God’s Will or His Plan?
This is my attempt to share something that I am hearing in the spirit this morning. Surely I long for a greater expression of these things, but may you be blessed by this nonetheless...
Man has been given a free will for a period of time, but he is not a free moral agent who can act upon whatever he wills. God is sovereign, but by His sovereign choosing He even allows man to act in opposition to His perfect will (His “thelema“ - Gk) but not His ultimate plan (His “boulema“ - Gk). Herein lies the divine tension between man's capacity to will, and his ability to act on what he wills.
In most all of our English New Testament translations, "thelema" and "boulema" are translated as "will," but to translate them both as "will" is not accurate enough for most applications. "Thelema" expresses an active choice (God's or man's), and in most cases can be translated properly as "will." "Boulema" though, is more of a predisposition from which an active choice proceeds; a "plan," and from God's perspective, a plan that is even inclusive of man's disobedience to His will.
Man, because of the authority granted to him over the earth, is allowed for a period of time to violate the will of God (His thelema) ... but he cannot violate His predestined plan; His counsel and predestined good purpose which ALL THINGS must conform (His boulema). If man's active choice cannot be worked to the good, conformed to God's good will and purpose -- then it is just not allowed ... period.
In a recent conversation with a brother, I mentioned something about "God's perfect will" - a phrase which this brother took issue with because he thought that to think that anything can be outside of God’s will brings into question God's sovereignty. But God's "perfect will" is His "thelema," and (for now) He allows us to act in opposition to that "will" through our own free will and volition until we can (by His grace) overcome all self. Then we will not violate or oppose in even the slightest way God's perfect will, but rather we will then be fully ONE in will and purpose with our Father ... even as the Son is One in will and purpose with Him.
Follow Up to: God's Will ...
It seems to me that man's ability to violate the will of God is only temporal (as part of His eonian plan) but in the eternal realm there is no will or plan other than God's. Being that "salvation" is something that starts in the eonian realm but then ultimately crosses over into the eternal, God's "will" regarding the salvation of men might be violated for an allotted period of time, but when all is said and done - even that "will" cannot be eternally violated. If it could, God would not be sovereign.
This is saying that even God's "will" (thelema) is going to be fulfilled in the end. But for now, this will is able to be resisted by men, even as Pharaoh resisted God's thelema-will. But this is temporary, because Will Plus Time Equals the Plan (Will + Time = Plan). This is the relationship between the two words.
In other words, the difference between God’s will (thelema) and His plan (boulema) is time. The overall plan factors in time.
In relation to this, when the N.T. uses the term "thelema" (as in 1 Tim. 2:4 and other places), it does not mean to indicate that God is indulging in wishful thinking. No, that will certainly happen, but God is leaving open the possibility of current opposition to that will, for just a matter of time.