Berlin Immanuel Church members held Wednesday service on July 26, continuing in the book of Hebrews 2:9-13 speaking about the reasons why Jesus was made perfect through suffering. Hebrews 2:1-3 urged us not to neglect so great salvation and pay the most careful attention to the word of God. That means considering Christ deeply and even asking questions such as why was it God’s will for his Son to suffer and die. The author of Hebrews says in verse 10 that it was fitting that God should make the author of our salvation perfect through suffering. A similar word in Hebrews 5:8-9 tells us that the Lord learned obedience from what he suffered, but it is not as if Jesus was imperfect, disobedient and sinful before.
Chapter one teaches us that Jesus is God the Son, perfect and holy, worshipped by angels. So ‘Son though he was’, as verse 9 explains, his obedience and perfection was tested and proven on our behalf becoming the source of our salvation. Where we failed with the same sin as Adam, being disobedient to God, Jesus was tested and proven to live a life that was absolutely obedient to God’s will. Praying in Gethsemane, the Lord prays if there is a different way to for salvation that this bitter cup may be taken away, but not as he wills, but as the Father wills. Where were complain and grumble against God, Jesus faces even death with complete submission to God’s will showing us the way a son should live.
Secondly, verse 10 says that it was God for whom and through whom everything exists. The sin of Adam at its core was instead of living to glorify God, as the crown of His creation, he didn’t live for God but for self. We rejected God’s authority and dependence on Him, not living through Him, but through self – our own power and knowledge – saying that we know what’s right or wrong, we know what’s best for us. But in the life of Jesus, we see the perfect Son who lived his whole lived completely for God, giving all glory to the Father, and always depending on the Father with everything, living completely through God.
Lastly, he suffered to become one of us, to become a leader, a pioneer of our salvation who walks in front of us and suffers the same way we suffer, was tempted the same way we are being tempted. He suffered like our older brother who considered us his own family, not being ashamed to call us His brother and sisters, even though we were the prodigal son lying in dirt among pigs. By becoming one of us, our own brother, he showed us God’s warm loving heart and the compassion God has for the world. The suffering of Jesus is thus the glory of God displayed in all greatness and so we must not live neglecting our salvation, but follow our Leader and pioneer of our salvation so as we share in His sufferings, we will also share in His glory.