Learned Obedience

Dear Judah and my future grandchildren,

Hebrews 5:8 tells us that Jesus learned obedience through what he suffered. This verse confused me for many years. I knew that Jesus was sinless and thus obeyed God every time in all circumstances. So I wondered how could Jesus learn obedience if he never obeyed? I just assumed, like most people that obedience follows a simple pattern, you know what is right and then you choose it. As I’ve grown older I’ve started to see that is a simple understanding of what it means to obey.

When faced with a choice to do right or wrong, I’ve noticed in myself varying degrees of desire to obey. Something I can obey with hardly a thought because it is something I want to do. Other things I struggle with because I want to sin. In every case I have to wrestle with my emotions and will to finally choose to obey. Sometimes that is easy. Sometimes that is hard. Many times I give in to sin, have to repent and ask the Holy Spirit to renew a steadfast spirit in me.

I think that is at least part of what the author of Hebrews is talking about. Jesus was/is fully human. While he didn’t sin, he did face temptations just like we all do. The biggest difference is that Jesus NEVER gave into even the slightest inclination to sin. Hopefully you are starting to feel the gravity of what Jesus did over the whole course of his earthly life. How did he do that? By the power of the Spirit in him. He learned how to wrestle with his temptations all day, every day, and yet he never gave in to them. He never, not once even for a nanosecond, chose to evening entertain even the smallest evil thought.

In a very real sense he understands temptation better than any other human because he never gave in. The increasing pressure on him to sin brought by the world and the devil must have been something well beyond what we experience.

So why am I writing about this?

First I want you to understand that whatever temptation you are experiencing, Jesus is well aware of its power and understands you. He just wants you to trust him and if you sin, he just wants you to repent and come to him again. His love for you is beyond what you can imagine and his mercies to you are new every morning.

Second, obedience is a process. It will take time. In face it will take a lifetime and will only be completed in you when Jesus renews our bodies and minds at the resurrection. Take great hope in that when you get discouraged with your own sin. Jesus loves you and will complete the perfecting work he started. You can count on that.

Don’t ever forget that.

In Him,
Grandpa