What is the will of God for mankind? To find that out, we should first find what His will is not.
Second Peter 3:9 tells us unequivocally that it is not God’s will for any to perish. That means that God does not want anyone to go to hell. Hear the verse: “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
Now, if it is not the will of God that any should perish, (face utter hopeless destruction in hell) has he done anything to prevent it?
Again, we must search the Scriptures to find the answer, and, by the way, that’s the only place to find the answers to life’s questions. Probably one of the most familiar verses in the Bible gives the answer: John 3:16,17 – “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life, 17. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.” God went to extreme measures to redeem fallen, sinful mankind, because it was not, and is not his will for any to be lost.
We have seen what God’s will is not; now let us find what it is. In John 6:38-40 we are told plainly what God’s will is, and what is required of us to fulfill it.
Jesus is speaking in these verses about his Father’s will: “For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. 39 And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. 40 And this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son, and believeth in him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.”
I believe what Paul said in 1 Timothy 2:3,4 “For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; who will have all men to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth.”
It is God’s will that every man and woman on earth be saved and know Christ personally, but he will not force you. It is a voluntary choice that you must make yourself. He made a way by the sacrifice of his Son, but now it’s “whosoever will, may come.”