December 7, 2004

THE OBEDIENT SON

"Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered" (Hebrews 5:8, NKJV).

As God's Son, Jesus always complied perfectly and voluntarily with His Father's will (see John 8:29). What then does it mean that He "learned obedience by the things which He suffered?" To learn obedience in this sense entailed suffering and death as a human being. Hence, Jesus "became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross" (Philippians 2:8). Our Saviour did not need to be disciplined because of any innate inclination to disobedience, but He learned obedience as a special course of voluntary submission that He might be perfected as a genuine high priest who was "touched with the feeling of our infirmities" (Hebrews 4:15).

In His earthly life, Christ developed like any other human being. He "increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man" (Luke 2:52). As a human being, He learned by experience as do others, yet without ever sinning. He gained this knowledge by being a human being and facing the temptations of life that each must face. In so doing, our Lord satisfied an essential qualification for the office of priesthood--namely, the appointee must be a member of the human family (see Hebrews 5:1-3).

Christ "learned obedience by the things which He suffered" (Hebrews 5:8, NKJV). Through this process He was perfected as our high priest (see Hebrews 7:26). As the obedient Son, Jesus became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him (see Hebrews 5:9). As Ellen White puts it. "Christ lived a human life that He might be man's example in all things. He endured temptation even as every human being must endure. He believed God as we must believe. He learned obedience even as we are required to learn obedience. And He overcame as we must overcome."--Bible Echo and Signs of the Times, September 3, 1900.

My Prayer Today: Lord, may I become Your child through Christ, the "Obedient Son," Amen.