I have no doubt that the drive to know and do God's will comes from a pious desire to obey God and enjoy the blessings of a life lived in close fellowship with him. But despite these good intentions, one cannot deny that this quest is full of anxiety, no matter how much one tries to "Let go and let God." There is anxiety associated with trying to figure out God's hidden will, the anxiety of wondering whether this will, once intuited, is in fact correct, and the anxiety of imagining what evil awaits the wayward saints who wander outside God's will. That piety and anxiety should go hand in hand may seem strange, but not if one thinks of the piety of Shakespeare's Caesar, who bids his priests to make a sacrifice to determine the likelihood of success, and then spends the better part of his morning debating the significance of the heartless beast, and other portents. Seeking God's will-or the will of the gods-is indeed a type of piety, but it is a piety of pagan origins, promising future comforts pending our own seeking and doing.
The Heidelberg Catechism, however, holds forth true Christian comfort not as something we attain, but as something we possess in Christ. This comfort is not in doubt-perfect love casts out fear-but is rather the result of knowing for certain three gospel truths: how great our sin and misery is, how we have been delivered from sin and misery, and how we are to thank God for this deliverance. In providing true Christian comfort, each of these truths oppose the anxiety-ridden search for God's hidden will.
The catechism begins with the magnitude of our sin and misery. You would be hard-pressed today to find a Christian who daily confesses his "natural tendency to hate God and neighbor," as the catechism understands our bondage to sin. Yet this is the depth and seriousness of our sin, and the daily confession of this fact transforms how we think about God's will. Forget about whether God would have Suzy attend East Tulsa Community College or Northwest Nebraska Christian Technical Institute. The greatest obstacle to her walk with Jesus is this nagging tendency she has to hate him and her neighbors. This tendency remains even after her new birth in Christ, though surely continuing to pass away until she attains perfection in the resurrection. Suzy can never know for sure whether she has made the correct choice about college; should she interpret success in East Tulsa as sinful self-indulgence or divine blessing? Yet she can be absolutely certain that each of her waking moments is characterized by grievous sin. According to God's righteous judgment, this sin will not go unpunished, either in this world or the next. Now that's a source of anxiety.
Which naturally raises the question of deliverance. The gospel assures us that the entirety of the punishment we deserve has fallen upon a substitute, our Lord Jesus Christ. He has set us completely free and made us right with God. The blessing of fellowship with God does not, therefore, depend upon our knowing and doing his hidden will; it is not the result of walking daily in his paths. Rather, it is something Christ by his Holy Spirit grants us through faith when we hear the gospel, something of which we have a sure conviction and deep-rooted assurance. Remarkably, this blessing is our possession while we are yet wicked sinners, long before we could ever hope to properly discern God's will for our lives, much less do it. Furthermore, this blessing includes the Good Shepherd's promise to watch over us and protect us from wolves, it includes the promise that not a hair can fall from our heads without our heavenly Father's will, and it includes the promise that all things must work together for our salvation-even a foolish decision to attend Northwest Nebraska Christian Technical Institute.
The third gospel truth reminds us that seeking and doing the revealed will of God is not unimportant, but it is properly understood as a grateful response to our deliverance. Obedience is no route to the blessings of fellowship with him. Rather, obedience itself is a blessing of our fellowship and union with Christ, and a result of the principle of new life which his Spirit has implanted in us. Further, gratitude alone is not a source of true Christian comfort; the desire to please God is no guarantee of Godly behavior. Sinners ever remain in need of God's revealed will to channel our desire to please him.
The catechism's discussion of gratitude highlights the opposition between Christian and pagan understandings of God's will, or gods' will. God's will revealed in his Law both shapes the beginning of our sanctification and produces in us an ever-increasing awareness of our own sinfulness. The mature Christian is both more holy and more aware of his sin, with the result that he looks more steadfastly upon Christ as his sole hope of salvation. In other words, God's will provides Christian comfort by reminding the Christian of his sin and misery and how Christ has delivered him from it, not by shaping his life decisions.
In contrast, seeking guidance from God's hidden will holds forth future pleasures only as a result of walking obediently in the Lord's paths. It doesn't turn our gaze to Christ, but rather leads to constantly examine our motivations and decisions in the light of current events. Anxiety necessarily follows from such a quest, and any comfort one may attain by thinking themselves to be in God's will is sure to be false and fading. By holding forth such false comfort, this way of Christian living proves itself to be worse than a foolish distraction, for it undermines the true Christian comfort we have in our Lord Jesus Christ.
