Holy Boldness

He suffered. And having been made perfect He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation being designated by God as a High priest according to the order of Melchizadek.” (Hebrews 5:8-10) The second highly significant phrase is in vs. 8, “Although he was a Son, He learned obedience through the things which He suffered.” Jesus “learned obedience…” That implies that Jesus went through a process! Jesus entered into the world in humility and meekness. He was not born as a mature man but as a baby. He suffered the indignity of traveling through a birth canal. He was raised by a mother and father in Galilee. The scriptures reveal Jesus to be a man who grew in His understanding of all things by listening to, submitting to, and learning from His parents, His teachers, the scriptures, experiences, and ultimately from God him self. Finally, the amazing statement, “having been made perfect…” clearly points to the exercise that Jesus endured to enter fully into His high calling. That the ultimate equipping, the “being made perfect” , was essential to His task of being our mediator and redeemer as a man. This does not mean that Jesus was “imperfect” before but that the process was incomplete until He walked out His obedience through profound and unparalleled suffering which fully qualified and completed Him to be our Lord and Christ , (Acts 2:36) A postle and High Priest (Hebrews 12:1)! In the face of every kind of assault on His person, His dignity, His life, His testimony, His humanity, and divinity Christ was proven, vindicated and justified by living a life of holiness without sin. At the same time, the scriptures affirm that Jesus was the unique, divine Son of God. He existed in relationship with God before the foundations of the world. The scriptures affirm Jesus’ pre-existence and declare that Jesus was one with God before He became flesh. He and the Father were one, face to face, in an ongoing dialog. (See John 1:1ff) But when “…the word became flesh” , something changed. Jesus stepped out of eternity and entered into the humble form of a man in Mary’s womb and became united with mankind. Paul alludes to this mystery in Philippians 2: 6, 7. “Although He existed in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God something to be grasped but emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant and The Deity of Christ

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