You said in an earlier e-mail that Jesus and His Fathers wills were not the same. I think you confuse struggling with a will with not having the will at all. Notice when Jesus says in John 12;
Now I am deeply troubled, and I don't know what to say. But I must not ask my Father to keep me from this time of suffering. In fact, I came into the world to suffer. So Father, bring glory to yourself.
This is totally different than what you said.
Jesus stated many times that His will was different than the Father's. "I did not come to do my own will, but that of the Father". (John 4:34 5:30 6:38). "Father if it be YOUR will let this cup pass from Me. nevertheless, not MY will but YOURS be done. Two separate wills from one Being??? (Matt. 26:39).
Let's put this in the context it should be in. These versus explain how Jesus as man had to overcome his humanly fears.
When did Jesus ever state His will was "different" than His Fathers? Just because He say's He is here to do His Fathers will doesn't mean it was different from His will, for it was only the weak human flesh that He had to overcome, not His divinity. When He say's "not MY will but YOURS be done", He is talking as a man only. His Father already withdrew from Him at that point and had placed all of humanity's past, present and future sins on Him. Wow, thank God that He loved us so much He was willing to become flesh and suffer like that as He did. I'm sure you have had times when you had to make a sacrifice and did not give in to your flesh even though it was telling you to. Your mind was telling you to do one thing, but your heart said differently. Just because you may have struggled with your flesh does that mean your will was ever changed? This was the struggle that Jesus, as fully man, overcame in the garden and we should all be ashamed that we placed that burden on Him every time we sin!
"I came into the world to suffer". This was both Jesus' and His Fathers will from the get go. So Jesus had to be made a little lower than the Angels in order to be a worthy human sacrifice to cover our sins. When He speaks of differing wills in the Gospels He is speaking as Jesus the man, not Jesus as God.
Grace and Peace,
Robert
Dear Robert:
Did you have nothing better to do today than to decide to write Ray Smith an email and try to contradict his teaching? Where oh where do you people come up with this stuff? I get tens of thousands of emails over the years that contradict the Scriptures, and then suggest that MY teaching is false.
So now you come along and divide Jesus into TWO DIFFERENT PEOPLE WITH TWO DIFFERENT WILLS.
Have you not read that there is but ONE MEDIATOR? Here, I'll quote it for your: "For there is one God,and ONE MEDIATOR between God and men, THE MAN CHRIST JESUS" (I Tim. 2:5).
Did you see the words "two Mediators" and "the MEN Christ Jesus?
And so you think that the ONE Mediator and One Man Christ Jesus prayed the following to His Father:
"Abba Father, all things are possible unto Thee; take away this cup from Me: nevertheless not what I will, but WHAT I WILL, as being a man, but NOT as I will, as being God" (Mark 14:39)?? Unbelievable.
Stop wasting my time.
Ray
