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The Way of Obedience
May 21, 06:34 PM
“Do you think that I cannot call on my Father and He will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?” ~Matthew 26:53
While it was the will of the Father that Jesus was to go to the Cross (Isaiah 53:10), never did He coerce Jesus into doing it. In fact, God will never use coercion or force as a means of implementing His will. We go voluntarily or we do not go at all.
Though Jesus was in the very nature of God, He did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant (Philippians 2:6-7). He did this voluntarily. Out of God’s love for the world, He sent the Son into the world that we might have life in His Name (John 3:16-17). But Jesus could have declined. He wouldn’t – it was Jesus’ pleasure to always do what pleases the Father – but He could have. As the Father has sent Jesus into the world, so Jesus sends us into the world (John 17:18). We can go, or not go according to our own volition. Even if we should at some point refuse, we can still change our minds and go (Matthew 21:29).
When Jesus was contemplating the course of His ministry, He was tempted to use coercion as a means of affecting the will of God. He refused. During His life, pressure was applied to Him from virtually every side to rise up and institute the righteousness of God by means of making Himself king. Still, he refused to take that tact. Jesus will never use force, coercion, or manipulation to bring about the purposes of the Father.
During His life, the shadow of the Cross began to loom in darker clarity across Jesus’ path. It was the Father’s will and it became increasingly apparent that the Cross was the only way salvation could be won. Still, Jesus could accept of decline – walk toward Jerusalem or away from it. Resolutely, He set His face to go toward Jerusalem (Luke 9:51). Then came the moment of crisis in Gethsemane where Jesus would either drink from the cup or let it pass. His natural instincts were screaming at Him to turn away, but in a moment of extreme agony, He laid down His life, “Nevertheless, not my will but Yours.” It was actually at that moment where Jesus laid His life down. All that remained from that point was the consummation of the sacrifice.
And yet, even then . . . even after that climatic moment . . . even then, the hand of God was still open around the life of His Son. “Do you not know that (even now) I could call upon My Father and He would at once send more than twelve legions of angels to deliver Me?” Even then, there was no force. He could yield, or not. He went to the Cross voluntarily. To obey even when there is a means of escape: that is obedience.