Jesus' Free Will

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Did Jesus have free will and could he have walked away from the God’s predestined plan that he be crucified? When he was in the garden and asked God to take the cup away from him if it was God’s will, does that prove that Jesus did not have free will. If he did, why didn’t he just say “forget it God, it’s too hard I’m not going through with it, no matter your will.” He could have fled and possibly avoided arrest. But would God’s predestined plan evenutally trump Jesus’ free will and he would have been crucified eventually?

People keep saying humans have free will. Well Jesus was human and thus he must have had free will as well. In addition, if God’s predestined plan for Jesus would have trumped Jesus’ free will eventually, doesn’t that happen in our own lives as well?
 
Nap66 said:
Did Jesus have free will and could he have walked away from the God’s predestined plan that he be crucified?
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Stop the presses!

No, No, No!

To even think he could would be to deny his divinity, and to deny the Holy Trinity.

Jesus IS God; he cannot deny himself!
 
Nap66 said:
When he was in the garden and asked God to take the cup away from him if it was God’s will, does that prove that Jesus did not have free will.
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No it indicates he was faithful to the will of the God in his humanity.
 
Jesus is not only human but Son of a God,send by God…he was in human flesh so had few human feelings as well,but to escape what for?
He was not human to be full coward.
Love to our Saviour!!!
 
1ke said:
No it indicates he was faithful to the will of the God in his humanity.
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Again, this denies the divinity of Christ…Jesus is GOD, and there seems to be confusion between God and the first person of God, the Father.

Yes, certainly Jesus was faithful to the will of the Father.
 
Jesus had two wills, the divine will and a human will. Jesus’ human will was a free will. It was not subsumed or overpowered by the divine will but willingly submitted himself to it, even when Jesus felt anxiety.
 
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This. Thanks for clarification and edification Deacon Jeff.
 
No, we’re supposed to do the same in our lives.
Ask for His Will to be done.
That doesn’t indicate lack of free will but using that free will in faith and loyalty to God.
 
Hereiam said:
Again, this denies the divinity of Christ
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No it doesn’t.
Hereiam said:
Jesus is GOD
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Jesus is both God and man.
Hereiam said:
and there seems to be confusion between God and the first person of God, the Father.
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Not at all. One God, three persons. The Son is the second person of the Trinity. The Father is the first person of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity.

Jesus, in his humanity, prayed to the Father.
 
Hereiam said:
To even think he could would be to deny his divinity, and to deny the Holy Trinity.

Jesus IS God; he cannot deny himself!
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Then why did he even bother to pray in the garden? Why did Jesus even talk about his will to God if he didn’t have free will? It should have been easy for Jesus to just willingly and with absolutely no doubt proceed with his crucifixion.

Yet others say Jesus had free will and was obedient to God’s will when he was praying in the garden. Ok, maybe. But what if Jesus did not know what God’s will really was for him? Or doubted it. Or thought God might change his mind. Seriously. If Jesus knew for sure he never would have sweated blood praying for God’s will. The whole garden scene would not have been needed in Jesus’ life. From the bible, it is not clear whether Jesus ever received a response from God to his garden prayers. I’ve always assumed that Jesus was resigned to God’s will, but not without a heavy heart.
 
1ke said:
No it indicates he was faithful to the will of the God in his humanity.
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How do we determine the will of God in our humanity when we are not God like Jesus is and can discern what the will is with certainty?
 
I wish I knew. Seriously. This issue has perplexed me my entire life. I assume free will as doing what you determine yourself to do in actions in this life. The problem is when your free will actions conflict with God’s will for your life (should God have a will for your life). Then what happens? Who wins? Your free will actions or God’s plan for your life? Can you evade God’s plan for your life by your free will actions forever, or when you are exercising your free will are you really just putting God’s will into action?
 
Ok. But why did Jesus even ask for God’s will and not his will to be done if his human will was destined to submit to God’s will? Did he wish for God to change his will for him? Human nature says of course he did. But he was God, he knew it couldn’t be changed, why did he even ask God that question in the garden?
 
Ok. So he wanted God to change his will for him so he would not suffer. That’s what I get from being fully human as all of us would have done the same.
 
The way I read it described once, in a certain abbess’ 17th c. writings, was that the part that disturbed Jesus the most about the Passion and Death was that it wouldn’t be enough.

There would be salvation for so, so, so many people.

But others would reject that gift, and it would be a waste, and they would be lost.

So the point being, Jesus was telling God, “I’m making this sacrifice, and I want all of humanity to benefit from it, whether they want to or not.” But if the Father wasn’t willing to allow everyone to profit from it— “Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many” vs “Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of all”---- ultimately, Jesus was subjecting himself to the Father’s will, even though the thought of lost souls hurt him even more deeply than his physical Death.
 
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