Does the Son have a will that can contradict the will of the Father?

On the divine will and unity of the Holy Trinity, G. L. Prestige says, “Origen³⁷⁴ observes that the will of God is present in the will of the Son, and the will of the Son is undeviating from the will of the Father, so that there are no longer two wills but one will, which single will provides the reason for our Lord's assertion that ‘I and the Father are one.’ He repeats³⁷⁵ that the Father and the Son are two ‘things’ ( pragmata ) in objectivity, but one in consent and harmony and identity of purpose. Athanasius³⁷⁶ follows Origen in maintaining the position that there is one will which proceeds from the Father and is in the Son, so that from this fact the Son may be seen in the Father and the Father in the Son.”³⁷⁷

G. L. Prestige also says, “As God is one in will, so is He one in operation or ‘energy.’ This doctrine goes back to Athanasius, where it forms part of his proof of the deity of the Holy Spirit. Thus he argues at some length³⁷⁸ that, since the Father is light and the Son is the radiance from that light, the Holy Spirit, being the agent by the reception of whom mankind receives its enlightenment, must be discernible in the Son; when, therefore, we are enlightened by the Spirit, it is Christ who in Him enlightens us, since St. John has said that it is Christ who is the true light that enlightens every man. Similarly, the Father is the source and the Son is called the river that flows from that source, yet the Scripture says that we drink of the Spirit, because in drinking of the Spirit we drink Christ: and again Christ is the true Son, but it is through receiving the Spirit that we are made sons and have received the Spirit of adopted sonship. So he concludes³⁷⁹ that there is a holy and perfect triad expressed in Father and Son and Holy Spirit, which contains nothing foreign or derived from an external source; its nature is self-consistent (literally, ‘similar to itself’) and indivisible, and its ‘energy’ is one; for the Father acts invariably through the Word in the Holy Spirit. Thus the unity of the holy triad is preserved, and so one God is preached in the Church, who is over

373 St. Hilary of Poitiers, The Trinity 2.1 (FOTC 25:35–36).

374 Origen, Commentary on the Gospel of John (Books 13–32) 13.228 (FOTC 89:115).

375 Origen, Against Celsus 8.12 (ANF 4:644).

376 St. Athanasius of Alexandria, Four Discourses Against the Arians 3.66 (NPNF II/4:430).

377 G. L. Prestige, God in Patristic Thought , (London: SPCK, 1936): p. 256.

378 St. Athanasius of Alexandria, The Letters of Saint Athanasius Concerning the Holy Spirit to Bishop

Serapion , trans. C. R. B. Shapland, (Epworth Press, 1951), Epistle 1:19: pp. 108–113.

379 St. Athanasius of Alexandria, The Letters of Saint Athanasius Concerning the Holy Spirit to Bishop

Serapion , trans. C. R. B. Shapland, (Epworth Press, 1951), Epistle 1:28: pp. 133–136.

all and through all and in all; over all, as Father, the arche and fount; through all, through the Word; and in all, in the Holy Spirit.”³⁸⁰

St. Didymus of Alexandria defends the one will of the Holy Trinity.³⁸¹ And St. Cyril³⁸² affirms the unity of the work of the Holy Trinity: “the Father works, but through the Son in the Spirit; and the Son works, but as the power of the Father, since His individual [hypostatic] being is from the Father and in the Father; and the Spirit works, because he is the Spirit of the Father and the Son, universally active.”³⁸³

St. Cyril the Great says, “The one who gives the divine Spirit, the Life-Giver, is the Son born of God, who shares life, and receives the divine nature, the Word, from the Father; in whom are the Son and life-giving Spirit, and the latter creates life for those who partake of Him.”³⁸⁴

“In the one divine nature, the three distinct Hypostasis unite in a single sublime beauty; and we too are molded by accepting the seal of the Son in the Spirit.”³⁸⁵

“Thanks to the Spirit, who molds us according to the beauty of the divine exalted Son, so that we partake of the divine nature.”³⁸⁶

“The Son endows us with the perfection of the aroma of the One who begat Him (the Father). By Him and in Him we receive the aroma of the knowledge of God, and are enriched by it.”³⁸⁷

St. Irenaeus says, “who, as regards His greatness, is indeed unknown to all who have been made by Him … but as regards His love, He is always known through Him by whose means He ordained all things. Now this is His Word, our Lord Jesus Christ … in order that man, having embraced the Spirit of God, might pass into the glory of the Father.”³⁸⁸

St. Ambrose says, “with absolutely no exceptions, the Son has the same will that the Father has.”³⁸⁹

380 G. L. Prestige, God in Patristic Thought , (London: SPCK, 1936): pp. 257–258.

381 St. Didymus the Blind, De Trinitate 2:1 (PG 39:448–454).

382 St. Cyril of Alexandria, De Trinitate Dialogus 6 (PG 75:1053–1056 ⁶¹⁸); see also his Commentary on St. John, vol. 2, 10.2 (on John 15:1): pp. 363–375.

383 G. L. Prestige, God in Patristic Thought , (London: SPCK, 1936): pp. 261–262.

384 St. Cyril of Alexandria, De Trinitate Dialogus 5 (PG 75:964B).

385 St. Cyril of Alexandria, De Trinitate Dialogus 5 (PG 75:964B).

386 St. Cyril of Alexandria, De Trinitate Dialogus 3 (PG 75:837C).

387 St. Cyril of Alexandria, De Trinitate Dialogus 3 (PG 75:856C).

388 St. Irenaeus of Lyon, Against Heresies 4.20.4 (ANF 1:488; PG 7:1034B).

389 St. Ambrose of Milan, Exposition of the Christian Faith 2.6.51 (NPNF II/10:230) amended.