Walking in the Lord's Ways

15 MAY

Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the LORD are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the trangressors shall fall therein. Hosea 14:9

SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Numbers 13:25-33

The just find a plain and even way in the Word of the Lord; nothing stands in their path to obstruct their course. By daily advances they attain that to which the Lord calls them, even their celestial inheritance.

The just walk in the Lord's ways because the Lord leads them by His hand. Faith will be a hundred eyes and wings to them. Hope will sustain them, for they are armed with promises and encouragements. They have stimulants whenever the Lord earnestly exhorts them, and they have His warnings that are so terrible that they keep them awake. The faithful find the best ways in the Word of the Lord, and they follow them.

By contrast, the ungodly imagine all doubts, even the least, to be mountains. When they encounter anything intricate or obscure, they are confounded and say, "I would gladly seek to know the Holy Scripture, but I meet with so many difficulties." Hence, they regard a doubt as a mountain; nay, they purposely pretend doubts so they may have some excuse when they wish to evade the truth and turn aside from following the Lord.

The ungodly stumble in the ways of Jehovah. So we might read Hosea 14:9 in terms of the ungodly as: "Though the ungodly stumble, yet the just shall always walk in those ways of the Lord," meaning there is no reason why the ungodly should hold us back by their continual stumbling and by exclaiming that the Word of God is full of offense, for we shall find in it an even way. Let us then ascribe glory to God that He is just and that His ways are right.

John Calvin

FOR MEDITATION:

The Word of God, which clearly lays out the ways of God, has a remarkable power to divide and distinguish men from one another. One finds grace in its pages and loves to follow the Lord's paths. Another, reading the same pages, finds nothing but stumbling blocks and difficulties. Let us pray that God blesses us with His Spirit so that we find wonderful paths than stumbling blocks.

365 Days With Calvin

Selected and Edited by Joel R. Beeke

Obeying at All Cost

30 APRIL

Then they said to Jeremiah, The LORD be a true and faithful witness between us, if we do not even according to all things for the which the LORD thy God shall send thee to us. Whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God, to whom we send thee; that it may be well with us, when we obey the voice of the LORD our God. Jeremiah 42:5-6

SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Hebrews 11:1-10

Jeremiah acts as a kind of mediator here, addressing the people in God’s  name as though he has been sent from heaven. The people respond by saying they will do whatever God commands. They say even more emphatically: Whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God.

In saying this, the people do not suggest that God’s word is wrong or in any way unjust; rather, they use the word good in the sense of being joyful, and evil as being sad and grievous. They ask for nothing more than that God will declare to them what pleases to Him, to which they will be so submissive that they will refuse Him nothing, even if it is contrary to the flesh.

If this declaration proceeds from the heart, it is a testimony of true piety; for the minds of the godly ought so to be framed as to obey God without making any exception, whether He commands what is contrary to their purpose or leads them where they do not wish to go. By contrast, those who wish to make an agreement with God, saying He should require nothing but what is agreeable to them, show that they do not know what it means to serve God.

True obedience of faith requires that we renounce our desires and do not set up our own arguments and wishes against the Word of God. We do not object to what God requires of us, saying it is too hard or not quite agreeable to us. So whether it is good or evil, meaning agreeable to or contrary to the feelings of the flesh, we ought to embrace what God requires and commands. This is the foundational measure of true religion.

John Calvin

FOR MEDITATION: When God commands us to do something unpleasant, we often try to excuse ourselves from that particular duty, demonstrating the insincerity of our promise. Let us instead strive for the obedience of faith that Calvin talks about and renounce our selfish thoughts.

365 Days With Calvin

Selected and Edited by Joel R. Beeke

Are Exhortations Vain, Warnings Superfluous, Rebukes Absurd, if sinner possesses not the power to obey

4. Still it is insisted, that exhortations are vain, warnings superfluous, and rebukes absurd, if the sinner possesses not the power to obey. When similar objections were urged against Augustine, he was obliged to write his book, De Correptione et Gratia, where he has fully disposed of them. The substance of his answer to his opponents is this: "O man, learn from the precept what you ought to do; learn from correction, that it is your own fault you have not the power; and learn in prayer, whence it is that you may receive the power." Very similar is the argument of his book, De Spiritu et Litera, in which he shows that God does not measure the precepts of His aw by human strength, but, after ordering what is right, bestows on His elect the power of fulfilling it. The subject, indeed, does not require a long discussion. For we are not singular in our doctrine, but have Christ and all His apostles with us. Let our opponents, then, consider how they are to come off victorious in a contest which they wage with such antagonists. Christ declares, "without Me ye can do nothing" (John xv. 5). Does He less censure and chastise those who, without Him, did wickedly? Does He the less exhort every man to be intent on good works? How severely does Paul inveigh against the Corinthians for want of charity (1 Cor. iii. 3); and yet, at the same time, he prays that charity may be given them by the Lord. In the Epistle to the Romans, he declares that "it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy" (Rom. ix. 16). Still he ceases not to warn, exhort, and rebuke them. Why then do they not expostulate with God for making sport with men, by demanding of them things which He alone can give, and chastising them for faults committed through want of His grace?  Why do they not admonish Paul to spare those who have it not in their power to will or to run, unless the mercy of God, which has forsaken them, precede? As if the doctrine were not founded on the strongest reason - reason which no serious inquirer can fail to perceive. The extent to which doctrine, and exhortation, and rebuke, are in themselves able to change the mind, is indicated by Paul when he says, "Neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase" (1 Cor. iii. 7). In like manner, we see that Moses delivers the precepts of the Law under a heavy sanction, and that the prophets strongly urge and threaten transgressors, though they at the same time confess, that men are wise only when an understanding heart is given them; that is is the proper work of God to circumcise the heart, and to change it from stone into flesh; to write His law on their inward parts; in short, to renew souls so as give efficacy to doctrine.

5. What purpose, then, is served by exhortations? It is this: As the wicked, with obstinate heart, despise them, they will be a testimony against them when they stand at the judgment-seat of God; nay, they even now strike and lash their consciences. For, however they may petulantly deride, they cannot disapprove them. But what, you will ask, can a miserable mortal do, when softness of heart, which is necessary to obedience, is denied him? I ask, in reply, Why have recourse to evasion, since hardness of heart cannot be imputed to any but the sinner himself? The ungodly, though they would gladly evade the divine admonitions, are forced, whether they will or not, to feel their power. But their chief use is to be seen in the case of believers, in whom the Lord, while He always acts by His Spirit, also omits not the instrumentality of His word, but employs it, and not without effect. Let this, then, be a standing truth, that the whole strength of the godly consists in the grace of God, according to the words of the prophet, "I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you: and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes" (Ezek. x. 19, 20). But it will be asked, why are they now admonished of their duty, and not rather left to the guidance of the Spirit? Why are they urged with exhortations when they cannot hasten any faster than the Spirit impels them? and why are they chastised, if at any time they go astray, seeing that this is caused by the necessary infirmity of the flesh? "O, man! who art thou that repliest against God?" If, in order to prepare us for the grace which enables us to obey exhortation, God sees meet to employ exhortation, what is there in such an arrangement for you to carp and scoff at? Had exhortations and reprimands no other profit with the godly than to convince them of sin, they could not be deemed altogether useless. Now, when, by the Spirit of God acting within, they have the effect of inflaming their desire of good, of arousing them from lethargy, of destroying the pleasure and honeyed sweetness of sin, making it hateful and loathsome, who will presume to cavil at them as superfluous?
Should any one wish a clearer reply, let him take the following: - God works in His elect in two ways: inwardly, by His Spirit; outwardly, by His Word. By His Spirit illuminating their minds, and training their hearts to the practice of righteousness, He makes them new creatures, while, by His Word, He stimulates them to long and seek for this renovation. In both, He exerts the might of His hand in proportion to the measure  in which He dispenses them. The Word, when addressed to the reprobate, though not effectual for their amendments, has another use. It urges their consciences now, and will render them more inexcusable on the day of judgment. Thus, our Saviour, while declaring that none can come to Him but those whom the Father draws, and that the elect come after they have heard and learned of the Father (John vi. 44, 45), does not lay aside the office of teacher, but carefully invites those who must be taught inwardly by the Spirit before they can make any profit. The reprobate, again, are admonished by Paul, that the doctrine is not in vain; because, while it is in them as savour of death unto death, it is still a sweet savour unto God (2 Cor. ii. 16).

John Calvin
Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2.5.4-5

Disciplined to Obedience

26 MARCH

Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept Thy word. Psalm 119:67

SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Hebrews 12:5-11

Experience demonstrates that when God deals gently with us, we often break into rebellion. Since even a prophet of God who strays needs to be corrected by forcible means, discipline is assuredly needful for us when we rebel.

The first step in obedience is the mortification of the flesh, which does not come naturally to people. So, not surprisingly, God brings us to a resistant, even when it seems to be tamed, it is no wonder to find God repeatedly subjecting us anew to the rod.

This is done in different ways. He humbles some by poverty, some by shame, some by disease, some by domestic distress, and some by hard and painful labors. He applies the appropriate remedy to the diversity of vices to which we are prone. It is now obvious how profitable is the truth of David's confession. The prophet speaks of himself even as Jeremiah (31:8) says of himself that he was "as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke," setting before us an image of the rebellion that is natural to us all. 

We are very ungrateful indeed if the fruit that we reap from chastisements does not assuage or mitigate their bitterness. So long as we are rebellious against God, we are in a state of the deepest wretchedness. The means He chooses to bend and tame us to obedience is His chastisements.

The prophet teaches us by His own example that God gives evidence of His willingness that we should become His disciples by the pains he takes to subdue our hardness. We should then at least strive to become gentle, and, laying aside all stubbornness, willingly bear the yoke that He imposes upon us.

John Calvin

FOR MEDITATION: If the afflictions we experience have a blessed end - our sanctification (Heb. 12:11) - shouldn't we learn to become thankful for them? Rather than simply enduring them with a stiff upper lip, we should be praising God that He did not leave us to ourselves. Are you facing afflictions today? If so, how can you shift your perception of them to offer thanks to the Lord for them?

365 Days With Calvin

Selected and Edited by Joel R. Beeke

Delighting in His Commands

20 MARCH

Praise ye the LORD. Blessed is the man that feareth the LORD, that delighteth greatly in His commandments. Psalm 112:1

SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: James 2:14-26

In the second clause of the verse, the prophet specifies that the fear of God includes delighting greatly in His commandments. The addition of this explanatory clause is quite apparent, for while people boldly condemn the law of God, yet it is also common for them to pretend that they fear God. The prophet refutes such impiety when He acknowledges that no one is a true worshiper of God who does not also endeavor to keep God's law. The prophet makes a significant distinction between a willing and prompt effort to keep the law, and one that merely consists of servile and constrained obedience.

We must, therefore, cheerfully embrace the law of God in such a manner that our love of it, with all its sweetness, may overcome all allurements of the flesh. Mere attention to the law is fruitless. A person cannot be regarded as a genuine observer of the law unless he truly delights in the law of God and renders obedience that is agreeable to God.

In considering the passage at large, the prophet affirms that the worshipers of God who delight in His commandments are blessed, thus guarding us against the very dangerous deception that the ungodly practice upon themselves in imagining that they can reap a sort of happiness from doing evil.

John Calvin

FOR MEDITATION: Calvin offers a sobering test of our fear of God here: do we truly delight in obeying God's commands or do we only submit out of mere obligation or duty? Do you esteem His smiles and frowns to be of greater value than the smiles and frowns of people? Do you welcome any means He may employ to urge us on to obedience?

365 Days With Calvin

Selected and Edited by Joel R. Beeke

The Erosion of Trust

1 MARCH

Therefore the LORD heard this, and was wroth: so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel; because they believed not in God, and trusted not in His salvation. Psalm 78: 21-22

SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: John 3:14-21

To remove all thought that divine wrath was unduly severe, the enormity of the guilt of the Israelites is described by the psalmist: They believed not in God, and trusted not in His salvation. Indisputably, promises were made to Israelites which they should have assented to. However, extreme infatuation which carried them away from God prevented them from yielding to those promises.

Trusting in the salvation of God means leaning upon His fatherly providence and regarding Him as sufficient to supply all our needs. From this we learn how hateful unbelief is in the sight of God. We learn that the true nature of faith is and what its fruits are. True faith is when men quietly submit themselves to God, being persuaded that their salvation is singularly precious in His sight. It is being fully assured that God will give them whatever they need. We are led to surrender ourselves to Him to be governed according to His good pleasure.

Faith is the root of true piety. It teaches us to hope for and to desire every blessing from God. It also persuades us to be obedient to Him, even while those who distrust Him are murmuring and rebelling against Him.

Furthermore, the prophet teaches that pretences to faith, which are made by those who do not hope for salvation from God, rest upon false grounds. When we believe in God, the hope of salvation is speedily produced in minds. This hope renders to Him the praise of every blessing.

John Calvin

FOR MEDITATION: Trusting God’s salvation is the essence of spiritual life. Unbelief is pledging allegiance to Satan. How can we learn to exercise faith more consistently and to hate unbelief more profoundly?

365 Days With Calvin

Selected end Edited by Joel R. Beeke

Wanting More

16 January

 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's. Exodus 20:17

 SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Romans 7:7-25

Though it was God's design to arouse men to sincerely obey the entire law, yet their hypocrisy and indifference were so great that it was necessary to stimulate them more sharply and to press them more closely, lest they seek subterfuge under pretence of the obscurity of the doctrine. For if men had only heard, "Thou shalt not kill, nor commit adultery, nor steal," they might have supposed their duty was fully performed by mere outward observance of the law. It was necessary, then, that God should give a separate admonition to men so that they not only abstained from evil-doing but also obeyed what was previously commanded with the sincere affection of the heart.

Paul gathers from this commandment that the whole law is spiritual (Rom. 7:4, 14). He explains that God, by His condemnation of lust, sufficiently showed that He not only imposed obedience on our hands and feet but also put restraint upon our minds, lest they desire to do what is lawful.

Paul also confesses that once he slept in easy self-deceit but then was awakened by this single word of the law; for when he was considered blameless in the eyes of men, he was persuaded that he was righteous before God. He was once puffed up with confidence in his righteousness and expected salvation by his works, but, when he perceived the true meaning of the commandment Thou shalt not covet, he realized that the law was raised as it were to life, and Paul himself died because he was convinced he was a transgressor and saw the curse hanging above him.

John Calvin 

FOR MEDITATION: God demands conformity to his law in both our external actions and our internal thoughts. Many of us are careful to maintain an outwardly upright life, but we are just as diligent to cultivate holiness in our thoughts? Since we are unable to do that on our own, are we not in desperate need of a Savior?

365 Days With Calvin

Selected and Edited by Joel R. Beeke

Committing Our Way To God

10 January

And Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field unto his flock. Genesis 31:4.

SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Psalm 37:1-7

Jacob sends for his wives so he can explain his intention to leave their father. He also wishes to persuade them to accompany him in his flight. It is his duty as a good husband to take them away with him; therefore, it is necessary to inform them about his plan.

Jacob is not blind to the many dangers of the journey. It will be difficult to take women who have never left their father's house on a long journey to a remote region. Moreover, there is reason to fear that they, in seeking protection for themselves, might betray their husband to his enemies. 

Jacob acts with great care in choosing to expose himself to danger rather than to fail in his duty as a good husband and master of his family. If his wives refuse to accompany him, the call of God will compel Jacob to leave on his own. In addition, his wives, who have offer torn the house apart with fighting, now freely consent to go with Jacob into exile. So the Lord allows us to succeed, when we in good faith discharge our duty and shun nothing that He commands. 

In seeing how Jacob calls his wives to him into the field, we infer what an anxious life he led. Certainly it would be more convenient for him to stay home with his wives. He is already advanced in age and worn down with many toils, so he has great need of their service. Yet he is satisfied with a cottage in which we might watch over his flock and lives apart from them.

If there is a particle of equity in Laban and his sons, they will find no cause of envying for Jacob in this situation.

FOR MEDITATION: How many times have we abandoned our duties because we thought that success could only come through disobedience? Perhaps you have been asked to leave comfortable circumstances to follow God's leading. How does God care for us when we follow Him? 

John Calvin

365 Days with Calvin

Selected and Edited by Joel R. Beeke

Transformation From Within

 

Practice and doctrine are inseparably connected. They cannot be divorced from each other. This is indicated in what the apostle writes in verse 1 of Romans 12: "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." The meaning is that we have understood these mercies of God of which the apostle has been speaking in the preceding chapters of Romans, and by faith we have received them. The implication is that if this is not the case- if he cannot address us as possessors of the mercies of God- he cannot even begin his practical admonition.

The mercies of God are a prerequisite for a Christian life from a twofold point of view. First, they are the ground, or possibility, for a true Christian life. Second, they are at the same time the ground of the obligation to walk in these mercies of God. If we are not in principle delivered from sin, if we are not children of God, it is impossible to hear and do the Word of God, as we have it in Romans 12-16. Some people always call for a practical sermon, but a practical sermon is not less difficult than a doctrinal sermon. While a doctrinal sermon brings to us the mercies of God, a practical sermon comes to us with the admonition, "Do!" In what follows in Romans, we must not expect something easy, but we must prepare ourselves for something to which we may have many objections. Many times when we are inclined to respond to the Word, doing it is impossible. Therefore, the apostle here addresses the church by the mercies of God. It is only by the mercies of God that we do, and can do, what the Word admonishes us to do.

The Meaning

In order to be understood clearly, the apostle first puts this admonition in a negative form, and then in a positive form. The negative form of the admonition is, "Be not conformed to this world." The word world in the original literally means "age." It has come to mean the world from the viewpoint of the development of the world in time. The world has had different ages or times or periods, the world fills itself with different ideas and things. For example, we speak of our present age as the machine age. The text admonishes us not to be conformed to the world as this world develops in the particular age in which the church lives.

We must not copy the world in our walk and conversation. This is a literal translation of the original Greek. One beautiful word in the original declares that the world of our own day has forms. The world has certain schemes. The world lives from the spiritual, ethical principle of sin. The deepest principle from which the world lives is enmity against God. It never lives from any other principle. There is nothing else in the world. Even when the world speaks piously, telling us, for example, that democracy is rooted in religion, the world actually hates God. There is no difference between a pious wickedness and downright wickedness. From this principle of enmity against God, the world creates forms. It creates a certain scheme of life. In its outward walk the world is characterized by this deepest principle of sin. Living from the principle of enmity against God, the world practices a form of life consisting of sinful works, sinful speech, sinful amusements, sinful pleasures, and sinful treasures. This is true of the world in every relation. The form of the home becomes carnal. You can see it before your very eyes. Why is the relation between man and wife being corrupted? It is corrupted in divorce. It is corrupted in the murder of the seed of children that is called birth control. You see it in the pleasures of the world: the dance, the movies, the theaters. You can see the world's sinful form of life in its attitude against all authority. You see it in the relation of employer and employee. Negatively, the admonition is this: let not your life be characterized by copying the form of this world. Do not copy his world. Be not conformed to this world.

Does anyone object that an admonition of this kind is not necessary? The fact is that no admonition is more urgent than this one. There is no admonition more timely. This is because there is oh so much world in the Christian. And there is oh such a small beginning of the new life. We must take this seriously. The Christian is almost all world and only a little Christian. It is easy to brag about a life to the glory of God and a life of sanctification as if we were almost in heaven, but in truth there is much world, much flesh, to the Christian. Our body is all world. And our soul, so intimately connected with our body, is also all world, apart from the new principle of the life of Christ instilled into the soul by the Holy Spirit. Besides, the Christian is surrounded by the forms of the world. When we open our eyes, we see nothing but the world. We see nothing of the kingdom of God. If we go the way of least resistance, therefore, and don't fight, we will do what the apostle says we must not do. We will always copy the world. We will copy the world in our dress, in our face, in our speech, in our pleasures, in everything.

We may compare life in the world to people drifting on a strong current in a rowboat. They are drifting just above the falls. On this current are three kinds of people. There are people who help the current along. They row with the current, laughing, singing, and having a good time. There are also people who row desperately upstream. And there are people who let the oars rest and drift downstream. The Word of God says to them, "Don't drift downstream! Row against them the stream!" This is the text. Are you going downstream? Don't copy the world! Don't be conformed in your life and walk to the forms of the world! If you do conform your life to this world's forms, you go to destruction.

Instead, be transformed! This is the opposite of copying the world. To be transformed is to be independent of forms. This is the meaning of the word in the original. To be transformed means that we must be changed, but in the changing we are independent of any forms. We row upstream. This is the admonition. This is practical.

The Possibility

How is it possible to row upstream against the current that is in the world? How is it possible in view of the fact that all that is in the world is inclined to copy the forms of this world? The apostle says that we have a motor. We have a motor power so that we can go against the stream. This motor power is the renewing of the mind. If this is not so, it is hopeless. But I beseech you by the mercies of God revealed in Christ Jesus- the mercies of transformation, forgiveness of sins, justification, and sanctification- be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

The mind in Scripture, and especially in the epistle to the Romans, is what we may call the highest faculty of man's spiritual existence. The highest, the noblest part of man's soul is the mind that makes it possible for man to know God and to determine his own relation to God, consciously and willingly. In this respect, it is man's mind that distinguishes him from other creatures. It is the mind that distinguishes him from the animal. The animal has many characteristics, but it has no mind.

The mind of man is by nature corrupt. It is darkened. Man has not lost his mind. It is not that he has no knowledge of God. But man's mind is darkened in a spiritual, moral sense, so that he cannot see God as one who is to be desired above all. This is who God is: the one to be desired above all. God is good, benevolent, merciful, and the fountain of all goodness, but the natural mind is so darkened that man looks upon God as the cause of all his evil. This is literally expressed by a certain society in Russia that calls itself the "Society of the Godless." They teach that God is the source of all the evil that befalls man. Therefore, they persecute the Christians. But this is only the expression of the darkened mind.

The apostle speaks of the renewing of the mind. This refers to God's calling of us. It refers to our regeneration, to the irresistible calling of God. The result is that we seek Him. The mind of the Christian has been renewed, but the renewing of his mind is but a renewing in principle. There is still the old man in the Christian. He has a renewed mind in principle, but he also has much of the world in him. To the Christian with a renewed mind, the apostle says, "Turn around! Let your new mind determine what should be your walk! Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind."

Does someone respond, "How can I do this?" First let me ask what you said to the exhortation. Did you say, "Yes, but . . ."? There is no "but." It may be that you said, "Yes, but then I must practically go out of the world." My answer is, go out of the world then. Perhaps, you said, "Then I will lose my name, my position." My answer is, lose your name, then. Or you said, "They will laugh at me." I answer, let them laugh. Did you say, "Then will I provoke the wrath of the world to the extent that I may have to die?" My answer is, die then. There is no other biblical answer. "Whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for My sake shall find it" [Matt. 16:25]. But for God's sake, for the sake of His mercy, don't copy the world!

Did you say, "I have in my heart the desire to do that, but how can I? How can I obey this admonition?" There are only two ways by which you can do it. You can do it by using your Bible. If you want to row upstream, you can do so only by clinging to your Bible, studying your Bible! Then you will not be conformed to this world. The other means is prayer. You must be instant in prayer. Are we? Is it not true, as we are sliding back, that we have not been a praying people? Oh, we are a religious people. But I speak of a consciousness of wanting to do this Word of God that brings us to our knees in prayer. 

The Result

The result will be that we "prove what is that good, and acceptable. and perfect, will of God." God's will here is God's will concerning you and me. His will is good in that it is salutary. Sin is never good for us. Only the will of God is good for us. The will of God is also acceptable. It is well pleasing; that is, it is pleasing to Him that we do His will. It is also perfect, leading to perfection. It has a good end. 

But if we do not go upstream, we do not prove that good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. Proving the will of God is tasting or experiencing that the will of God is good. When we do the will of God, we experience that we lack nothing. To prove, to taste, to experience, what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God is a blessedness that if we know it once, even in part, we will not exchange it for all the world.

Therefore, I beseech you, by the mercies of God that have been bestowed on you, be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.

Herman Hoeksema 

Righteous By Faith Alone, pp. 576-582

http://rfpa.org/collections/books-by-herman-hoeksema/products/righteous-by-faith-alone-ebook
http://rfpa.org/collections/books-by-herman-hoeksema/products/righteous-by-faith-alone