Jaw-dropping Jewels about Jesus
Rarely does Jesus, God the Son, do exactly what we expect of Him. It seems odd that He so frequently surprises us, given that He never changes. Hebrews 13:8 makes this absolute statement: “Jesus the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” Still, though He is blessedly consistent in His goodness, Jesus does unforeseen things. Even when He does what is expected, He does not always do it in the way that we anticipate. Let us join with Jesus on a jaw-dropping journey. (I will be using this opening paragraph for each of the brief messages in this series. The following material will change daily.)
We have spent six days on the subject of the humility of Jesus, and there is more to say. An oft misunderstood passage on this theme is found in Hebrews 5:8-9: “Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered; and being made perfect, He became the Author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him.” A number of thoughts arise. First, since Jesus is fully God and thus omniscient, He did not need to learn as we do. To say that He “learned… obedience” must be placed in the immediate context; He “learned… obedience by the things which He suffered.” In other words, His humble obedience to God the Father had always existed but could not be demonstrated in this way until Jesus was fully human. Second, Jesus is perfect because He is God. “Being made perfect” points to His role as “the Author of eternal salvation”; He was not the perfect Savior until He actually completed the necessary work of our salvation. Third, we must not fall into the heresy of subordinationism, which falsely teaches that God the Son is somehow lesser than God the Father. We cannot confuse nature (both Father and Son are fully God, as is the Holy Spirit) with roles and relationships. Only Jesus as God the Son could fulfill the role of Redeemer; the Father is not lesser or greater because His role in salvation was and is different from that of the Son (and of the Spirit). Fourth, we must “obey” the Savior by humbly receiving His free gift of “eternal salvation.” True humility – an inward honesty- will tell us that we cannot save ourselves and that only Jesus can. May each one of us be certain of a personal, saving relationship with “the Author of eternal salvation.”