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NASB | Luke 22:42 saying, "Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done." |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Luke 22:42 saying, "Father, if You are willing, remove this cup [of divine wrath] from Me; yet not My will, but [always] Yours be done." |
Bible Question:
Since there has been so much talk on the nature and efficacy of God's will these past several days, I wanted to pose a question to the Forum in addressing what I consider to be the single most difficult account of God's will in Scripture. When Jesus is praying in Gethsemane, he asks His Father that the "cup" of the Cross be lifted from Him if God the Father is willing. He follows it up by saying "Yet not my will, but Yours be done." We know that Jesus and the Father share the same divine essence, and that Jesus, although also sharing our human essence, was not inclined to sin in any way. However, we see an apparent opposition of wills between two Persons of the Trinity. Granted, Jesus submits His will to the Father's, but the fact that He to a certain degree is unwilling to go to the Cross can be rather unsettling. As He is sweating drops of blood in the garden and dreading the process by which He will secure atonement for God's people, what are we to make of this statement? --Joe! |
Bible Answer: Joe, I would interpret this passage in the following manner: Jesus was still human at the time. It's not a sin or even a question of a conflict of wills to ask the Father for something to be done if it's within His will to do so. Jesus wasn't saying He wouldn't do it. He was saying something more like "Father, this frail body I'm in can't take much more of this and if there's any other way to achieve your plan, I'm listening. But you know I'll do whatever you desire of me." (again this is my interpretation) The statement I would make is that Jesus felt the pain and anguish of the world. He probably also knew that His death wasn't going to save everyone because there would still be some that would not choose Jesus even after all He had done. Maybe he was asking for more time to convince the people to accept Him. I don't know if anyone else would agree with me, but that's what I get out of it. Also, the verse says that His sweat was like drops of blood (not actually drops of blood). I would interpret this to mean the sweat drops were large drops falling to the ground similar to someone that just finished a marathon race or eating some really spicy food. --John |