Many people wonder whether Christ voluntarily accepted death or whether God the Father sent him. It is often assumed that it was the Father who sent Christ. At the same time, the Gospel itself contains a plot of Gethsemane prayer, in which Christ asks God the Father that the cup of suffering pass by the Savior. However, the Orthodox Church otherwise answers the question posed.
In Orthodox Christianity, a clear answer is given to the question posed. Christ accepts the suffering voluntarily for the salvation of mankind. In dogma, there is the concept of the Eternal Council of the Trinity. This includes not only advice on the creation of man, but also the original message of the Trinity God about the fall of man and the need to save the latter through the death on the Cross of the second Person of the Holy Trinity.
In the Gospel, Christ directly says that he gives his life voluntarily: "No one takes My life from Me, but I myself give it away" (John 10, 18). This scripture clearly indicates that there was no compulsion of God the Father in relation to the Savior's sacrifice on the cross. As mentioned earlier, this way of salvation by man was originally provided by the Eternal Council.
Regarding the prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, it is worth explaining the following. In Christ there were two natures divine and human. Christ, as a man, was naturally “afraid” of death. Therefore, prayer should be understood as a human act. In addition, for humanity itself, the death of Christ was also unnatural in the sense that there was no sin on it (it is death that is the consequence of sin). However, the Savior voluntarily accepts bodily death, likening himself to all man (except sin).
It is also worth talking about the two wills in Christ (human and divine). In a particular place, it is precisely the human will in Christ that is spoken of. It is also worth noting that in the Savior itself, the human will was not contrary to the divine will, but was synergistic with the divine will.
Another passage in the Bible that indicates the voluntary death of Christ is a prophetic passage from the book of the prophet Isaiah, which says: "Who should I send and who will go for us? Then I answered, here I am! Send me!" (6th chapter, 8th verse). However, this place is an indirect confirmation of the voluntary death of Christ (in contrast to the passage of the Gospel of John).
Thus, the death of Christ was voluntary. God the Father did not force Christ to do this.
Another question: to whom was the sacrifice of the cross made? In Orthodox theology, the most dogmatically correct opinion is that the sacrifice was made to the whole Holy Trinity.
