For it’s only in Your will that I am free*
Do you ever think about the Garden of Gethsemane? With Good Friday coming up, I’ve been thinking a lot about the words Jesus said as He prayed one of His final prayers here on earth.
“My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”**
Prior to this prayer, Jesus asked all the disciples to sit in Gethsemane while He took Peter, James and John further into the garden to pray. He stated, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”
After uttering His first prayer of submitting to God’s will, He walked back and found His three closest friends – asleep.
“He went away a second time and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.'”
***********
I first heard the song “Jesus, All for Jesus” at a women’s conference. I was struck by its simplicity and depth and challenged by the lyrics.
But I find myself singing one line over and over as Good Friday approaches:
For it’s only in Your will that I am free
The only place we are truly free is in the center of God’s will. This was true for Jesus, too.
But how can horrific suffering that ended with death on the cross be freedom?
Isaiah records in a section of Scripture that prophesies of Jesus’ coming and is often referred to as “The Suffering Servant” that “it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer.”
The cross was God’s will for Jesus.
The first time I saw the above verse, I didn’t know how to respond – because I knew the implications. It was the fulfillment of God’s perfect will that Jesus die on that cross – for me and for you. It was the only way for us to be reconciled to God (Romans 5:10). And not a quick, easy death (because God could have done that), but one that involved being crushed and suffering immensely.
Jesus knew that there is no life apart from God’s will. And so He surrendered to the will of His Father.
“And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:8-11
For the joy set before Him (Hebrews 12:2).
For our freedom (Galatians 5:1).
And for His glory (Philippians 2:11).
Jesus, All for Jesus
Jesus, all for Jesus
All I am and have and ever hope to be
Jesus, all for Jesus
All I am and have and ever hope to be
All of my ambitions, hopes and plans
I surrender these into Your hands
All of my ambitions, hopes and plans
I surrender these into Your hands
For it’s only in Your will that I am free
For it’s only in Your will that I am free
Jesus, all for Jesus
All I am and have and ever hope to be*
*Song lyrics are from Jesus All For Jesus (Featuring Robin Mark).
**The story of the Garden Gethsemane, as quoted above, is found in Matthew 26.