The "Musts" Of God's Will
By H. David Edwards
How do you react when someone says that you must do something? Does it rankle a bit? For many the
musts of life are irksome. They chafe because there is resentment and conflict between the external musts and the internal
desire. Remember how it was when you were a child? If somebody said, “You must...” you were probably already set
to oppose whatever came next, whether it was “eat your spinach,” or “put away your toys,” or “go
to bed.” And all too often those infantile reactions persist into adulthood so that as soon as somebody says “you
must,” we're ready to say, “Who do you think you're talking to? Nobody speaks to me that way! Nobody says, 'you
must' to me and gets away with it!”
Yes, for most of us our reaction to a must is negative. It's self-assertive and even destructive.
It breeds discord and antagonism. We don't like that word - “You must!” But there was nothing like that in our
Lord's response to it. There is no indication anywhere in the Scriptures that Jesus chafed about His Father's imperatives;
no indication that He ever needed to repent or ask for forgiveness. You see, for Him there was only one source and origin
of must or necessity. It was the Father. And because He was able to say, “I and the Father are one,” there was
no negative reaction expressed to the musts of His life. That is the difference between the must of restraint and the must
of constraint. Restraint is external and imposed. Constraint is internal and is offered. We have to know the discipline of
restraint before we develop the submission of constraint. Constraint was the hallmark of our Lord's earthly life.
John records that early in His ministry Jesus said, “Even as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must also the Son of Man be lifted up.” Contrary to those who conjecture that Jesus began
with optimism, expecting a revolution, and ended with pessimism, recognizing after some time that His life would end with
crucifixion, this passage indicates that our Lord knew that the path of His life led to the cross from the beginning. This
is reinforced in John's Gospel with his account of Jesus' cleansing of the temple at the beginning of His ministry. At that
time John records Jesus' statement to those who questioned His authority to do this thing, “Destroy this temple and
in three days I will raise it up.” And the evangelist said, “This spake He of His body.” He “must
be lifted up,” from the outset He knew what lay ahead, but He submitted to the Father's plan by constraint.
Among the other “musts” in our Lord's life was John the Baptist's comment, “He
must increase,” (I immediately recall the prophet's prediction, “Of the increase of His government there shall
be no end.”) Jesus said, “I must work the works of Him that sent me.” He also said, “Other sheep I
have that are not of this fold. Them also I must bring.” And then, speaking of the gloomy disciples John wrote, “As
yet they knew not the Scriptures that He must rise from the dead.”
Jesus never pitted Himself against the musts in His life. Caiaphas would plot against Him, Pilate
would try Him, Judas would betray Him, Peter would deny Him, Saducees would mock Him. But Jesus never once pitted Himself
against them.
For us there is often a difference between the must of desire and the must of design. Or put another
way, we have chosen musts and essential musts. “I must breathe,” is a statement of necessity. “I must have
pizza,” is a statement of choice. One of the secrets of Jesus' peace was that He did not choose the musts of His life,
He allowed the Father to choose them for Him. Having seen the Father's choice, He endorsed the Father's choice so that the
musts in His life were never an irritant. He embraced them. There is a difference between recognizing that you must drive
at no more than 55 miles per hour and recognizing that you must provide gasoline for your car. What if we viewed both of these
musts from the same perspective? Do you ever find the 55 mile-per-hour speed limit an irritant? Does the fact that you must
have gasoline in your car seem to be as much of an irritant? We recognize, don't we, that the need for gasoline is built into
the design of an internal combustion engine. What a difference it might make for us if we were to recognize that the musts
that He introduces into our lives are not like the musts of the speed limit, but are like the musts of the gasoline. We have
been designed for the purpose of doing His will! We would not react as we often do if we lived in the light of that reality.
For Jesus, the must was not the must of an external program, like a timetable that the Scriptures
might be fulfilled. Although we find in Scripture that He must “in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled,”
He was not obligated to do what the prophets had written, the prophets were inspired to record what would be a must for Him
in fulfilling His Father's will. It was in His heart, not merely in the book. Our difficulty so often stems from the fact
that we find a must in the book but not in our heart. The must in the book was merely a reflection of the must in His heart.
It was native to Him. I pray that God will give me a must in my heart which will be a reflection of the must in the book,
because until such time as He does I will find myself fighting against His must and this I do not want to do. I want to submit
to His call upon my life as readily as Jesus said, “Even so, also, must the Son of Man be lifted,” so that He
may say of me “He must rise again the last day.”
For our Lord the must was never something which came upon Him from the outside. It was never an
external imposition. It was an expression to which His heart responded. “I came not to do mine own will, but the will
of Him that sent Me.” How often have you said, “I must,” concerning your own will? “I've got to, I
have to, I must, you don't understand!” And how often have we prefaced this with a “but?” “But I must!”
Regardless of the source of the restraints – parental, institutional, legal, governmental, civil, ecclesiastical, or
spiritual – so very often when we become aware of those restraints our reaction is, “But I must!” Notice
that Jesus never once said, “I must,” unless it was a reflection of His Father's will. He must because He would.
We often must because we wouldn't! We know restraints because we don't know constraints.
Notice, too, that must is not enough. Ought implies reason and understanding. Must teaches harmony
and submission offered without reason or explanation being sought for. So very often in the Scriptures we read, “For
this reason ought...” There is justification. But there is no justification for the must. The must is submission without
explanation being offered or asked for.
Let us pray that God will grant us the heart attitude that says, “I delight to do Thy will,
oh my God.” Then when He gives us a must it will not breed rebellion, but joy within us, because we will have been seeking
to do His will even before it was expressed. In such an attitude is reflected the image of Christ.
