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Bible Dictionaries
Will (2)
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or WILL.—‘Every man,’ says Thomas Reid (Works, 1863 ed., p. 530), ‘is conscious of a power to determine, in things which he conceives to depend upon his determination. To this power we give the name of Will; and, as it is usual, in the operations of the mind, to give the same name to the power and to the act of that power, the term “Will” is often put to signify the act of determining, which more properly is called volition.’ On the question of the freedom of the will see Free Will and Liberty; and on the human will of Jesus see Soul, 668b. Our Lord Jesus Christ has given us a perfect example of how our great possession of freedom should be used, has shown us by His own perfect subordination of His will to the will of His Father, that the goal at which we should aim is to have our wills in perfect accord with the will of God, whether it be His will as to our enduring or His will as to our doing. ‘O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt’ Mt (Matthew 26:39); ‘I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me’ (John 6:38). It is our part to seek to have the mind of Christ, and to obey where God would have us to obey, and endure where He would have us to endure.
‘Our wills are ours to make them thine.’
Literature.—NT Commentaries; Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible ; the works of Thomas Reid; R. A. Thompson, Christian Theism; Hill, Lectures in Divinity; A. M. Fairbairn, The Philosophy of the Christian Religion; Ritschl, Justification and Reconciliation; and Philosophical and Theological works in general.
George C. Watt.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Will (2)'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/w/will-2.html. 1906-1918.
