Heb 5:7–10 — The Son Who Learned Obedience

The title of the sermon today is taken from Heb 5:8: “Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.” And so the title is The Son Who Learned Obedience. And the key there is that he learned obedience. We will talk about that as we go into the text in more detail. It was something he had to learn. That is a little bit hard to grasp. Because he is divine. And so we struggle with that idea, but it says in our text that he learned obedience.

This passage, especially verses seven through 10, is a profound statement of Christology. Christology is who is Christ, his deity, his humanity, his person and work, his state of humiliation, and his state of exaltation, and therefore the resulting salvation that we have because of this glorious God-man who is humbled and learned obedience, but then who is exalted to the right hand of God. That is Christology, and there is a lot packed in there. There is so much meat on that. That is what Christology is all about. This passage is profound. This passage is rich. This passage is amazing.

And it is so encouraging for us and it helps us in our Christian life and in our walk with the Lord so that we might follow in His footsteps and learn to submit to God’s will just as Christ did, although He did it as our Savior and in our place. The main point of this passage is that the author of Hebrews is explaining how Christ is our great high priest right now in heaven.

He has ascended into heaven, sat down at the right hand of the throne of God, and there he is our great high priest. But to do that, to be our great high priest, to represent us before God, to intercede for us, he first had to learn obedience. He had to go through a test and then learn the obedience through that test and then graduate and be perfected and raised into heaven where he is there equipped because he has gone through that test and learned obedience, he is equipped now to serve as our representative before God, to represent us before God so that his acceptance there in the presence of God is our acceptance. Because he stands there for us. He is there in heaven for us as our advocate, as our priest, as the one chosen from among men to represent them. Remember we talked about that last week based on verse one of Hebrews chapter five. The definition of a priest is that a priest is chosen from among the men, from among the people, to act on behalf of the people in relation to God.

Think about Aaron and his sons. They were from the people. They were ordinary men. They were chosen from among the people to stand before the people. The high priest wore upon his ephod, the breastplate that had the names of the 12 tribes of Israel. So when he went into the Holy of Holies, into the inner sanctuary, into the very presence of a holy God, he was going there as the representative of the people chosen from among men to act on behalf of men in relation to God.

That is what Christ does for us in heaven right now. But to do that, to do that, he must suffer. He must learn obedience. He must go through a test. And only then, having passed the test, having gone all the way to the point of death upon the cross, Is he then raised? Is he then perfected? Is he then ascended to heaven to serve as our great high priest? Let us go through our text here, just focusing on verses 7 through 10.

In the Days of His Flesh

In the days of his flesh, In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications. Why does it mention that, in the days of his flesh? The implication is that there were days before that, when he was not yet incarnate, when he was not yet in the flesh, referring to his eternal pre-existence as the Son of God.

He has already mentioned that in verse 5, when he quotes from Psalm 2, where the father says to the son, you are my son, today I have begotten you. The today there is the day of eternity. The father eternally begat the son. The father eternally generated the son. Even before he became a man, he was the eternally begotten son of God.

He also quotes from Psalm 110, which is another prophecy of Christ, but Psalm 110 is looking forward to the point of his exaltation, sit at my right hand, but sitting at my right hand, not only as a king, but as a priest, as he says also in another place, you are a priest forever. After the order of Melchizedek. But the point is that these two oracles are in the Psalms long before Jesus actually came into this world. They are prophetic oracles speaking of the eternal nature of Christ as the eternal Son of God.

So our text begins by saying, in the days of his flesh, setting aside that pre-existence when he was with the Father in the glory of his eternal Sonship, In the days of his flesh, once he became a man, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears.” Referring, of course, to the episode that is mentioned in the Gospels when Jesus was in agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. The Gospels all record this. They record the fact that after the Last Supper, after he had the Last Supper with his disciples, when he said, this is my body, this is my blood, he is going to the cross, he then went with his disciples to the garden, and there he was in agony, crying out to the Father, if it be possible, let this cup That is this cup of going to the cross and experiencing the wrath of God in our place.

Let this cup pass from me. Yet not my will, but your will be done. He is crying out for deliverance. He is crying out that God would save him through this trial that he has to go through. This is a remarkable incident in the gospel accounts, and it is very significant. The author of Hebrews here is specifically drawing upon this important episode in the earthly life of Christ just before he goes to the cross to show us that his work of going to the cross was a test that he had to submit to the will of God, even though it was painful. Now Jesus had no sin. He was born without sin. He was born of a virgin. He does not have any sinful desires. He does not desire to disobey the Father.

But at the same time, by the same token, He is a true man. As our text says, in the days of his flesh, which is also harking back to something earlier in the letter to the Hebrews. For example, in verse 17, chapter two, verse 17, he had to be made like his brothers in every way. He had to share in our human nature. He was the eternal Son of God, eternally divine with the Father before creation, and yet he became a man, and he became a true man. He did not simply take upon himself a human body. He took upon himself a true human nature with body and soul. And of course, as a man, he did not relish the thought of suffering. Death and suffering is abnormal. It is part of the result of sin that entered into this world. It is punishment. It is not something that human beings desire.

So he recoiled from that suffering. He recoiled in his human nature. He did not want to suffer. Does not mean he wanted to disobey God, but he was a man. He was a true man. And so he cried out with loud cries and tears. To the Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. And yet, he did not stay there in that moment of experiencing the full weight of what he was about to undergo. He submitted to God’s will. He said, yet not my will, but your will be done. And he trusted in God. He trusted that God would save him from death. As our text says, he cried out to him who was able to save him from death. And he was heard. When was he heard? He was heard on the third day when he was raised from the dead. He was heard when the Father raised him from death. And vindicated him.” That language there that he was heard is an echo from Psalm 22. Remember Psalm 22, which has two parts to it. The first half of Psalm 22 is the suffering of Christ. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He is crying out to God for deliverance. Mighty bulls of Bashan have surrounded me. My enemies are attacking me. They have pierced my hands and my feet.

But then there comes a second stage in Psalm 2 when it says, he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard when he cried to him. That language, he heard him. The father heard the son. Is in Psalm 22 verse 24 and that is picked up here in Hebrews 5 verse 7. He was heard because of his reverence. The father heard his cries for deliverance. And he was heard precisely because of his reverence, that is his reverent submission to God. The word reverence here means piety, godly fear, taking care to avoid that which might displease God.

Jesus’ reverence for God as a man was his submission to God’s will. Even though it was painful, even though it was something that he, in his human nature, did not relish, but it was something that he knew was the will of God for him because it was his mission. It was his mission to come into this world to save sinners by his obedience to the point of death on the cross. He was heard precisely because of his reverent submission to God, precisely because he said, Even though my human will and my human desires are struggling with this, yet I am going to submit to your will, O God.” And he went to the cross. He went to that full extent of perfect obedience to the Father, that fullest extent of absolute devotion to God’s will, even to the point of willingly and voluntarily offering himself as a sacrifice upon the cross for the sins of his people. And he did this out of submission to God and trusting God that the Father would raise him from the dead and that he would be vindicated.

This is the essence of what obedience is. Now for us, there is a slight difference, which is that we have to fight against our sinful desires. But if we just take that part of it out and we compare our obedience with Christ, the essence of it is submitting to God’s will in spite of the pain, in spite of the fact that we do not want to do it, in spite of the fact that we are afraid of the consequences.

He did that. Jesus, as a true and perfect man, he perfectly fulfilled what obedience looks like. This is what God expected of Adam in the garden. This is what God expects of us, this obedience, this submission to God, even to that point of extreme suffering. But because we know that we can trust God, that in spite of the temporary suffering, there will be a reversal, there will be a vindication, there will be glory on the other side, passing through the suffering to the glory of resurrection life on the other end. Christ is a perfect man. He fully encapsulates what true humanity looks like. This is the ideal. This is the perfect ideal of a perfect man.

And he perfectly obeys God and trusted God and he was heard because of his reverence. And so he went through a test, a test that was infinitely more profound and more intense than anything we ever go through in our personal temptations and struggles. And he passed that test. He perfectly obeyed God. And because he has done so, he was heard. He was raised from the dead. And our text says he was perfected. Is that not a wonderful verb that is used there in verse nine?

Being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him. It does not mean that he was sinful and then he became not sinful. It means that he was brought to this place of perfection, which happened at his resurrection and ascension into heaven. He was brought to this second stage, part B, through the suffering to the place of being beyond suffering, being exalted at the right hand of God.

So that there, at the right hand of God, he might be qualified to be our great high priest. He does not use the word priest in verse nine. He uses a different term for it, but it is the same idea. In verse nine, he says that he might become the source. Of eternal salvation. That is what a priest is.

The priest is the source of salvation for those whom he represents. So being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation there at the right hand of God in heaven itself. He has all power and glory in life that he has secured through his perfect obedience. He is the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him.

And then in verse 10, he brings in the word priest. In other words, he was designated by God as a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. He had to go through that test though. He had to go through that suffering. He had to go through that moment of submitting his will to God’s will in spite of the pain.

Learning Obedience through Suffering

He had to submit in obedience to the Father before he could become perfect, before he could be qualified to be the source of our salvation, to be our high priest in that perfected state in heaven for us. And as we mentioned before, looking back to when we were in Hebrews 4 and verses 15 and 16, just a few verses earlier, he is there in heaven as one who has not forgotten what it is like to be tested and to have to submit to the will of God and trust that God would deliver him. He has not forgotten. Verse 15 of chapter 4, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need, because we have the source of eternal salvation there, one who has learned obedience through what he suffered and who is now there in heaven on our behalf. As one who is not forgotten, as one who is able to sympathize with us in our trials and tribulations, in our garden of Gethsemane.

Of course, nothing even close to what Christ had to go through. We are not bearing the wrath of God to save God’s people. But we do suffer, we do experience those moments when we wish that we did not have to do what God is calling us to do because we are worried about the consequences. And yet we learn to obey in union with Christ.

This is an amazing passage. This passage is just so profound. There is profound Christology here, as I said before. That is why I read verse 11 at the very end there. It is actually the beginning of the next major section, which is the third warning passage, warning against apostasy, warning against turning away from Christ. But he says, about this we have much to say. And it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.

It is hard to explain all this because it is so rich and so profound and so theological. But we need to kind of, for a moment here, just take a moment and think about what is the doctrine that is being taught here in our text. Yes, there is tremendous application for us to help us in our Christian life, to help us to learn to obey and to trust God. But before we even get to that, we need to just stop for a moment and just think about all of the rich theological doctrine that is found here. A couple of things to think about. Number one, one of the key things that we see in our text is the three states or stages of Christ. The first is his eternal preexistence.

And that is clearly stated for us in our text when it transitions from, you are my son, today I have begotten you, going all the way back to eternity past, to then the transition in verse seven, in the days of his flesh. So the very first stage of Christ’s existence, or the state in which he existed, even before he became a man, even before he was born of a virgin, is his eternal pre-existence with the Father as the eternally begotten Son of God. The second major stage of Christ’s life is when he becomes a man. When he is born of a virgin, he enters into this world. He is the eternally begotten son of God, but that eternal son of God then takes a true human nature into union with himself so that he is both God and man in two natures, but in one person. It is the Son who is acting through that human nature. It is the Son who is in that human nature, submitting to God’s will, obeying in our place, going to the cross, and then rising from the dead.

So stage one is eternal pre-existence. It is really even not correct to call it a stage because it is eternal. He was there at creation. Through Him, God made the universe, as it says in Hebrews 1 and verse 2. But that is the first stage, his eternal pre-existence as the eternal son.

Then you have the incarnation where he steps into this world. He steps into this common lot of humanity and he takes upon him our nature. He becomes one with us. The author of Hebrews uses that language in chapter two, verse 14. Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things. Why? So that he might accomplish our salvation. So that he might learn obedience through what he suffered.

That is the second stage. And then the third stage is the reversal, having obeyed to the point of death, having gone all the way to that extremity, that absolute limit of taking the staggering weight of the wrath of God that we deserve for our sins and experiencing death in all of its horror. Not just physically, but spiritually as well. Experiencing that death and that being for a moment in that state of crying out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? That is the culmination of stage two.

But then there is the reversal, which is stage three, the third and glorious state of Christ, which our author here refers to as the moment when the Father heard him. Heard the cries and gloriously reversed that suffering and gave him glory and exaltation.

Or another term that the author of Hebrews uses is, not only was he heard at the moment of his resurrection, but he was made perfect. He was made perfect. He passed through the heavens and he sat down at the right hand of the majesty of God. Eternal preexistence as the eternal son Then, humiliation, suffering in the state of incarnation. And then thirdly, exaltation, pre-existence, humiliation, exaltation. And He did all that for us. He did all of that for us. He learned obedience for us. He was made perfect and exalted to the right hand of God for us, so that He might be our representative before the Father. What a glorious Savior we have. It is so important to understand all of this intricate theology.

Some people just focus upon merely the humanity of Christ, and they simply look at the fact that he was a man. And they like to focus upon that, understandably, because that is where you get the idea that he is our sympathetic Savior, that he is like us, that he knows our struggles. But they think of him only as a man without thinking about this web of interconnected doctrines with the pre-existence state and how he then entered into that state of becoming a man from the outside as the eternal divine son of God.

That then elevates the nature of his humiliation and suffering and gives it greater value. He did not just suffer as a mere man. He suffered as the divine son of God in the flesh. Who did so for us. If he was a mere man, how could he endure the wrath of God in our place?

But because of his deity, he is able, his sufferings are sustained by his divine nature so that through that divine undergirding power, he is able to sustain the wrath of God and to absorb it completely and to take it away and to completely deal with our sins so that they are no longer held against us because of his suffering and his obedience in our place.

Others may focus only upon the deity of Christ. And rightfully so, that is the most contested doctrine. There are so many people out there who deny the true deity of Christ and think of him merely as a man. And so because of that, we revolt against that and we say, no, the Bible clearly teaches that he is the divine son of God.

He is God in the flesh. But if we so emphasize that, that we lose sight of his true humanity and what he truly suffered in our place, then we no longer have a sympathetic high priest. We no longer have a substitute who was the perfect man that we could never be, who truly obeyed God and submitted to God’s will and trusted God in a way that we never could.

Thank the Lord for this glorious Christology with all of its interconnected parts, the two natures of Christ, the three states of Christ. All of this is taught right here in this text. And no wonder the author of Hebrews says, about this we have much to say, but it is hard to explain because there is so much there. It is so rich. It is so powerful. It is so important. Now there is another theological conclusion we need to draw from this text as well, which is in verse eight.

I kind of passed over this, but notice how it says in verse eight, although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. I focused on the second part, he learned obedience. But I think it is very interesting that our text says, although he was a son, he learned obedience.

This is a wonderful proof text against the view that is out there in many evangelical circles called eternal, functional, subordination of the Son. There are some who believe that the very essence of what it means for the Son to be the Son is that He is obedient to the Father. And that is true even before He became a man. In His eternal glory as the eternally begotten Son of God, He was obedient to the Father. They call this eternal, functional, subordination, that is that the son is subordinate to the father in function, not subordinate in deity. They affirm the deity of Christ, but they say in terms of his sonship, he is functionally subordinate to the father, eternally, eternally subordinate to the father. But our text does not allow that.

This text here clearly refutes that because if he was always eternally obedient, then why would the text say, although he was a son, he learned obedience? And why would the text say that he learned obedience? As if there was something new that only applies to his human state, to stage two in those three states, eternal pre-existence. Stage two is the focus here, when he became a man and he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the Lord. He was not eternally obedient. Sonship, in the divine sense, is not about obedience.

Sonship, in terms of his eternal sonship as the eternally begotten Son of God, is about identity of nature. Just as a human father begets a human son, not a son of a different animal or species. But a human father begets a human son who is the same nature as the father. So also the eternal begetting of the father and the son is that the eternal begetting of the son imparts the divine nature to the son. There is a communication, an eternal, unceasing communication, without beginning and without end, of the Father’s divine nature to the Son. Sonship has to do with deity, not with obedience. Our text makes that very clear.

Although he was the eternally begotten Son, remember he is hooking back to Psalm 2:7, you are my Son, today I have begotten you. So although he was a son, Although he is the eternally divine Son who is equal with the Father in power and glory and shares in the same divine nature as the Son, yet he learned obedience in his human state. In stage two, he learned obedience through what he suffered. Why is this important?

Some people get a little bit frustrated with this debate. It is a big debate. It began about 10 years ago. You can go and look at all the different online arguments back and forth between those that hold to eternal functional subordination and those that are orthodox and reject that. Some people wonder, what is the big deal? Why are we having this debate? Those guys do affirm the deity of Christ, so that is not the issue. Ah, here is the reason. Our text gives us the reason why it is so important to affirm this.

Because the text says that he learned obedience. And he learned obedience as a man for us. He did not have to do it. As the Eternal Son, before He became incarnate, He did not have to obey. He is God. He does not have to obey. But he voluntarily, willingly entered into this world and took upon him our nature so that in that human existence as a man, he might live out that true, perfect humanity in perfect obedience to God. And he did it for us. He did not have to do it for himself. He did it for us. He learned obedience for us. So that we might be safe.

Perfected as Our High Priest

So that as our text says, so that being made perfect through that process of suffering and obeying, so that being made perfect, he would become the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him, for all who trust in him. If he was always eternally obedient to the Father, even before his incarnation, then that would mean that his obedience on earth was not for us. It was just continually doing what he always did. And it would not mean he had to learn anything either. It would simply be something that he always did because of who he is as the eternal Son of God.

And that then takes away the primary foundation of our salvation. This doctrine of eternal functional subordination is, I would not quite say it is a heresy like denying the deity of Christ, but it is a serious theological error because it knocks out one of the central pillars of our hope, which is that we have a great high priest who was obedient in our place, who was obedient for us so that we might be saved. Thank God for the obedience of Christ. I do not know about you, but whenever I go through trials and temptations, I always fail. I always fail. I always fail to trust God. I always fail to fully obey and submit to God’s will.

But thank the Lord that he did not. Thank the Lord that He did not fail, that He persevered to the bitter end, even to death upon the cross, and a cursed death, a death that is more painful than anything you could ever experience, a death that was for us, an obedience that was for us.

Obeying the Obedient One

So what a wonderful reality that is that we get to obey this great high priest. Notice how our text says that there. It actually says that. Not only did he obey in our place, he learned obedience, but it says that he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him. Interesting, is it not, how our text connects those two words together? His obedience and our obedience. But our obedience is very different. Our obedience is not perfect. Our obedience is flawed. And as I said, we always fail.

We always collapse under the pressure. But he is there for us as our forerunner. He has gone through it for us on our behalf. And there in heaven, he is interceding for us. As the author of Hebrews says earlier in Hebrews chapter two, that wonderful statement that he is there for us in heaven because he is bringing many sons to glory. He is bringing us in his wake. He is bringing us to glory too.

He is teaching us to obey as he obeyed. There are many who focus upon this idea that we have to obey Christ, and they speak of it as submitting to the Lordship of Christ, and they speak of Christ as being our King to whom we must submit, and if we do not, that shows that we are not truly believers. And that is all true, but notice how our text emphasizes that we do not obey Christ merely as a king. We obey him as a priest. We obey Him as the one who obeyed and was perfected in our place. We submit our will to His will, just as He did to the Father, even though it is costly trusting in the Lord, but we do so in union with Christ who has already done it for us in our place.

And that gives us confidence, does it not? It gives us confidence that we can trust God, that the reversal is coming, that the vindication is coming. The deliverance is coming because he has already passed through it. He has already passed the test. He has already been delivered and exalted. And so what a wonderfully gracious king. A king who is a priest that we obey. A king who laid down his life for us. A king who is in heaven interceding for us as our great high priest. As one who is bringing us to glory, bringing many sons to glory. He is not ashamed of us, as it says in Hebrews 2. He is not ashamed to call us brothers. He is not ashamed of us and our failures and our struggles. He loves us and he cares for us.

From Legal to Evangelical Obedience

And he has us in the grip of his hand and he is bringing us to glory. That we obey such a glorious, loving Lord. It is not a legalistic obedience where we are afraid of His judgment and wrath and trying to gain His approval by being more obedient to Him. This is a different type of obedience. The obedience is referred to there in verse 9, that He is the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him. This is evangelical obedience, which is grounded in His approval. Not fearing his judgment, but rather knowing that he has already taken the judgment in our place.

And that he now appears in the presence of God for us. That is why the author of Hebrews says that we come to a throne, not of wrath, not of judgment, but a throne of what? Of grace. Because the king on that throne is the great high priest who learned obedience for us. He has forged the way for us and is bringing us to glory.