An Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 62

1 BOOK III — CHAPTER 18: Further concerning volitions and free-wills: minds, too, and knowledges and wisdoms.

2 When we say that Christ is perfect God and perfect man, we assuredly attribute to Him all the properties natural to both the Father and mother. For He became man in order that that which was overcome might overcome. He, therefore, assumed the whole man, even the fairest part of him, which had become diseased, in order that He might bestow salvation on the whole. For that which is not assumed is not remedied.

3 So, then, He had by nature, both as God and as man, the power of will. But His human will was obedient and subordinate to His divine will, not being guided by its own inclination, but willing those things which the divine will willed. For it was with the permission of the divine will that He suffered by nature what was proper to Him.

4 For it was not as God only, but also as man, that He voluntarily surrendered Himself to the death. So, indeed, He said before His saving passion, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me, manifestly as though He were to drink the cup as man and not as God. It was as man, then, that He wished the cup to pass from Him. Nevertheless, He said, not My will, that is to say, not in so far as I am of a different essence from You, but Your will be done, that is to say, My will and Your will, in so far as I am of the same essence as Thou.

5 So that the soul of the Lord being moved of its own free-will willed, but willed of its free-will those things which His divine will willed it to will. Wherefore it was not in inclination but rather in natural power that the two wills of the Lord differed from one another. For His divine will was without beginning and all-effecting, as having power that kept pace with it, and free from passion; while His human will had a beginning in time, and itself endured the natural and innocent passions, and was not naturally omnipotent.