Reason #3 – To Learn Obedience and Be Perfected
If the Son of God had gone from incarnation to the cross without a life of temptation and pain to test His righteousness and his love, he would have be a suitable savior for fallen man.
It’s tough to comprehend the fact that Jesus needed to learn anything. But it all goes back to the whole hypostatic union thing. Jesus was 100% man and 100% God. So as man, there were things he had to learn. As God he knows things we will never know.
What the cross taught Jesus, and ultimately teaches us, was obedience to God. He didn’t learn to not disobey.
He learned in practice – and in pain – what it means to obey.
We often learn in practice and in pain how to disobey.
What jumps out to me is what it means to overcome temptation and obey God when it’s hard. The way to do so is to love God more than we love our stuff and fill our minds with His word.
The Magi exemplify this in the Christmas story. They took off from a foreign country and traveled a dangerous road with expensive gifts for a baby they didn’t know. They knew what had to be done…and did it. They had one focus – the Christ child.