Although he was a son, he learned obedience though what he suffered, and being made perfect he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him.
Hebrews 5:8-9
JT Hudsons translation reads, “he learnt, by what he suffered, how to obey.”
Phil 2:12/13 ~
As you’ve always obeyed ... work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
The Amplified translation adds; effectually at work in you energizing and creating in you the power and desire both to will and work for his good pleasure, satisfaction and delight.
And finally, Hebrews 12: 7;11.....
“It is for discipline that we have to endure God is treating you as sons...... For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”
My thought today is, there are things that God has prepared for us to walk in, that until we are “prepared”, we will not walk in them. There is an alternate school of hard knocks and its teachers are pride and disobedience. We want to avoid that costly education.
Since Jesus, as a son, learned how to obey, the course of our life will follow the same pattern with the same opportunities for suffering. Jesus was never sick, broke or in any way unable to live victoriously in his circumstances, yet, he suffered many things at the hands of others that he submitted himself to in order to be “tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin”. He was able to do so as He “committed himself to him who judges righteously.”
Would it, could it, possibly be easier for us to endure our temptations, tests and trials if we really believed that IN them there was something greater being worked IN us for the purpose of being worked THROUGH us? Paul wrote to the Corinthians that there is no temptation that comes to us that God is not faithful to make a way of escape so we CAN bear it. When Paul asked God, three different times, to deliver him from the persecution of the Jewish leaders, Gods response was, my grace is sufficient. Paul learned to call these temptations and trials momentary light afflictions, because he understood it was working a far greater weight of glory IN him.
No temptation comes that is beyond our ability to endure it because grace abounds. In my moments of struggle, grace doesn’t seem to be the first thing I lean into. Yet in these verses today we can find strength to help, knowing that obedience is the first step to help our escape, whatever we are facing. This obedience requires a submission on my part to the will and purposes of God - “humble yourself under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time.”
It is during these times of pressure that we have the opportunity to conform to the character of Christ. Whatever or whenever the outcome of our battles, if our character is made more Christlike we are winners indeed, having been more conformed to the image of the perfect son.
How encouraging is it to know that God is the one at work in the midst of this. We are reminded that He works all things together for God to those who are called according to His purpose. The purpose is conformity to the image of His son.
So, as sons and daughters, the next time we hit trouble, let’s hold the thought that something good is working in us and lean into perfect obedience. His perfect obedience created the source of eternal salvation for us and our obedience to Him is the indicator we are learning.
Though he was a son, he learned obedience by the things he suffered.