Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/7400

7400 The free will of man Jesus....

August 29, 1959: Book 78

The man Jesus had to die on the cross for His fellow human beings' guilt of sin, because without the death on the cross there was no redemption for them from their guilt. But He accomplished the act of salvation of His own free will, He was not forced to do so by anyone.... And therefore He had to walk an earthly path as a human being in which He completely united Himself with the eternal deity, i.e. He had to live a life of love and through love unite Himself with the eternal love. His earthly life was difficult and sorrowful because He knew about His mission, He also knew, because His nature was pure love, about everything that still happened and had to come and thus He also knew about His bitter suffering and death, He overlooked His life until the end for His immense agony. But He persevered.... It would certainly have been possible for Him to refuse, He need not have feared any coercion from God, for His will was respected like that of every other human being.... but in His love and wisdom He saw the appalling state of His fellow human beings and that there was no way out of it because people themselves were not strong enough to release themselves from the adversary's bondage by God. And the weakness of humanity took pity on Him and impelled Him to a work of mercy such as has only been accomplished once out of love for suffering humanity. His love was so profound that it prompted His decision to offer Himself to God as a sacrifice of atonement so that people could be released from their great guilt of sin and return to the father, Who eagerly awaits His children and who therefore also accepted the sacrifice of the man Jesus. Free will moved Jesus when, by virtue of His love, He recognized the misery humanity was in.... Only then did He become aware of His mission, only then.... when free will had decided in man.... He recognized that God Himself had chosen Him as a cover in order to accomplish the act of salvation in Him, and then He also knew about the entire crossroads which was His fate in earthly life. And He did not let Himself be deterred by this knowledge, He consciously walked amongst people and taught them so that they would make themselves worthy of the act of salvation through a right life of love, so that they would learn to recognize Him and the one Who sheltered Himself in Him through a right life of love.... But precisely this conscious path to the cross increased the extent of suffering He had taken upon Himself for humanity, for He knew about all the pain and suffering that awaited Him, and He often felt compelled to refrain from it and, by virtue of His free will, not to walk the path to the end.... Yet always only for a short time, for His love for His enslaved brothers was stronger and love determined His will to endure until the end and to go through all suffering and pain until His agonizing death on the cross, which, however, was then crowned by His glorious resurrection and ascension.... The man Jesus was not driven, He accomplished the work of salvation in free will, but He was full of love and the love in Him was the driving force for His work of mercy.... But love was God, and thus God in Jesus suffered the death of the cross, He accomplished the work of atonement for humanity, He took the guilt upon Himself and atoned for it.... He redeemed the world from sin and death....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers