Did Jesus have a choice?

Short answer

1. Because Jesus is 100% human as well as 100% God, Jesus has a fully human will in his human nature. Just like us, Jesus had free will at every turn. Going to the cross was a completely voluntary mission out of love. Being voluntary, it could have been rejected without making it a sin. So Jesus acted with full freedom, making a true choice.
2. But as shown below, not going to the cross is a self contradiction for Jesus, because since before the incarnation this "cup of suffering" was planned. It is God who assumed human nature as Jesus, how could God contradict his own will, a divine contradiction? So in the second sense, Jesus did not have a "choice".
3. To resolve this, we have to properly understand what "obedience to the Father" means. Chalcedonian definition really helps us here. "obedience" / "submission" is not subjecting one's will to the will of a more powerful being, But "obedience" is Jesus in his human nature saying YES with gladness to participate and to realize (in the day to day execution) the plan his own divine nature (with the Father) had decided before.
4. The great cost of going to the cross and the agony of fear in Gethsemane is simply the consequence of creaturely human nature (which we also possess) undertaking such immense mission, which Jesus gladly endured out of love. This submission to suffering can be seen as Jesus (in his human nature) making his desires and feelings to obey his will to love. In his humanity he is asking the Father for strength, since in Gethsemane he freely obscured his own divine nature so he can be in solidarity with us.

Longer answer

@HoldToTheRod's answer is short and to the point, and I agree with him. However, given that in mainstream Christianity Jesus is both 100% human and also the Second Person of the Trinity (Son of God), there are unresolved questions that Trinitarian Christianity has to address.

For example:

• Given that God and the Son of God is one being, how is it possible that Jesus "disobeyed"?
• In what sense is it meaningful for Jesus to not want to go to the cross when the very purpose of His coming to earth is to do precisely that?
• Why couldn't God simply forgive us by fiat, why did Jesus have to die?
• Why is it so hard for Jesus as the Son of God to go to the cross in the first place? Isn't he the Son of God through whom the world was created?
• How is the dialog between Jesus and the Father even possible, isn't it like talking to oneself?

Below, I try to answer your question from the perspective of Jesus as the Son of God who takes on a human nature, per Chalcedonian Definition. In my previous answers that deal with this topic (here, here, and here), I cited Eleonore Stump explaining how exactly Jesus is both God and man at the same time: how Jesus never lose his divinity but can choose to operate ONLY in his human nature temporarily so that Jesus could truly see and feel the world around him as we do.

My answer below will explore all the significance of Jesus's having this choice and freedom in going to the cross, from the incarnation perspective.

Did Jesus have a true choice?

I'm going to answer YES, in light of the 3 points below about the meaning and purpose of incarnation.

Firstly, as Eleonore Stump explained, incarnation means that Jesus is a single integrated individual that looks 100% human, but who can access both his human and divine natures. At any particular moment Jesus can freely choose whether to access his human nature only (temporarily obscuring his divine nature), his divine nature only, or both at the same time. So in some of Jesus's acts his divinity shines (forgiving sins, doing miracles, knowing what people think); in other acts his humanity shines (didn't realize his parents were looking for him when he was 12, growing in wisdom and stature, weeping for Lazarus, fearful in Gethsemane, etc.).

Secondly, we need to remember that one of the several purposes of Jesus as the Second Person of the Trinity to assume human nature (cf. Phil 2:6-11) to show solidarity with the humans He created by being incarnate as an everyday unprivileged human being. This is God's way of saying "I'm with you", being aware of all the limitations of living as a creature living in the least desirable corner of the Roman empire. That is also why Jesus was befriending repentant sinners, social outcast, and the unjustly oppressed.

Thirdly, the human nature that God "wears" is free from the power of sin (and of original sin), so all his acts in his human nature is unencumbered by concupiscence (disordered desires). Why is this important? One reason is so he could truly be a Second Adam, a "redo". God is showing us

1. what Adam could have accomplished if he didn't eat the fruit that led to his spiritual death, and
2. a perfect human being who loves God perfectly and who loves our neighbors perfectly, a role model to imitate.

For this purpose, it is obvious that Jesus would need to have exactly the same kind of will that human beings have.

CONCLUSION: In light of the two purposes of incarnation described above (solidarity and moral exemplar) Jesus would have possessed the same kind of free will that ordinary human beings possess, although in his case it is unencumbered by the effects of original sin. Otherwise we cannot meaningfully imitate Jesus (in his human nature).

Could Jesus have refused his mission and remain sinless?

This is a hypothetical question, so I'm going to answer speculatively (!!), just so that we can appreciate better of how God saves us through incarnation.

• YES, Jesus in his human nature could have refused his mission, but then it would have created a conflict with Jesus in his divine nature who wanted to save humanity through his mission.

• YES, Jesus in his human nature would have remained sinless (I emphasize human nature, because divine nature cannot sin by definition). Why? Jesus was NOT under a moral obligation to sacrifice himself. Jesus could have been a sinless Jew doing good to others and teaching them about God as a 1st century AD Jew living in that corner of the Roman empire.

  It wasn't as if Jesus was drafted as a soldier as in today's Israel / South Korea / Singapore where every male needs to undergo a short military training and be ready to serve when needed. In other words, we should NOT see Jesus obeying the Father like a dutiful soldier who would be sinning by deserting his duty.

  Although doing one's duty is a form of love, to show us perfect love it is important that the mission to undergo suffering for us is completely optional and voluntary, done out of perfect love for us. A modern equivalent would be the Catholic notion of Evangelical counsels where people who desire to love God and neighbors more radically (like Jesus), would renounce the world by taking a voluntary vow of poverty, celibacy, and obedience (again, like Jesus).

CONCLUSION: Yes, Jesus (in his human nature) could have refused the mission and remained sinless. But by doing this, humanity would not be saved, only taught like how Moses taught Israel. Even worse, this is a theoretical impossibility since how can God frustrates his own plan: a self-contradiction?

Understanding the apparent conflict of wills

Now that we have settled how Jesus in his human nature had to die on the cross voluntarily out of love, how are we then to understand Jesus's prayer to let the "cup of suffering" be taken away (Mt 26:36-39, Mk 14:32-36, Lk 22:41-44 followed by "Yet I want your will to be done, not mine", which is also affirmed more positively in Jn 18:11 as "Shall I not drink from the cup of suffering the Father has given me?" How do we solve the apparent conflict of 2 wills or the existence of 2 persons? How do we properly understand "obedience" since we ruled out the notion of a soldier obeying out of mere duty?

This is where the doctrine of Chalcedonian incarnation truly shines, where there is only one person but two natures. I think we can understand it in two ways:

1. Dyothelitism conceives that there are 2 wills or 2 modes of operations corresponding to the 2 natures of Jesus. Prior to incarnation, Jesus in his divine nature already planned the path that Jesus in his human nature was going to take, a plan formed in love of humanity. During Jesus's mission, the will in his human nature voluntarily chose to realize his own divine plan day by day. From CCC 475:

   Similarly, at the sixth ecumenical council, Constantinople III in 681, the Church confessed that Christ possesses two wills and two natural operations, divine and human. They are not opposed to each other, but cooperate in such a way that the Word made flesh willed humanly in obedience to his Father all that he had decided divinely with the Father and the Holy Spirit for our salvation. Christ's human will "does not resist or oppose but rather submits to his divine and almighty will."

2. In Gethsemane, Jesus chose to access ONLY his human nature, thus being in solidarity with every one of us who is in agony to glorify our Father in heaven through the voluntary choice of a difficult mission of love. In his human nature Jesus was battling the conflict between his desire to preserve himself (constituent of the natural order, thus morally okay) and his loving intention to continue his mission which requires him (if he accepts) to drink "the cup of suffering". Instead of using Dyothelitism "your will to be done, not mine" may also be interpreted not as the existence of two wills but as his exertion to make his desires align with his will to suffer. This is similar to soldiers in the eve of battle.

CONCLUSION: There are many verses implying that Jesus was devoted to obeying His Father. Many Christians say that this includes going to the cross, as a supreme example of obedience, as though submission to death in itself is a virtue! In my opinion this makes the Father look like a tyrant who if not obeyed results in one sinning against the all powerful God. One disobedience, and you go to hell. Who can love such a God?

In my opinion, it is much better (and consistent with Jesus's two natures) to see "obedience" and "submission" as the human Jesus agreeing at every turn with his own pre-conceived divine plan to love humanity: the human saying YES with the Father out of desire to love, including drinking the cup of suffering.

More appreciation of what Jesus has done for us

Having established the purpose of incarnation and the voluntary nature of Jesus's mission (in his human nature), I hope we can now appreciate what Jesus was going through mentally and psychologically as He sojourned with us on earth. God could have forgiven us by fiat, but that's not the way He chose. He wanted to save us while simultaneously being in solidarity with us so that in the plan of salvation Jesus also became a moral exemplar for us:

• to arouse our love for God (in response to Jesus's sacrifice)
• to arouse our solidarity with the oppressed around us (because Jesus did it first)
• to show how it IS possible to love God perfectly (because Jesus demonstrated it)

Although Jesus's mission was his own (i.e. God did not call us to fulfill OT prophecies such as Ps 22 and Isa 53), we can still learn from Ps 22 and Isa 53 as a pattern of loving others, since Jesus in his human nature was a willing "solder" / "hero" / "victim" who completed his mission out of true love, not simply out of duty / obedience.

• In the first part of Ps 22 we can read as Jesus's plea to God for strength in the moment of crucifixion (and in whatever suffering / struggle that we incur for following Jesus) while in the second part of Ps 22 we can read as Jesus's affirmation of faith in God who will save him (just as we have the sure hope of resurrection when we feel we cannot go further while in the service of love).
• In Isa 53 we can read Jesus as the suffering servant through whom humanity will be absolved from their sin. Of course we are not absolving anyone's sin, but while we are persecuted by our enemies we can
  • know that Jesus is with us when everyone else despises / abandons us (v. 3)
  • know that Jesus truly understands us when others (like Job's friends) think we are punished by God for our suffering (v. 4b-5a)
  • be gracious when we suffer because of other's sin (v. 4a,6)
  • know we are not alone when we are unjustly condemned (v. 8a,8b)
  • give our lives to defend our family / friends / country to save them from aggression (v. 8c)
  • have strong hope in the midst of our suffering that the payoff is satisfaction (v. 11), that we will receive honors of a victorious soldier (v. 12) and that we will enjoy prosperous eternal life in the life to come (v. 10)