Jesus had a will at odds with God’s. This is important because it means that your will can be at odds with God’s without leading to sin. When Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will¹,” he was expressing a desire at odds with his Father’s will. The very statement, “not as I will,” indicates a will opposed to his Father’s will. And who could blame him? He was facing crucifixion, a prolonged, torturous death exposed to public ridicule. No one could possibly want that and still be of sound mind.

Yet Jesus submitted himself to has Father’s will.

Submission is difficult to discuss because our ordinary context for understanding it is fear. Submission is what you must do to avoid pain inflicted by some dominating person or circumstance. Slaves submit because they cannot do otherwise. To a lesser extent, employees submit to their employers because they could otherwise lose their jobs. Companies submit to government regulations because they might otherwise face stiff fines. It seems as if submission is opposed to freedom, and in cases of unequal power dynamics, it often is. The weak submit to the strong.

For much of history, the church has adopted this same understanding of submission. Peter advises slaves to submit to their masters², and Paul advises wives to submit to their husbands³. Paul’s advice has been taken to mean that men are stronger, both physically and intellectually, than women, so of course, wives should submit to their husbands, daughters to their fathers, and women in general to men in general. Yet Jesus did not submit to his Father because his Father was stronger. He did not fear retribution should he defy his Father⁴. According to Christian doctrine based on the New Testament, Jesus is coequal and coeternal with the Father. There is no difference between them in power.

Not all submission takes place in the context of oppressor and oppressed. Sometimes submission is just a good idea. It is significant that the relation between Jesus and God is that of a Son with his Father⁵. Children need to submit to their parents for many reasons, but surely one of the most important is love. Parents love their children and have more experience of the world. They know that somethings their children want to do are dangerous or will have serious consequences, so they forbid those things. The children, embraced by unconditional love, submit to their parents because they trust them. So too, the Son trusts the Father and submits to his will because he knows that the Father’s plan is really and truly the best even though it entails horrific suffering.

It is therefore in the context of love that Paul advises wives to submit to their husbands. In fact, his advice begins with mutual submission and concludes with telling husbands to love their wives with the same self-sacrificing love that Christ shows for the church, even to the point of giving up his life. Submission indicates trust. A wife who trusts her husband has no problem submitting to him. Likewise, a husband who trusts his wife has no trouble submitting to her. Of course, Paul might still have been reflecting patriarchal attitudes present in both Jewish and Roman cultures, but by beginning with mutual submission and insisting on a context of love, he subverts the traditional understanding of submission as oppressive. In Western societies where women enjoy a much greater level of equality with men, there is every reason to emphasize mutual submission rather than a one-sided submission of wives to husbands.

For Christians, mutual submission shows mutual trust. It also shows reverence for God. Submission to God is the foundation of every other submission. We submit to God, not out of fear of what he will do to us, but out of trust that whatever he does will be best, even if it involves our own suffering. Like Jesus, we are prepared to suffer to advance his kingdom, knowing that whatever he asks of us will contribute to his good plan. Does this mean that we simply accept whatever happens as God’s will? Of course not. Jesus repeatedly resisted efforts to halt this ministry and get him under control. That was the very reason why the religious leaders finally decided to kill him. Jesus was able to discern God’s plan and keep to it.

According to Paul, if we want to discern God’s perfect will, then we need to resist conformity to the world and have minds transformed by his renewing Spirit⁶. The first step in knowing God’s will is a determination to submit to it⁷ whatever the cost. Once our wills are submitted to God’s, all other forms of submission come into their proper order⁸. We never submit out of fear but out of trust.

1. Matthew 26:39. ↩︎
2. 1 Peter 2:18. The “reverent fear” mentioned here is not opposed to love but rather complements it just as in a healthy family, children fear displeasing their parents because they love them not because the threat of punishment is always hanging over them. ↩︎
3. Ephesians 5:22. Paul explicitly connects submission to others to submission to God. ↩︎
4. The idea of Jesus’ defiance is practically unthinkable. Yet it has to be taken as a possibility, or else Jesus’ prayer and its significance cannot be understood. At various times during his ministry with his disciples, he recognizes temptations to avoid the cross as proceeding from Satan. To be a real temptation, the anticipation of an action has to be something really doable. You can’t be tempted to do something you can’t actually do, although you might be tempted to try. ↩︎
5. Of course, in human terms, there is always also a power differential between father and son. However, when the power differential predominates over love, it leads to abuse. The same is true between husband and wife. ↩︎
6. Romans12:2. ↩︎
7. Romans 12:1. A “living sacrifice” can only be understood as a life totally devoted to God’s will. ↩︎
8. See Matthew 10:28. Once we settle with God that his will is preeminent, we no longer fear what other people can do to us. ↩︎