Could Jesus have refused to die on the cross for our sins?

If you will quote the Scriptural references upon which you base these oppinions, I will be pleased to discuss them with you. But if you have no Scriptural references upon which you base these oppinions, then there is not very much to discuss.

 

Some people?

 

Dear Hank ,

I do not see in John 14:30b what you see. From my point of view the passage is somewhat obscure, and both the translators and commentators would seem to be in agreement with me.

-- King James
John 14:30 Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.

-- New King James
John 14:30 "I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.

-- American Standard
John 14:30 I will no more speak much with you, for the prince of the world cometh: and he hath nothing in me;

-- Revised Standard
John 14:30 I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me;

-- New American Standard
John 14:30 "I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me;

-- New Jerusalem
John 14:30 I shall not talk to you much longer,
because the prince of this world is on his way.
He has no power over me,

-- New American
John 14:30 I will no longer speak much with you, for the ruler of the world is coming. He has no power over me,

-- New Revised Standard
John 14:30 I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me;

-- Young's Bible
John 14:30 I will no more talk much with you, for the ruler of this world doth come, and in me he hath nothing;

-- Darby's Bible
John 14:30 I will no longer speak much with you, for the ruler of the world comes, and in me he has nothing;

-- Weymouth's New Testament
John 14:30 In future I shall not talk much with you, for the Prince of this world is coming. And yet in me he has nothing;

-- Webster's Bible
John 14:30 Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.

-- New Living Translation
John 14:30 "I don't have much more time to talk to you, because the prince of this world approaches. He has no power over me,

-- International Standard Version
John 14:30 I will not talk with you much longer, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me.

-- William's NewTestament
John 14:30 "I shall not talk much more with you, for the evil ruler<v> of this world is coming and he has nothing in common with me,

--NIV
30I will not speak with you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold on me, 31but the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me. "Come now; let us leave.

-- Montgomery New Testament
John 14:30. I shall not talk with you much more, for the Prince of this world is coming.
John 14:31. He has nothing in me, but in his coming the world may know that I love the Father, and that I do just as the Father commanded. Rise, let us be going!"

--Raymond E. Brown
I shall no longer speak [much] with you,
For the Prince of the world is coming.
Actually, he has no hold on me;
But the world must recognize that I love the Father
And that I do exactly as the Father has commanded me.
Get up! Let us leave here and be on our way.”


William Hendriksen writes on this passage,

“. . . indeed, nothing at all, for there was no guilt in him.”

J. H. Bernard (ICC Commentary) writes on this passage,

“‘and has nothing in me,’ i.e. has no point in my personality on which he can fasten.”

Leon Morris (New International Commentary) writes on this passage,

“The meaning of ‘He hath nothing in me’ in detail is not easy to see, though the general sense is clear enough. It is sin which gives Satan his hold on men, but there is no sin in Jesus as in others. Perhaps ‘There is no point at which He can take hold’ is somewhere near it.”

B. F. Westcott writes on this passage,

“More exactly, and in me he hath nothing—nothing which falls under his power. There was in Christ nothing which the devil could claim as belonging to his sovereignty. In others he finds that which is his own, and enforces death as his due; but Christ offered Himself voluntarily. He was not of the world.”

J. N. Sanders and B. A. Mastin (Harper’s New Testament Commentaries) writes on this passage,

“30. The time for words is past, and that for action has arrived. The enemy is at hand—the ruler of the world, i.e. Satan. Jesus is ready to submit to his usurped power, in spite of the fact that he has no claim upon him, because he will thereby break his power (cf. xii. 31). 31. By this submission he will show the world his love for the Father by acting in obedience to his will. Thus at last he complies with the challenge of his brothers to show himself to the world (vii. 4), now that his time has come (cf. vii. 6).”

Raymond E. Brown (Anchor Bible) writes on this passage,

“Some have suggested that the statement that the Prince of the world has no hold on Jesus refers to the fact that Jesus lays down his life of his own choice and no one takes it from him (x 18). However, we are actually past the moment when Jesus submitted himself to death; for in xiii 27 after Satan entered into Judas, Jesus told Judas to do what he was going to do. Now a more likely source of confidence is that no one will be given power over Jesus except by the Father's permission (xix 11). The contention in 31 that the struggle with the Prince of the world will show that Jesus does as the Father has commanded him indicates that the Father's control of what is happening will prevent the Prince of the world from gaining any hold over Jesus. Once again we are not to think that the results of the struggle will be immediately evident to the world. If from the struggle the world must come to recognize Jesus' relation to the Father (31), it will be the task of the Paraclete to prove this to the world (xvi 8-11).

“Verse 31 is the only passage in the NT that states that Jesus loves the Father. What this love consists in is made clear by the second line, for the "and" that joins the second line to the first is epexegetical (Bultmann, p. 488)—the love consists in doing what the Father has commanded, just as the Christian's love for Jesus consists in doing what Jesus has commanded. No one can accuse the evangelist of not being a realist!

“In vol. 29, pp. 470-71, we showed that while John does not describe the agony in Gethsemane, elements parallel to that scene are scattered through John. Some of these are found in 30-31. The mention of the coming of the Prince of the world resembles Luke xxii 53 where Jesus acknowledges that the moment of his arrest is the hour of "the power of darkness." The directive in 31 to get up and leave is the same directive given by Jesus in Mark xiv 42 as Judas approaches the garden: "Get up! Let us leave." In this context we may compare John's "I do exactly as the Father has commanded me" with Luke xxii 42: "Father ... not my will but yours be done." Mark xiv 42, just cited, ends with these words: "See, the one who hands me over is at hand." This is a reference to Judas' approach; John is more interested in the approach of Satan who is the real force acting in Judas (xiii 2, 27)."