“The king shall do according to his [own] will.” Believers are not sufficiently aware of what a fearful thing it is to be doers of our own will. This was the characteristic of sin in Adam resulting in the fall of the world. This king, perhaps the loftiest and most influential of Adam’s sons, does nothing worse than that which is “according to his [own] will.” May we not receive moral profit for ourselves from this history? Before one can exercise righteous rule, he must know what it is to be subject.
May we be deeply impressed to realize that “the king,” the Antichrist, is first stamped as one doing his own will. This ought to test our hearts as to how far we are seeking to do our own wills! As believers, how far under any circumstances are we doing or allowing anything that we would not wish another soul in this world to see especially those nearest to us? Alas! one knows from experience and observation the difficulty and danger in these things from one’s own heart. Yet there is nothing more contrary to that Christ whom we have learned.
We are sanctified “unto [the] obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.” It is not only to the blessing in the sprinkling of the blood, but to the obedience of Jesus Christ to the same spirit and principle of obedience. (This is the meaning of the expression.) We are not like the Jews who were put under the law, and whose obedience had the character of obligation to do such and such things under penalty of death. We are already alive to God, conscious of the blessedness in which we stand, and awakened to see the beauty of the will of God, for His will it is which has saved and sanctified us. This is our calling and our practical work here below.
Christians have no other business, properly speaking, than to do the will of another. We have to do God’s will according to the character of obedience of Christ as sons delighting in the will of the Father. It does not matter what we may have to do. It may be one’s natural daily occupation. But do not make two individuals of yourself: one principle in your business and family and another for the church and worship of God. Never allow such a thought! We have Christ for everything and every day.
Christ is not a blessing for us merely when we meet together or are called to die. If we have Christ, we have Him forever, and from the first moment we are emancipated from doing our own will. This we learn is death, but it is gone now in Christ’s death. We are delivered, for we are alive and risen in Him. But what are we delivered for? To do the will of God. We are sanctified unto the obedience of Jesus Christ.
W. Kelly