GOD’S WORD FOR FEBRUARY 14 ~ ~ “Hebrews 5:8 ~ ~Although He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.”

Hebrews 2:10 ~ ~ “For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.”

Day 3 of John Piper’s 50 reasons Christ suffered and died; in His book, “The Passion of Jesus Christ.”

Christ Suffered and Died……….

TO LEARN OBEDIENCE AND BE PERFECTED

The very book in the Bible that says Christ “learned obedience: through suffering, and that He was “made perfect” through suffering, also says that He was “without sin.”  Hebrews 4:15 tells us:

“In every respect He has been tempted as we are, YET WITHOUT SIN.”

This is the consistent teaching of the Bible.  Christ was sinless.  Although He was the divine Son of God, He was really human, with all our temptations and appetites and physical weaknesses.  There was hunger (Matthew 21:18) and anger and grief (Mark 3:5) and pain (Matthew 17:12). 

But His heart was perfectly in love with God, neither was deceit found in His mouth (1Peter 2:22).

Therefore, when the Bible says that Jesus “learned obedience through what He suffered,” it doesn’t mean that He learned to stop disobeying!  It means that with each new trial He learned in practice – and in pain – what it means for us to obey.  (We also need to see that this time of His humanity was the only time He and the Father were separated.  He prayed to His Father as we do now, instead of being one with Him in the sense they were since eternity past.   When He became a man, He subjugated Himself to the Father, and only did the Father’s will, –we see this in Gethsemane –‘but Your will be done, not Mine.’ as opposed to them being of one mind constantly since before creation.   In that sense, He had to learn what it was like to be subjugated to anyone – even the Father.  He wanted to experience everything we have to experience.) (Hebrews 4:15)—

When it says that He was “made perfect through suffering,” it doesn’t mean that He was gradually getting rid of defects.  It means that He was gradually fulfilling the perfect righteousness he had to have in order to save us. (In the Greek language, the word which is translated “perfect” mean “complete”—not “perfect” as we think of the word.  He was completing His work on earth for our salvation.  Many Greek and Hebrew words are difficult to translate into English, so we need to study and compare with other verses, as well as the original language and context, to understand what the writer was actually saying).

That’s what He said at His baptism.  He didn’t need to be baptized because He was a sinner.  Rather, He explained to John the Baptist, “Thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”  (Matthew 3:15).

The point is this:

IF THE SON OF GOD HAD GONE FROM INCARNATION TO THE CROSS WITHOUT A LIFE OF TEMPTATION AND PAIN TO TEST HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS AND HIS LOVE, HE WOULD NOT BE A SUITABLE SAVIOR FOR FALLEN MAN.  His suffering not only absorbed the wrath of God.  It also fulfilled His true humanity and made Him able to call us brothers and sisters. (Hebrews 2:17).

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