Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die | No. 3

Reason No. 3 | To Learn Obedience and Be Perfected

Although he was a son, he learned obedience

through what he suffered.

Hebrews 5:8

For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist,

in brining many sons to glory,

should make the founder of their salvation

perfect through suffering.

Hebrews 2:10

• "Christ was sinless. Although he was the divine Son of God, he was really human, with all our temptations and appetites and physical weaknesses. There was hunger (Matthew 21:18) and anger and grief (Mark 3:5) and pain (Matthew 17:12). But his heart was perfectly in love with God, and he acted consistently with that love: 'He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth' (1 Peter 2:22)."
• "...when the Bible says that Jesus 'learned obedience through what he suffered,' it doesn't mean that he learned to stop disobeying. It means that with each new trial he learned in practice - and in pain - what it means to obey. When it says that he was 'made perfect through suffering,' it doesn't mean that he was gradually getting rid of defects. It means that he was gradually fulfilling the perfect righteousness that he had to have in order to save us."
• "The point is this: If the Son of God had gone from incarnation to the cross without a life of temptation and pain to test his righteousness and his love, he would not be a suitable Savior for fallen man. His suffering not only absorbed the wrath of God. It also fulfilled his true humanity and made him able to call us brother and sisters (Hebrews 2:17)."

All quotes from John Piper's book, Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die.