Six Billion Wills

This article was guest authored by: 

As long as man remained obedient to the will of God, his Maker, all was well with him. His life was perfectly balanced because it was centered in God.

As soon as he listened to Satan, however, and set his will against God’s, all began to go wrong. His life was now off center and out of balance. It was no longer subject to one central Will. Alienated from God, man now reaped the fruits of his rebellion, not only in his banishment from Paradise but in the self-will of his offspring.

Of the first two children born into the world, one bludgeoned the other to death and this was but the beginning. Whereas God had originally created man in His own “image” and “likeness” (Gen. 1:26,27) we read later that Adam begat Seth “in HIS Own likeness, after HIS image” (Gen.5:3).

And so, parents down through the ages have begotten children like themselves, with fallen natures and wills of their own, until today we have some six billion wills (as of this writing) operating in the world instead of the one central will of God.

This does not mean, however, that God has abdicated, or that the future of the world is now subject to the wills of six billion fallen creatures, but at least we get a glimpse of why the world is in the mess it is.

Nor was God forced to formulate new plans because of the fall of man. Far from it, for despite man’s rebellion — even through it — God has been carrying out His plan and every true believer rejoices that God “worketh all things after the counsel of His own will” (Eph.1:11).

While He does not rule directly in the affairs of men, He very definitely overrules, and as a result, “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose” (Rom.8:28).