July 17

Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from what He suffered. — Heb 5:8 BSB

Our gracious Lord had to learn obedience to God’s will through personal suffering, especially by submitting fully to his Father’s will. And what was this will? That he should take on the immense debt incurred by his bride through original and actual sin, offering himself as the ransom to pay it off and cancel it. That he should bear our sins in his own body on the cross, enduring everything that came with being made a curse for us. That he should conquer Satan, who held the power of death, and free those who, all their lives, were enslaved by the fear of death. And that, whatever sorrows and sufferings lay ahead of him, he should endure them all and learn through them perfect submission to God’s will.

This was God’s will, for he was determined to magnify his law, glorify his justice, and reveal and establish his infinite purity and holiness. Yet, in the midst of all this, his infinite wisdom, tender pity, everlasting love, and sovereign grace would shine and reign in the happiness of millions throughout eternity. This was also the joy set before Christ, for which he endured the cross, despising its shame, and is now seated at the right hand of God’s throne.