Does Jesus have His own Independent Will?

Q. Does Jesus have His own will independent of the Father before the incarnation? Isn’t “Three in One” always be of the same will and mind? Can Jesus choose to disobey the will of the Father if He chooses to? Or is it incarnation as a human brought the choice of free will to disobey God?

A. This is an interesting question debated by theologians. Let me answer it by going back to the meaning of words. We say that Jesus is the second person in the Trinity. What is a person? According to “The Baker Compact Dictionary of Theological Terms”, a person is an individual being with attributes, capacities, and activities constituting personhood. Philosophers differ in their views about what these attributes & capacities consist of, but the common denominator is that “personality” or personhood is marked by two characteristics: (a) self-consciousness; (b) self-determination. According to Dictionary of Theological Terms, self-determination is freedom to act according to the inclination, bias, or disposition of the will. Since Jesus is a person, by definition He has free will & can act independently.

Having said that, “independently” does not necessarily mean they will disagree. Can Jesus choose to disobey the Father? Some say yes because otherwise how can His will be independent? Others say no because Scripture teaches that the Father, Son & Holy Spirit are always in agreement, because they cannot deny themselves (2 Tim 2:13) i.e. act contrary to their nature. Since their nature or essence is God, and God never changes, they always agree. I side with the latter.

This is similar to asking “Can Jesus sin?” Some believe yes because Jesus is also human, & humans can sin. These acknowledge that Jesus did not sin because He is “able not to sin“, as He is also God. In theology we call this peccability. Others believe no, Jesus is “not able to sin” because His sinless human nature always submits to His divine nature, and God cannot be tempted by evil (Jas 1:13). This is the impeccability view, which I hold. If He could sin while He was on earth, He could sin now because He retained His human nature after His death & resurrection, & that is an impossibility because by His nature God cannot sin.

Does God Deceive the Unrighteous? (2 of 2)

(Continued from yesterday)

Why would God send them strong delusion? In response to their rejection of the truth:
• they did not receive the love of the truth (v 10), which preceded God sending the deluding influence, &
• they did not believe the truth but took pleasure in wickedness (v 12).
In other words, they rejected the love of the truth first, & God confirmed their choice by sending the deluding influence. They chose not to believe, & God let them have their choice.

This is consistent with God giving them over in Rom 1:
• v 24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.
• v 26 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural,
• v 28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper,
Notice the downward spiral in “God gave them over”. It wasn’t that they erred once & God gave up on them mercilessly. It was that they are repeatedly unrepentant, hardened their heart & settled in sin as a way of life, that God allowed them to have what they wanted.

It was the same pattern in the case of Pharaoh, who first hardened his own heart in the first 5 plagues (Ex 7:13-14, 22; 8:15, 19, 32; 9:7, 34-35), then God confirmed his choice by hardening his heart from the 6th plague on (Ex 9:12; 10:1; 20, 27; 11:10; 14:4, 8). The first two mention of God will harden Pharaoh’s heart (Ex 4:21; 7:3) is simply prophetic of what God will do, not His causing it.

God did not help Satan in deceiving the unrighteousness; He gave them over to judge them. There is a huge difference.

Does God Deceive the Unrighteous? (1 of 2)

Q. 2 Thes 2:11-12 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Rom 1:24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts.
Does God merely give them up or help Satan in deceiving the unrighteous?

A. On the surface it seems that God is actively causing the damnation of the unrighteousness by sending them strong delusion, but He does not help Satan in deceiving them, for the following reasons:

1. It’s not His nature:
• Num 23:19 “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?
• Titus 1:2 in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago,
• Heb 6:18 so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us.

2. It’s not His desire or wish:
• Ezk 18:23 Do I have any pleasure in the death of the wicked,” declares the Lord GOD, “rather than that he should turn from his ways and live?
• Ezk 33:11 Say to them, ‘As I live!’ declares the Lord GOD, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why then will you die, O house of Israel?’
• 1 Tim 2:4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
• 2 Pet 3:9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

So what does 2 Thes 2:11 mean? Let’s examine the text carefully:
• 2 Thes 2:9-12 that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.

Note the following:
• The one coming, the man of lawlessness, the son of perdition (v 3), the lawless one (v 8), will come with deception of wickedness for those who perish (v 10).
• God will send those perishing a deluding influence, in order that they may be judged.
The Antichrist comes with deception, while God sends a deluding influence. What’s the difference?

Deception translates the Greek word apate, which means “to cheat, beguile”), that which gives a false impression, whether by appearance, statement or influence. The emphasis is on the one actively deceiving, whose aim is to destroy.

Deluding, on the other hand, translates the Greek words plane, which means:
1. a wandering, a straying about
a. one led astray from the right way, roams here & there
2. metaphorically
a. mental straying – error, wrong opinion relative to morals or religion
b. error which shows itself in action, a wrong mode of acting
c. error, that which leads into error, deceit or fraud.
The emphasis is on the one wandering astray, who erred morally resulting in wrong action.

Why would God send them strong delusion?

(To be continued)