What God Learns Teaches Us
Jesus learned obedience from what he suffered.
A championship basketball team doesn’t have to be undefeated in the regular season to win the tournament – sometimes they’re even better prepared for the tournament because they learned from a loss or two earlier in the season. So also Jesus wins salvation for us partly because of the trials and troubles along the way that prepared him for even more intense suffering during Holy Week.
“Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered” (Hebrews 5:8).
Being the Son of God, Jesus always knew he must obey God the Father because of his position as a son, just like all children know it is their duty and obligation to obey their parents. But Jesus developed beyond that, and learned to obey his Father because he wanted to, because he loved his Father who loves him, because he submitted his own desires to those of the Father and those desires merged to become one. That loving obedience developed more extensively in Jesus over time “from what he suffered.”
If the Son of God changes to become better at what he does because of suffering, can’t we change our attitude about pain and suffering from wanting (needing) to live on this earth without it, to instead wanting to become better because of it?
“Being made complete, [Jesus] became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him” (v.9). Jesus’ painful prayers, tearful cries, and human suffering all helped to make him complete, filling him up to do what the Father sent him to do: suffer and die to save sinners.
Your forgiveness and faith begin with him as the source, not you, not your circumstances, and not your feelings. Jesus is the source. Having been made complete, Jesus now has an endless supply of salvation to give for every person, with whatever problem, on any day. And it belongs to anyone whose conscientious concern is turned toward Jesus like his was turned toward his Father in an obedience that wants to believe in him, wants to follow him, and wants to glorify him.
The Bible reveals that God, who engineered the beginning of life, doesn’t just know your life but completely experienced your living in Jesus. God, who oversees all suffering, doesn’t just orchestrate the bad for your good but completely experienced your suffering in Jesus. God, who succeeded in his plan to defeat death, doesn’t just make you eternal promises but completely experienced your death in Jesus, now risen. He is the only one who perfectly knows, and also completely understands, everything you need.
So the question isn’t if that changes you, but rather how much. And the Bible also has that answer: completely.
PRAYER: Help me learn from suffering, Jesus. Help me discern the difference between suffering I shouldn’t fear because you have delivered me from it, and suffering I shouldn’t ignore because you are with me through it. Amen.