God's will is done, regardless, which is what Jesus is saying. Read a better translation...
"Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done."
Just like in the sermon on mount --
"Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven..."
Christ provides an example, a clear example as to his followers that faith is an act of will
Whose will? The natural man's will or the spiritual man's will? One is left in its fallen state, unable to choose righteousness, while the other has been reborn by the Holy Spirit to "know the things of God," in order to repent, obey and believe.
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me" -- John 10:26-27"But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you.
So faith isn't "an act of will" independent of God. Faith is a gift from God to His own.
Not knowing the Bible or refusing to believe what it says because it doesn't say what we want it to say is idolatry and eisegesis.
I agree completely.
Yes; but the fact remains (or so it seems to me) that man is free to reject God's great gift of faith. This would be an act of will independent of God.
My dear brother in Christ Quix gives several examples of the forms this attitude can take, at Post #864.
But then again, I take your meaning WRT the qualification, "from God to His own".... God's sheep know their shepherd, and the Shepherd knows His own.
Omniscient God knows from timelessness how individual men (souls) will choose in time; but He does not compel or determine their choice. In this sense, there is free will in the world. A man is free to choose evil — even the evil that he knows (consciously or perhaps subconsciously) will hurt him.
God's answer for this was to send His only-begotten Son into the world, His Truth, Whose example redeems us from this sort of soul-destroying, fatal error.... At least among those who have the "ears to hear," and the "eyes to see."
But that amounts to persuading, not compelling, those with the ears and eyes.
What I don't know is whether there are human souls born into this world without ears and eyes. Would the God of justice and truth allow this to happen?
What if every man was born with the ears and eyes, but then some choose to shut them up against all the freely available evidence that God is Lord and Master of all creation from beginning to end? And humans are His natural-born children, made in His image?
The great philosopher Henri Bergson spoke of the situation of l'ame overt and l'ame close — of the condition of a soul open to God, or as closed to God. Bergson suggests this is a matter of human will. It seems to me God would not have created a soul to be inexorably, determinedly closed to Him in the first place.... Thus made for damnation from the very beginning?
Whatever the case, the Lord alone knows how it all turns out in the End....
Obviously dear sister in Christ, I have more questions than answers.
Thus I rest in God the Father, His Son, and the Holy Spirit: If I don't have the answers, I'm entirely confident that God does. And maybe someday He will share them with me. But probably not in "this" world....
Whatever the case, God's will WILL be done, in heaven and on earth. I'm entirely confident about that, too.
And with this understanding comes peace — and joy.
God's blessings be upon you, dear sister in Christ!