Smeagol is Free!
A hermitudinal view of...stuff...


2.09.2005  

Hebrews

Hebrews 5:8 - 10

Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He bacame to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation, being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.



There's a lot to think about in those three verses, but I'm going to shed a little light on just one aspect of what's being said in that passage. The author says here that Christ was, through His sufferings, taught obedience. He was, in essence, "made perfect." It's not to say that He was not perfect before He suffered, for He was perfect in His deity, and utterly without sin; what is being said is that it was through His sufferings that He became the source of eternal salvation. Think on that. Before the cross, before the incarnation, Jesus was worthy to be the Lamb; yet, He was still the Lion. When He suffered and died as the sacrificial Lamb, He was still perfect, yet it was His sufferings which made Him the very propitiation for our sins. At the beginning of chapter 5, the author speaks of the high priests making sacrifices for sins on behalf of themselves and the people. Yet, we are taught that those sacrifices were not sufficient! What, then, would be sufficient? The only sacrifice worthy would have to be a perfect sacrifice, one that would be able to enter into the true holy place, and not a mere copy of the true one, as is taught in chapter 9:23 - 28. Christ, as the Son, had to actually shed His blood in order to become our salvation. Moreover, because of the heinous nature of our sin, Christ could not merely have a little blood drawn and sprinkled upon the cross in a sterile manner. No, the sacrifice God required was one that displayed the glory of His wrath! Any less than that would have belittled and mocked His own justice and righteousness. The Father was very, very serious when He sent His own Son to die; the physical pain, the mental anguish, and the spiritual separation were all very, very horrible, far more than any of His children will ever be able to fully comprehend. To think of Christ's sufferings leading to obedience also teaches us that we suffer nothing in this world that Christ Himself cannot identify with; indeed, in chapter 4:15, the author tells us that Christ was tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. We often remember that Christ's sufferings encompassed all of human temptation, but forget that He felt the full brunt of sin's guile and wiles. When we remember that, we will never be able to say with conviction, "He doesn't know how I feel." On the contrary, Christ's sufferings meant that He was punished as a guilty man would be, without quarter from the Father's wrath. He does know our guilt, He does know our shame; because of that, He was "made perfect," for He not only knows the glory of God's worth and perfection, but also all the pains of our sinful flesh. What does this mean? Not only was He worthy to be be the sacrifice to atone for our sin, He was also made, through His sufferings, the perfect Savior through which we would be able to praise the glory of His grace forever.

posted by Bolo | 1:21 AM
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