Obedience Learned

Hebrews 5:8

 

"Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered." Let us learn what God the Holy Spirit teaches us in this text. The lessons here taught are both practical and of immense importance.

 

1.       Obedience is the character of the sons of God.

 

Our Savior left us an example that we should walk in his steps. He has, by his own example, shown us how we are to live in this world. If we would follow Christ, we must yield ourselves to our heavenly Father in unquestioning, universal surrender, to do his will in all things. The extent of our obedience is and must be “even unto death.

 

2.       Obedience to God is a costly thing.

 

Obedience to another necessarily involves cost. If I obey another, I subject my will, my thoughts, my possessions, my time, and my energy to the one I obey. It is not possible to be obedient to anyone without cost. But obedience to Christ, as our Lord and God, demands the willing surrender of our lives to him (Lk. 14:25-33; 2 Tim. 2:12; 1 Pet. 2:19-24; Matt. 5:10-12).

 

3.       God’s love for us and our relationship to him as the sons of God do not exempt us from suffering.

 

Though the Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of his love, he was not spared any suffering and sorrow as a man. He was “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” The disciple is not above his Lord, nor the servant above his Master. If we are the sons of God, we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of heaven (Heb. 12:5-11).

        One of the old writers, when discussing this matter, said, "If a sheep stray from the flock, the shepherd sets his dog after it, not to devour it, but to bring it in again; even so our Heavenly Shepherd."

 

4.       The things we suffer in this world by the will of God are the things by which we learn obedience to the will of God.

 

We learn not by words, but by experience, -- not by reading but by tasting, -- not by instruction, but by correction, -- not by admonition, but by affliction (Ps. 119:67, 71, 75). It is a sad fact, but a fact nonetheless, that we only learn patience by the trial of our faith. We never learn sympathy until we have walked in the shoes of those who need sympathy. We will never learn forgiveness until we experience forgiveness. We will not learn to help the fallen until we have been helped from a fall. We will never learn what we would or should do in any circumstance, until we are in the midst of the trial ourselves. We will never learn to be weaned from this earth until God graciously weans us from it.