The Representative Human Conflict
Matthew 26:36-39
Then comes Jesus with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, Sit you here, while I go and pray yonder.…


Our Savour's conflict in Gethsemane was a representative conflict, and it reveals to us the meaning of human life, and the struggle through which we must pass.

I. There are only two wills in the world-God's wilt, and man's will.

II. The blessedness of man, the creature, must lie in the harmonious working together of these two wills.

III. These two wills are at present in antagonism.

IV. How can these two wills be brought together into harmony? Answer —

1. Not by any changing of the perfect will of God.

2. Man's will is wrong, imperfect, misguided, it may be changed, it ought to be changed, it must be changed. Here is the proper first sphere of a redeeming work. What shall change it? The truth as it is in Jesus. The work wrought out for us by Jesus. The grace won for us by Jesus. The constraining of the love of Jesus. The power of the risen and living Jesus.

(Selected.)



Parallel Verses
KJV: Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder.

WEB: Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to his disciples, "Sit here, while I go there and pray."




The Prayer in Gethsemane
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