Articles
He Chose Not To
Could Jesus have saved himself from the Jews and crucifixion? Trying to answer that in a couple of paragraphs will be hard. The crowd, the religious leaders, and even one of the thiefs punished with Him said "get yourself down", "save yourself" or "IF you are Christ, save yourself and us"! They taunted Him, not believing that He could. But could He?
The bottom line is, yes, Jesus could have had He chosen to. Matt 26:53 He says He could call on God, and have "twelve legions of angels" at his disposal. He could have put a stop to it at any point along the way, even before His arrest.
But, the answer is also NO! Let me suggest that if Christ were to do what He came to do, He could not have saved Himself. If He were to demonstrate the love He had, He could not save Himself. If He were going to open the gate to Heaven for the rest of us, He could not have come down from the cross. If He were going to defeat death and thus Satan, He could not save Himself. He said He came to do His Father's will, and if He were to do that, He could not have come down from the cross!
It's not that He didn't have the power. On the contrary, He used His power to NOT use His power. If the whole ministry of Jesus were to be validated, to be real, to have been the fulfillment of prophecy, to save sinners like us, Jesus could not have saved Himself and He knew it. He knew it had to happen this way, and only this way.
When I was in about the 3rd grade, I recall asking my bible class teacher why Jesus didn't fight back, as I knew He had supernatural power. He could have performed a miracle and called those angles. I don't know what my teacher's answer was, but I'm sure she tried to explain why He could not, not if He were to finish what He came to do.
Thank you Jesus, for submitting to the Father's will, and thank you God, for saving us at such a great cost to yourself!
