The Golden Chain - Robert J. Wieland

If He was under "tension" in Gethsemane and
as He hung on the cross, could He not have been
under a holy tension during His entire lifetime
when He said, "I do not seek My own will but the
will of the Father who sent Me" (John 5:30)? The
verb is zeto which is the present indicative,
meaning, "I continually do not seek My own will,
but..." If we say that that was not "tension," but that
it was easy, how can we explain His sweating of
blood in Gethsemane, His "strong crying and tears"
(Hebrews 5:9)? He sweat blood in His struggle to
surrender His own will, to let the "I" be crucified.
We ourselves do indeed have a never-ending
"tension" to surrender self to the constant
convictions of the Holy Spirit, to bear our cross.
Christ never resisted the Holy Spirit as we have
done, but surely He knew the full force of our
temptation to resist. And not only did He know our
never-ending "tension" or struggle, He also knew a
never-ending victory over the temptation to indulge
the "as-I-will" as opposed to His Father's will. In
his sinless state Adam knew no such inner tension,
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