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Post by Guest on Jul 18, 2014 14:13:57 GMT -5
Pastor Mike,
I was recently reading through the book of Hebrews, and I have a question I am hoping you can answer for me. In chapter 5 verses 8,9: "Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him".
I am taking the phrase "made perfect" to mean the same as completed or finished, rather than meaning he was somehow previously imperfect. Is this an accurate understanding?
The phrase "he learned obedience", however, has me stumped. I am not sure I understand how Jesus could learn to be obedient to God. He was himself God, and was without sin, so therefore he must have always been obedient because to disobey God is sin.
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Post by Mike Miller on Aug 5, 2014 10:17:38 GMT -5
Excellent question. To begin with, though Jesus has always been fully divine, He also became fully human. He was always without sin, but as a human, He still had learn things as He grew. In other words, He still had to learn how to read and write as a child. Luke 2:52 says, "And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man." One of the things He learned was what it meant to obey and the cost of that obedience. So, each time He was obedient, He learned something more.
His being made perfect is along the same lines. He was always sinless, but He still had to live the perfect human life. He still had to face and resist temptation, and He had to keep the law. As He resisted sin and obeyed the Word of God, He attained the kind of perfection that provides the basis for our right standing with God. See also Hebrews 2:10.
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Post by Guest on Aug 5, 2014 19:43:41 GMT -5
I guess that's where it gets hard - wrapping my head around the idea that Jesus was fully human and fully God. It is like saying that you are going to fill an already full glass..but I guess that is part of being God, He gets to do stuff that doesn't make any sense to us You said that He had to face and resist temptation. Being God as well as sinless man, would it have been possible for Him to give in to the temptation? Could He have disobeyed or was that something that His nature would not have allowed (i.e. God cannot lie). Also, His human brain apparently went through the same process as ours during childhood, so that He would have needed someone to teach Him to walk, read, etc. as His brain matured and He became self-aware. When did He "figure out" that He was really the God incarnate? Obviously when He was 12 in the temple He had it, but there is really no other record of His childhood. Sorry, that's a lot of questions!
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