◄ What Does Hebrews 5:8 Mean? ►

The incarnation of Christ is a profound mystery: that God should become a Man to take the punishment that men justly deserves, in order to save the human race from sin and death. God is Spirit and in order to be identified with man and take on the role of Kinsman-Redeemer He had to enter the human race in a physical body and live His entire life in exactly the same way that we live: living, breathing, eating, sleeping, working, with His own lifeblood pulsing round His human frame and subjected to every trial and temptation that is common to all humanity.

Christ's whole life from start to finish was an education on how man should live his life the way God expects man to live. He had to find out what it was to be hungry and thirsty, despised and rejected, hated and betrayed, and even facing death so that He would be able to sympathise with all the difficulties that we have to face. He had to learn how to live as an obedient servant, entirely dependent upon God as His sole Provider and great Protector. He had to learn how to resist the many and diverse temptations that we all are faced with in this life.

The eternal Son of God came to earth as a man in order to rectify all the damage that was done to God's creation by the first man, Adam, when he sinned against God and caused the earth to be cursed and the entire human race to fall from its dignified position as God's regent and representative. Having become part of His own creation in order to deal with sin, death, and Satan, Jesus had to discover what it was to live in a frail human body in a sin-sick, fallen world.

The only way that man can survive in a fallen environment, is to carefully follow God's instructions on how to live, which are all written in His Word. This requires utter obedience to God's Word and His will; and it also requires total denial of self and one's own self-will.

To live as God created man to live, is to remain entirely dependent upon God as sole Provider and great Protector. Christ lived His life this way, by obeying God's every Word and carrying out His every Will in thought word and deed, for although He was the eternal Son, Jesus learned how to be obedient to God's Word and will, and He learned this through the things that He suffered.

God, in the Person of Jesus Christ, chose to be born into the race that He Himself had created so that He could live His life exactly as God created men to live. He not only lived this way as an example to us on how we should live, but to be qualified to become the Head of a new race of humanity that would once again be obedient to God's Will and Word: a new creation that would live in total dependence on God and utter denial of self, in the power of the Spirit and to the glory of God.

Heavenly Father, thank You that Jesus came to earth as my Kinsman-Redeemer and learned how it was to live in this sin-sick fallen world. Thank You that He was prepared to lay aside His heavenly glory and be born into the race He created. How amazing that He should learn obedience by the things that He suffered. May I have a fresh understanding of the suffering that You allow in my life so that like Jesus, I too would learn obedience to You. In Jesus' name, AMEN.