Verse: Hebrews 5:7-10
7 During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. 8 Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered 9 and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him 10 and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek.
Devotion
This is just another beautiful picture of how much God loves you and me. Think about God in heaven for all eternity. He never had to “learn obedience.” Everyone and everything obeys him. But out of his great love for us, he became one of us, and in so doing, learned obedience…through what he suffered.
These verses are obviously alluding to his time in the Garden of Gethsemane, but overall when you think about obedience, it often (if not always) costs us something. It costs us the freedom of “doing whatever we want to please ourselves.”
Jesus, God incarnate, learned obedience as a child, a teen, and a young adult. He learned obedience in big challenges and in every day life. He learned obedience in front of others, and in private. Just last chapter we were told that he was “tempted in every way.”
Imagine Jesus battling temptation. You and I both know this battle, don’t we? We know the desire to do God’s will competing with our desire to do what we want. It’s a powerful struggle. We know the desire to ignore God’s commands because it would be easier, or more fun, or get us more friends, or give us more pleasure.
And this is why obedience is learned through suffering. To obey will cost us. When we obey we choose to “lay on the altar” our pleasure, our immediate gratification, getting our way, and doing what we want when we want. But of course, that cost does not compare to the blessing of God that comes to us in obedience.
The encouragement today is that if you are battling temptation in your life, you are not alone. Jesus did too. And at this very point he is making intercession for you, and walking with you. And if and when you fail, God has complete and total forgiveness for you. So don’t give up. I know it can be so hard, and tiring, and even sometimes defeating. But don’t give up. By God’s power you can do this. You can lean into the God who learned obedience through suffering, and allow him to take your hand, and teach you his way.
Prayer
Sometimes it is all too much for me, God. Temptation comes like a flood, and I feel like I’m holding onto driftwood. Please teach me your ways. Please comfort me. Please strengthen me. Amen.
Author: Christian Dunn
Recent Comments