Doing the Father’s Will

In Ephesians 1:5, Paul said of all believers that God has “predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself.” He further described God’s purpose for His children in Romans 8:29:

“For whom He [God] foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He [Jesus] might be the firstborn among many brethren.”

Thus, Jesus is the pattern Son, the One to whom we must all conform in coming to maturity. He Himself is the new and living way by which we go on to perfection, enter the holiest, and draw near to God (see Hebrews 6:1; 10:19–22). The way that led Jesus to perfection is the same way that each of us must follow.

The path to maturity was no easier for Jesus than it is for us. He “was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). In His human nature, Jesus experienced every form of temptation we experience, and yet He never sinned. It is no sin to be tempted! Sin comes only when we yield to temptation.

What was it that enabled Jesus, in spite of His true humanity, to overcome all temptation? His success lay in His single-hearted, unchanging motivation to do the Father’s will. This fact was prophetically foreshown by David in Psalm 40:7–8:

“Then I said, ‘Behold, I come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to do Your will, O my God.’”

During His earthly ministry, Jesus repeatedly disclosed this underlying motive for all He did. He could never know final satisfaction until He had finished every task His Father had assigned. Near Jacob’s well, He told His disciples:

“My food [that which upholds and strengthens Me] is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work” (John 4:34)

See also John 5:30; 6:38.