“Now, was not the will of Christ as Mediator as victorious in the issue over the reluctance, as it had been in the capacity of a man desirous of the removal of the cup? The human will yields to the divine will, and conforms itself, not only in a quiet posture, to the resolves of God, but in an ardent desire that his will might be performed. There was more of obedience in ‘Thy will be done, not mine,’ and more of ardent affections in ‘Father, glorify thyself,’ than there was of reluctancy in ‘Let this cup pass from me,’ or, ‘Save me from this hour.’ He disclaims the will of his human nature, to perform the will of his Father’s mercy” (Stephen Charnock, Christ Crucified).
Like Perkins, Witsius, and Newton, Stephen Charnock also does not perceive the crucial significance of Hebrews 5:7. Clearly none of the aforementioned blasphemers had soberly considered Hebrews 5:7.
“Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him; Called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec” (Hebrews 5:7-10; underlining mine).
Jesus Christ WAS HEARD of His Father since He is ALWAYS HEARD of His Father (cf. John 11:41-42). The Father DID LET THE CUP PASS from Christ and He DID “SAVE HIM FROM DEATH” (Hebrews 5:7). Jesus Christ — the God-Man Mediator — drank the cup of damnation dry for all whom He represented, and was raised from the dead on their behalf and makes intercession for them as their great High Priest after the order of Melchisedec (Romans 8:34; Hebrews 5:6, 10).
To ACTUALLY DRINK the cup of damnation dry for all whom He represented at the cross and to be “raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father” (Romans 6:4) IS THE PASSING AWAY OF THE CUP and the salvation from death for which Christ prayed, and thus was in fact “HEARD IN THAT HE FEARED” (Hebrews 5:7).
[A related aside: Certain God-haters who believe Jesus Christ died for everyone without exception necessarily imply that Jesus Christ never ceases drinking the cup, and thus the cup NEVER “[passes] away from [Him], except [He] drink it” (Matthew 26:42). In short, they DENY Christ made satisfaction for ALL for whom He died; they DENY that Christ is the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of world (John 1:29).]
A “struggle of his human nature” and “a natural motion evidencing the truth of his humanity and the greatness of what he was to suffer” is seen clearly and sufficiently in Matthew 26:38-42 and Hebrews 5:7; it is NOT seen in Stephen Charnock’s euphemistic blasphemy.
Agrammatos 