Did Jesus have free will?

Question

Did he have to sacrifice himself? Could he have chosen not to? Could he have chosen a different path? Or was his path laid out before him and he had no choice but to fulfill it? To be human means being able to freely choose. If he had no choice then was he not human? To say that he was God in human form would not clear this up because that would mean that God has no free will. How can one fulfill a prophesy freely? Isn't the definition of prophesy that it is going to happen regardless?

So I guess the consensus is that you can freely fulfill prophesy? How does predestination and free will work together? If God knows everything we are going to do are we really freely choosing it? We can't do anything else or else God would be fallible

Answer 1

He did not have to sacrifice himself... He chose to because he loves each of us. He could have chosen a different path, just as each of us can choose to do the right thing or not in whatever situation we find ourselves.

His sacrifice for each of us could not save us if it was forced upon him. It had to be done out of love for us. The Bible says that while he was in Gethsemane, angels ministered to him, meaning he received help in dealing with the agony and pain. But at one point, he cried out "why hast thou forsaken me." Even his Father had to step away and allow him to complete the sacrifice and overcome sin on his own. When the Father stepped away, Jesus was on his own and could choose to complete the sacrifice or not. Because he loves us, he chose to go through with it.

As far as fulfilling prophecy goes, prophecy does not force somebody to go down one path or another in life. Prophecy is the result of our God knowing each of us so well that he knows how we will respond in any given situation, so he can (through revelation given to his prophets) tell us what events are going to happen.

Of course he is all knowing and all powerful, so his ability to do this is infinitely superior to any man, but to illustrate in some small way how prophecy works, consider the following scenario.

I know my own child well enough to know that if I put a cookie on the table in front of him, he is going to eat it. I could therefore prophesy that he is going to eat the cookie. Does my prophecy force him to do so? Absolutely not. He can still choose whether to eat it or not. But I know him well enough to say with nearly 100% certainty that he will.

God knows each of us even better than I know my own child. He certainly knew Jesus better than I know my own son. I have the ability to "prophesy" about simple things that seem common-sense to most of us. God, being all knowing understands everything about the complexities of life and this world, and therefore, things which we can't understand or comprehend are common-sense to him as well. He knows each of us and can predict with certainty how each of us will respond in any given situation. However, his ability to predict such things does not force any of us, including Jesus to do what has been predicted or prophesied.

Answer 2

Good question Jake. To fulfill the prophesy I would say he had little choice in not doing it. If he did not then there would be no church now and we would not be talking here of this. Christ was God incarnate, his purpose as well was nailing the old ways to the cross and the Holy spirit came upon the world. But in walking the Earth he as well learned the pangs of being human. Remember where Satan offered him the world? Satan the same as he attacks us, attacked Christs flesh / human nature. Satan was given the Earth to walk about as he does now,that was the wager. I say as a man Christ had all the choices of all man, but inside him he knew his destiny.Read Ephesians where it says all things were known long ago. He was very human in the fact he saw through a man's eyes in the first person, he was tempted, bleed, felt pain, all the things we do.The merged God in man allowed Christ to take charge over mankind, the ultimate sacrifice.I dare say what this world today would be like without that or what our fate would be. Even the way he dies was prophesied centuries before his birth. When God came looking in the garden for Adam, until he apparently was there he did not know his sin, until he saw they were ashamed of being naked, thus I would say that what is meant is that God knows our individual personality and in this way he knows our hearts and which are destined to be his, however just like Christ mankind has choices and changes which is life. Part of the Christian duty is to spread his word to other humans, just as Christ did, so as well that is our choice and those you would come across to convert and we are to pray for guidence and God answers prayers.Our fate is at certain crossroads paths are crossed, this is the choice we make, not that God decided that and we are destined to it.

Answer 3

YES HE DID! HE also knew there was no Plan #2.

""How can one fulfill a prophesy freely? Isn't the definition of prophesy that it is going to happen regardless?""
the following story should tell you~~

Imagine standing on the roof a ten-story building. A parade is going to start in the street below. It forms, it begins, and it travels the parade rout length and then disperses. All this happened in your view.
This is the way OUR GOD sees us! Before our birth HE knows the complete and whole story! But HE also orchestrated our "parade rout" before we were even born. That is called PREDESTINATION. Before we were even born HE knew everything.
Romans 8: 30. Ephesians 1: 5. Ephesians 1: 11.

Answer 4

Absolutely! What do you think the dialogue in the Garden of Gethsemane happened? Being human, He would oh! so much have liked to find another way. But, being also Divine, He had too much compassion for Man, and too much empathy with God, to take the coward's way out.
Do not make the mistake of thinking that just because the Christ was human, He did not also comprehend the intentions of His Father. Nor that, because He was Divine, He did not experience the agony of fear such a course must have woken in Him. It is only through the merging of the two natures that He could do what He must.
Consider the courage and resolution it must have taken Him to follow through, knowing at every moment that He could change it with a thought! There is none could ever match Him.
Consider, also, how much courage and fortitude must have been required of God the Father, to do what He had to do. To sacrifice His beloved Son for the crummy human race, particularly knowing that They are One, and He suffered through the same thing, right along with The Christ.
Ever think of that?
There's your true definition of Grace.

Answer 5

Remember in the Garden of Gethsamane? He asked God if there was any way that He could save everyone without having to go through with the crucifixion. This shows that He had a will. But, He chose to do the will of His Father. The Romans did not take His life, He freely gave it up because He CHOSE to give it up for us.

Answer 6

Yes he had free will.... Although he asked the father for direction and chose to obey there is the free will He chose to obey..... Nevertheless NOT MY WILL but your will be done.... As he hung on the cruel cross he could have call 10000 angels... because the angels were at his command ..... instead he went through with what he knew his purpose was... He did so because he loved the father and he also love us. His submission to the father is not an indication of not having free will but rather the true essence of what pure, true and honest love has the capability of doing..... Being obedient for a greater good even when one would desire to choose a different path

Answer 7

Yes he had free will. He wasn't only sent to be a sacrifice, but to be our perfect example. In the Garden of Gethsemane he showed his human side by asking God to remove this cup if it was his will. As a human he did not necessarily want to suffer, but he was working toward the greater good of all mankind.

When my parents were first married it was prophesied that they would be in leadership at our church. Years past, my father left the church, my parents got a divorce. Now they are back together and are in leadership at the church. If God said it it will come to pass. He cannot lie.

Answer 8

Yes Jesus had free will. He could have chosen not to, he had the choice because God doesn't force anyone, like you said, humans have free will to chose and so did Jesus, but since he loved us so much and loved him father, God, he went down and sacrificed himself. True it wouldn't make sense for Jesus to be God in human form, because God is his father and Jesus is his son.And yes, a prophecy will happen regardless. It is one of the only things God has said will happen. The rest he doesn't lay out like our choices or our futures or our destinies. We make all the choices we make, not Jehovah God. He lets us do all the choice making in our lives.

Answer 9

Yes, he had free will. He had the choice not to go through with it. At any time he could have lied to Pilate and told him what he wanted to here. If you remember there was one point right before they brought him in when he was praying to God to take that from him. I almost gave up.

I believe we all have a destiny and how me handle our free will determined when and where that destiny will be fulfilled. We can prolong our destiny by not following God and doing what we want or we can have our destiny as God planned it all along by following him.

Answer 10

All thinking/feeling creation has free will. It would have been unloving for God to create his son and not give him free will. Jesus died willingly because he loved mankind. He could have chosen not to, as he said when the crowds came to arrest him in the Garden of Gethsemane. The apostle Peter cut off the ear of the high priest's slave and Jesus told him that if he wanted he could call thousands of angels to deliver him. But he didn't because he wanted to sacrifice himself for mankind. If Jesus had backed out, God would have found someone else to willingly sacrifice themself.

Answer 11

God gave every man and woman agency: the power to choose between right and wrong. In the premortal life, Jesus volunteered to save man from damnation after Satan/Lucifer wanted to make sure EVERYBODY came back (that would mean taking agency away, which made God the Father angry) and he wanted God's glory. Jesus wanted to save mankind and wanted the glory to be the Father's. Jesus could have easily chosen not to, but He loves all of us, his brothers and sisters, and was willing to come down to earth and sacrifice Himself so we could someday return to Him and the Father forever. He too had that agency, and still has it, and used it in the most loving, caring, unconditional way any man could.