Devo 55: Loving God with all our Will

He knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him. And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground…

Luke 22:41-44

On the night before Jesus died, He struggled to surrender His will over to God as He was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. This is a remarkable concept. I have read this passage in Luke 22 over and over, and it says what it says. I have researched it, read commentaries, and it seems clear that in this moment, Jesus as a man wanted something different than what His Father wanted for Him. Jesus did not want to partake of God’s wrath by death on the cross. He wrestled with it and asked the Lord to take it away.

I have wondered about this passage many times. Here is Jesus, the Son of God, perfect in all things, struggling to surrender His will over to God. How can this be?

Jesus walked as a sinless human being who was tested in every way as we are, yet was found blameless. He walked out every part of the Law with perfection. The fulfillment of this law, as Jesus said, is summed up by the two greatest commandments—love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself (Mt 22:37-40).

When we look at loving God with all our soul, this means loving Him with all of our mind, will, and emotions. If we look at one aspect of the soul—the will, we realize that this is the specific area of surrender that is highlighted in Jesus’ life the night before He died, when He said, “Father, not my will, but Yours be done” (Lk 22:41). It seemed that this was the last real struggle He had to overcome before His death. This struggle had to take place so that He could sympathize with our weaknesses (Heb 2:17-18, Heb 4:14-16).

The book of Hebrews speaks of Jesus’ struggle in chapter five:

Who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, called by God as High Priest “according to the order of Melchizedek…”
Hebrews 5:1-11

This passage reveals that because of Jesus’ struggle and surrender, He was given authority as a High Priest on behalf of the people. He was perfected because of His suffering and therefore, we now have the authority to boldly approach the throne of grace, because we have been sprinkled with His pure, spotless blood.

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Hebrews 4:14-16

For Jesus to love God with all of His will, He had to be confronted with something that was against His will. He had to be faced with a struggle between His will as a man, and the will of God the Father, so that He would have authority as a High priest to sympathize with us in our struggles. Not only that, but He set an example for us to take up our cross and follow Him in complete surrender to the Father (Mk 8:34-38).

For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
Hebrews 2:17-18

The writer of Hebrews encouraged his readers that those who live in rebellion will never enter the rest that God has prepared for them, but those who throw off every hindrance and look at the example of Jesus, the perfector of their faith, will be able to run the race with endurance, and enter into that rest (Heb. 12). The writer scolded the Hebrews because they had not yet “resisted sin to the point of bloodshed,” which was another reference back to Jesus’ struggle in the garden (see Lk 22:44).

Jesus resisted leaving the will of the Father to the point of bloodshed. He was determined that He would enter into the rest of the Lord and remain in His will. He prayed earnestly, and ultimately surrendered His will over to God. It was no easy thing for Him to do. It was a struggle for Him; yet He was obedient and overcame.

In our culture, we are accustomed to people telling us to do what we want. It is accepted for us to “do whatever makes you happy” or “do whatever you want;” and yet God has a will for our lives and has asked us to love Him with all of our will. Our will is never tested until God asks us to do something that we do not want to do. This is when our will is tested, and we have opportunity to lose our lives or to love our lives; yet he who loves his life will lose it, and he who loses his life will find it (Mk 8).

This does not mean that God will always ask us to do things against our will; He gives us the desires of our heart when we delight in Him, but when He tests our will in this way, He exercises our trust in Him that HE WILL BRING IT TO PASS.

Jesus made Himself of no reputation by taking on the form of man, going to the cross, and THEREFORE, God has highly exalted Him (Phil 2:15ff). He who loses his life will find it. If we completely surrender our will to God, we will truly enter into His rest, and He will exalt us and give us authority as sons, even as He did for Jesus.

Blessings,

Amanda

Copyright © 2010, Amanda Rich, All Rights Reserved