--- title: "Two wills, two persons?" description: "The objection “In Gethsemane Jesus said “not my will, but thine,” and two wills means two persons.”, stated at full strength and answered from Scripture." url: "https://onegodapologetics.com/academy/lab/not-my-will-but-yours/" source: "One God Apologetics" section: "The Objection Lab" tags: ["godhead"] license: "Free to read and quote with attribution." --- # Two wills, two persons? > The objection, in the words its strongest advocate would use: “In Gethsemane Jesus said “not my will, but thine,” and two wills means two persons.” *An objection answered at https://onegodapologetics.com/academy/lab/not-my-will-but-yours/* ## The objection at full strength In Gethsemane Jesus prays, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt” (Matt 26:39). Two wills are in play, and one yields to the other. That submission is not only a human scene. The Son’s will is in view before the incarnation: “I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me” (John 6:38). Entering the world, He says, “Lo, I come … to do thy will, O God” (Heb 10:5–7). The Son freely offers Himself to the Father’s purpose. This is a relationship of love and self-giving within God. If Jesus is simply the Father in flesh, Gethsemane becomes God negotiating with His own humanity, and the agony loses its meaning. ## The ninety-second answer Yes, two wills: a divine will and a human will. That is the incarnation, not two divine persons. Without a human will Jesus wasn’t fully human, yet He “became obedient unto death” (Phil 2:8). Historic Trinitarian theology agrees that Christ has two natural wills, divine and human (Constantinople III, AD 680–681).[^1] So Gethsemane shows the man Christ Jesus submitting to God, not one divine person yielding to another. ## The five-minute answer **1. Gethsemane shows a real human will.** In the garden Jesus says, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death” (Matt 26:38), and prays three times that the cup might pass. Luke adds that “being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood” (Luke 22:44). That is a human soul and a human will under the full weight of what was coming. > Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. > > — Luke 22:42 (KJV) A will that shrinks from suffering and then submits is a human will. Scripture says so: “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered” (Heb 5:8). He “humbled himself, and became obedient unto death” (Phil 2:8). God does not learn obedience. The man Christ Jesus did. **2. Two wills are exactly what the incarnation requires.** If Jesus had no human will, He was not fully human, and He could not be our representative, “made like unto his brethren” (Heb 2:17). If, on the other hand, the Son had a divine will distinct from the Father’s divine will, there would be two divine wills, and it would be hard to say there is one God. Oneness theology holds both truths together: one God, whose one divine will dwelt in a man with a genuine human will. > And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. > > — 1 Timothy 3:16 (KJV) **3. Historic Trinitarian theology gives the same answer.** The Third Council of Constantinople (AD 680–681) defined that Christ has two natural wills, divine and human, with the human will subject to the divine.[^1] Because that theology ties will to nature, it holds that Father, Son and Spirit have one divine will, not three. On its own terms, then, the will that says “not my will” in Gethsemane is Christ’s human will. The verse shows humanity submitting to God. It cannot show one divine person submitting to another, because the Trinitarian creed has no second divine will to submit. **4. John 6:38 and Hebrews 10.** The same council read “I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will” as speaking of the will of Christ’s flesh.[^1] Hebrews 10 explains the scene: > **5** Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: **6** In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. **7** Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. > > — Hebrews 10:5–7 (KJV) The one who comes “to do thy will, O God” is the one for whom God prepared a body. His obedience is the obedience of the incarnate Son, offered in a real human body with a real human will. **5. Gethsemane loses nothing on this reading.** The agony is not God bargaining with Himself. It is a true man, in whom God dwelt fully, choosing the cross with a human will that feared it. That is what makes His obedience count for us, and His sacrifice sufficient. Hebrews says He offered up prayers “with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death” (Heb 5:7). That is the prayer of a man facing death, and this man overcame. ## The trap to avoid Don’t tell a Trinitarian that he believes in two divine wills. Classical Trinitarians confess one divine will shared by Father, Son and Spirit, and two wills in Christ, divine and human. If you accuse him of teaching “two divine wills,” he will correct you and you will lose credibility. Use his own theology instead: if the will that submits in Gethsemane is human, the verse is about the incarnation, not about distinctions within God. Also avoid making the human will a puppet. The struggle in the garden was real; do not explain it away. ## A model answer Yes, there are two wills in Gethsemane: a divine will and a human will. That’s not two persons in God. That’s the incarnation. Think about it. If Jesus had no human will, He wasn’t a real man. But Hebrews says, “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.” God doesn’t learn obedience. Philippians says He “became obedient unto death.” The one who says “not my will, but thine” is the man Christ Jesus, with a real human will that shrank from the cross and chose it anyway. And you actually agree with me. The historic creeds, going back to the Third Council of Constantinople, say Christ has two wills, divine and human, and they confess one divine will for Father, Son and Spirit. So on your own theology, the will that submits in the garden is human. That verse can’t show one divine person yielding to another, because your creed doesn’t have two divine wills. So Gethsemane isn’t God negotiating with God. It’s God manifest in flesh, a true man, choosing the cross. That’s why His obedience counts for us. ## The verses - Luke 22:42 - Matthew 26:39 - Hebrews 5:8 - Philippians 2:8 - Hebrews 2:17 - 1 Timothy 2:5 - 1 Timothy 3:16 - Hebrews 10:5–7 ## Notes [^1]: Third Council of Constantinople, Definition of Faith. AD 680–681; two natural wills and operations in Christ, the human will subject to the divine. Text in Tanner, vol. 1. ## Read the case in full - [Oneness Theology: A Working Compendium](https://onegodapologetics.com/library/oneness-theology-a-working-compendium/) — A short but complete map of Oneness theology: the one God of Israel, manifested in flesh as Jesus Christ. It works through the Hebrew and Greek of the key Old and New Testament texts, the typology of the angel, the tabernacle and the priesthood, and the apostolic practice of baptism in Jesus’ name. Each contested text is set beside the strongest Trinitarian reading before it is answered. - [Ten Objections to Oneness, Answered](https://onegodapologetics.com/library/ten-objections-to-oneness-answered/) — The ten objections Oneness believers hear most often, each stated first in its strongest Trinitarian form and then answered from Scripture. The final section tests the claim that the church always confessed three persons, with names and dates from Noetus and Praxeas to the councils of 325 and 381.