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