The history of the human race as recorded from Genesis to Revelation is largely a record of resistance to the divine will. Not always consciously, but nevertheless unremittingly, mortal man, desiring the way of the flesh, the way of self-determination, has opposed the will of God. Nowhere has this been more dramatically set forth than in the fourteenth chapter of Isaiah, where the savage persistence of Lucifer to have his own way is described. "He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger," epitomizes the purpose of a human will ruthlessly determined to usurp the place of God. "For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God."
The depredations of human will are not less evident in those who aggressively manipulate it than in those who submit to it. It has been said that "the only way of setting the will free is to deliver it from willfulness." Those who tyrannize and those who are tyrannized over are equally enslaved. On pages 95 and 96 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy writes, "Humanity advances slowly out of sinning sense into spiritual understanding; unwillingness to learn all things rightly, binds Christendom with chains."
In Jesus we have the perfect example of him who discerned through spiritual sense the divine will and never put himself into opposition to it. Neither mortal desire, pride, nor fear of the consequences of obeying God, whatever the mortal menace, prevented the Master from complete co-ordination with every action dictated by wisdom, inspired by Love. He demanded no less of those who would claim relationship with him. "For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother."
