Hebrews Chapter Five, Learning Obedience

 

Hebrews 5:7 who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, [8] though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.

 

We begin this passage with the phrase, “in the days of His flesh.” The writer draws our attention back to the gospels that record Jesus’ life prior to, and past, His crucifixion and resurrection. Turning to the Gospel of Luke, specifically chapter 22, we can read of Jesus’ prayerful agony in the garden of Gethsemane, at the Mount of Olives. We know that Jesus ascended bodily into Heaven from this same mount, Acts 1:12.

It is also written that geographically this is the place where He will return bodily in glory to deliver Israel from her enemies, Zechariah 14:4. Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem began at the Mount of Olives, three quarters of a mile (a Sabbath Day’s journey) from Jerusalem, Mark 11:1. This was apparently also where Jesus went when, “everyone went to his own house,” John 7:53, 8:1, see also Matthew 8:20. The Mount of Olives was a place of importance for our Lord for obvious reasons. In the days of His flesh He knew it would be where He ascended after His victory over Satan and sin. It would also be the point of contact for His return in glory when He delivered Israel from the Great Tribulation, or the time of Jacob’s trouble.

 

Now we focus on Jesus’ moment in the garden just prior to His arrest. We read, “Coming out, He went to the Mount of Olives, as He was accustomed,” Luke 22:39. After warning His disciples about the dangers of entering into temptation He removed Himself out of earshot and prayed. He knelt, we are told (verse 41), saying, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done,” Luke 22:42. What is the nature of this cup Jesus mentions in His earnest prayer to the Father? We read in Isaiah, “You who have drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of His fury; you have drunk the dregs of the cup of trembling, and drained it out,” Isaiah 51:17. Jeremiah receives a similar vision, relating, “Take this wine cup of fury from My hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send you, to drink it,” Jeremiah 25:15. Elsewhere in the prophets we read, “You also—drink! And be exposed as uncircumcised! The cup of the Lord’s right hand will be turned against you, and utter shame will be on your glory,” Habakkuk 2:16. The OT prophets make it clear that God’s cup is a cup of judgment, meted out against His enemies. We receive chilling clarification toward the end of the Bible, reading, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb,” Revelation 14:9, 10. One more mention tells us, “great Babylon was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath,” Revelation 16:19.

 

So, what is the cup that Jesus prayed would pass from Him? The fullness of God’s judgment upon those who reject salvation and grace, leaving only the fierceness of God’s wrath. Sin must be punished. Grace was offered through Jesus Christ to separate the sinner from his sin, to punish sin while rescuing the sinner from his just sentence. If grace is spurned then judgment remains, and God’s wrath will be satisfied by separating the sinner from a holy God’s presence, since he does not wish to relinquish his sin. Sin will be punished in the sinner, rather than in Christ who was punished in their stead: a pardon that may only be received through faith in His name. It is this cup, this separation from God the Father, that compelled Jesus to pray for another way, even sweating profusely in His grief (Luke 22:44) despite the fact that it was so cold that night that men stood about fires to keep warm, Mark 14:54.

 

We are informed that Jesus was heard because of His godly fear, or reverence. This godly fear, or prioritizing the divine will over personal feelings, was manifested clearly when Jesus prayed, “nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done,” Luke 22:42. In Matthew 26:44 we learn a more detailed account, that Jesus prayed this prayer three times, “saying the same words.” Since He already warned His disciples about the futility of vain repetition we can be confident that His prayer was not vain, though it was repetitious. Our Lord had come to the moment when evil would have its hour to do with Him what it wished, followed by His voluntary separation from the Father, something unheard of and utterly unparalleled in history. His prayer was no more and no less than what was required for His necessity. Prayer needn’t be long, or eloquent, or laden with Scriptural reference. It reaches to the divine with genuine need or feeling, expressing who we really are to the Father so He can meet us there, provide comfort, and answer prayer realistically. Jesus was in agony, praying the Father, but He did not relent, knowing what He had been brought forth to do. Because the Father heard Him, Peter quoted from Psalm 16, saying, “For You will not leave my soul in Hades, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption,” Acts 2:27.

 

Turning to verse 8, we are informed that Jesus learned obedience by the things that He suffered. What are those things, specifically? There is a concise and satisfactory answer to be had straight from the apostle’s pen. “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross,” Philippians 2:5-8. Paul’s Christology is sublime. Christ is described as being in the form of God. The word “form” is defined by Oxford as, “the visible shape or configuration of something, a particular way in which a thing exists or appears; a manifestation.” Verse 6 clearly implies Jesus is equal to the Father. “I and My Father are one,” John 10:30. He made Himself of no reputation and took the form of a man. In other words He incarnated through Mary into the nation of Israel, the tribe of Judah, the house of David. Though He was in our likeness, He did not share our sin nature, Romans 8:3, 1 John 3:5.

 

Philippians 2:8 describes the agony of Gethsemane, and His entire ministry leading to that moment succinctly: “He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” The obedience Jesus learned through the things He suffered amounted to nothing less than His, “suffering of death crowned with glory and honor,” Hebrews 2:9. Separation from the Father, enduring sin’s penalty is what He suffered. This is how He learned obedience, submitting to the Father’s will in all things while on earth, knowing full well the terrors that awaited Him on the cross. As Philippians 2:5 states, disciples of the Lord should adopt the same mind, or the same way of thinking about God’s will, that Jesus possessed when submitting to our God and being faithful to His revealed will, not our own personal wishes.