Whether God incarnate, Jesus Christ, has two wills or one is pertinent for a better understanding of our Lord Jesus and how His truly human and truly divine natures relate to one another. Before we proceed any further, let us define certain vital terms related to our context:
Person: “Person” is a
center of self-consciousness, intentionality, and will.1
Nature: That which makes
humans distinctly human rather than animals.
Will: That which enables a
deliberate action.
Monothelitism: Jesus has
only one will – a divine will.
Dyothelitism:
Jesus has two wills – a human and a divine.
Jesus Christ is a divine person (the Second Person of the
Blessed Trinity) with both a divine nature and a human nature (the Hypostatic
Union). Therefore, the question of wills in Jesus Christ is predicated on
whether the will is a function of the “person” or the “nature.”
If the will is a function of the person, then Jesus Christ
should have only one will, which is the divine will. If the will is a function
of one’s nature, then Jesus Christ should have two wills—one divine and one
human—because Jesus has two natures: one divine and one human.
Ligonier.org explains why the church voted in favor of the
Dyothelitism view: “Monothelitism was declared a heresy and the reason it was
declared a heresy is because the church concluded a will is in extent an
essential part of a nature. If Jesus didn't have a human will as well as the
divine will, it would be very difficult to see him as truly and fully human. We
know he has a divine will because he was the Logos from all eternity and the
second person in trinity that has a will. So, we know he has a divine will. If
he has only one will it's just the divine will and the church, I think, rightly
concluded that that would mean he did not have a fully human nature because he
wouldn't have a fully human will.”2
On the contrary, Dr. William Lane Craig holds to
Monothelitism. He states, “…the will is properly a faculty of a person rather
than of a nature, I believe that there is but one will in Christ, despite his
having two natures. For there is one person who is Christ, namely, the divine
second person of the Trinity.”3
A common objection posed to the Monothelitism view is: if
the will is a function of personhood, then would the Triune God—who is one God
in the form of three persons—possess three distinct wills? If so, would these
wills contradict each other? If they contradict each other, then they cease to
be God, as this situation would limit God’s omniscience.
William Lane Craig states that God’s absolute perfection
entails a perfect harmony between their wills, “Now if we affirm a robust
conception of a person as a center of self-consciousness, intentionality, and
will, as I think we should, it follows that the three Trinitarian persons have
three wills. Of course, as the wills of three perfect persons, their wills
always agree and are in harmony. Though there are three distinct acts of
will, they all will the same thing.”4
The church affirmed Dyothelitism by considering the
following verses from the Bible:
Matthew 26:39 (NIV): “My Father,
if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you
will.”
Luke 22:42 (NIV): “Father, if you
are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”
John 5:30 (NET): “I can do
nothing on my own initiative. Just as I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just,
because I do not seek my own will, but the will of the one who sent me.”
John 6:38 (NET): “For I have come
down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me.”
Other passages assume human will in Christ (John 4:34, 5:19. 8:29, 14:31; Rom. 5:19; Phil. 2:8; Heb.
10:9.
To defend his position, Craig argues that if the will is
associated with one’s nature then Christ should have two persons – a divine and
a human.5
This is nothing more than an introduction to this complicated
subject where, I believe, theology and philosophy should intersect to provide
an adequate understanding of it.
Endnotes:
1https://www.reasonablefaith.org/writings/question-answer/monothelitism-and-the-trinity
2https://www.ligonier.org/posts/does-jesus-have-one-or-two-wills
3https://www.reasonablefaith.org/writings/question-answer/monothelitism-and-the-trinity
4Ibid.
5https://www.reasonablefaith.org/media/other-videos/dyothelitism-vs-monothelitism
& https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIr3o799aFA&ab_channel=ReasonableFaithOrg
Websites last accessed on 5th August 2024.