Jesus Christ's Soveriegnty in His Passion

Scripture says: "No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself." (John 10:18)

A.W. Pink says, "When Christ died, He did so of His own voluntary will. This is a point of vital importance. We must never give a place to the dishonoring thought that the Lord Jesus was powerless to prevent His sufferings, that when He endured such indignities and cruel treatment at the hands of His enemies, it was because He was unable to avoid them. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The treachery of Judas, the arrest in the Garden, the arraignment before Caiaphas, the insults from the soldiers, the trial before Pilate, the submission to the unjust sentence, the journey to Calvary, the being nailed to the cruel tree - all of these were voluntarily endured. Without His own consent none could have harmed a hair of His head. A beautiful type of this is furnished in Gen. 22:13, where we read that the ram, which was placed on the altar as a substitute for Isaac, was 'caught in a thicket by his horns.' The 'horns' speak of strength and power (see Hab 3:4, etc.). Typically they tell us that the Saviour did not succumb to death through weakness, but that He gave up His strength. It was not the nails, but the strength of His love to the Father and to His elect, which held Him to the Cross."

Philippians 2:5-11 also speaks of Christ humbling Himself.