Eternal security” makes it unnecessary to even consider the Law, which by the way, was written on stone for perpetuity. The Ten Words are essentially the Ten Parts of the Abrahamic Covenant, God’s eternal covenant with mankind.
  The Ten Words are not to be taken flippantly or with apathy. They are a list of God’s desires for His people. He knows that His people will fail in doing them, so He checks the hearts of His people. God judges based on what mankind, of His own freewill, are willing to do, even knowing in advance that they will fail. If they were merely commands, Christians would be required to do them, but if they are truly God’s people, and abide in His Doctrine, they will to do God’s Will.
  God could have merely killed those who flagrantly violated His will for them. Because He is a merciful God, He doesn’t look at what they did or didn’t do, but what they endeavored to do to please Him. I believe in commandment-keeping because I don’t consider them as “commandments;” they are merely a list of God’s Wills for His creatures. He created us for a purpose, and that was to love and honor Him. That short list are reasonable ways to love and honor God, are they not?  They are God’s expectations of His people:

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. (Rom 12:1)

  The Ten Words are God’s Ten Merciful Ways to present ourselves to God: (1) Honor the One who Created us, (2) Honor no others in that manner, (3) Do not take Jesus’s Purpose in vain, (4) Set one day aside to magnify God, (5) Honor those who created you in a like manner you would honor God, (6) Preserve life because lives of others are as precious as yours, (7) Show fidelity to the Groom by showing fidelity to your groom, (8) Respect what belongs to others in like manner you belong to God, (9) Speak only truth because that sets one free from the Devil, and (10) Do not desire what is not yours as God will provide for your needs. Are those not good things that righteous people would want to do? Are they not how you would want to be treated? Can you blame God for desiring that his “children” behave in a gracious manner?
  Note that great fathers do not discard or kill their children who miss his marks, but works with them and gives a multitude of chances for redemption. Well THE Great Father does it the same way. It not only pleases fathers when their children do right things, but it is good for the children as well. Honoring fathers promises the reward for a long life. I submit that all those precepts do! Just think of the danger in adultery, lying, stealing, and such. Do those things and you may die, and soon. Do those things with impunity and you may die spiritually in the end.
  The way to a long life on Earth is the willingness to do those precepts. They are the Doctrine of God. The way to an eternal life is also the willingness to please God; that He not have sorrow that He ever Created you, so that He desires to re-create you at the end of life.
  Are we following the right doctrine? We must compare continually, and ask ourselves, Is our will what God Wills for us? I submit that we all fall short, and that there is always room for improvement in our attitudes. That is how the heart is circumcised — allowing God to rid ourselves of the things which displease Him. Not aware of how you displease? Well, look at the list and examine your attitude toward God!

"Cheap grace" is an unwillingness to please God by doing the things that He would have us to do.

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