Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.
Matthew 6:10

The words “God’s will” do not always refer to the exact same thing. There are various adjectives linked to God’s will that determine what we are talking about. In this post I will focus first on just two: God’s decretive will and God’s preceptive will.

God’s decretive will refers to God’s sovereign determination of what will be or take place. Everything God decrees will happen and nothing or no one can change or overrule it from happening. In this sense God’s will is always done.

God’s preceptive will refers to what God commands. That He commands it means it is God’s will, but sinful human beings can, and often do, disobey God’s commands. In this sense God’s will is not always done.

In the context of the Lord’s prayer, when we pray as Jesus taught us to pray, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” we are (1) acknowledging that God’s decretive will is always done, and (2) asking God to work in the hearts and affairs of human beings to obey God’s preceptive will. Both are legitimate and good prayers.

Now for a bit more detail on God’s will. God’s decretive will may be accomplished either actively or passively. He may actively cause His will to be done. After all, He is God! Or, He may use secondary causes to passively accomplish His will—including allowing people’s sinful actions to end up accomplishing His will. (Judas’ betrayal of Jesus is a prime example of this.)

Rest assured, when God accomplishes His will by using even people’s sin (as in the case of Judas), those sins are solely on the persons who sinned! God does not cause, or even tempt people to sin (James 1:13-15). He merely allows them to act according to their own sinful desires. God is not the author of sin, nor is He ever responsible for sin. He cannot be because He is intrinsically holy and altogether incapable of sinning.