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“Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered” (Hebrews 5:8).
Jesus, who “always” does “those things that please” God (Jn 8:29) had to “learn obedience.” We are not to conclude from this that Jesus was somehow rebellious and needed to be taught to obey. He was without sin. He NEVER disobeyed God. The point is not that He did not know how to obey God, but that He had to learn obedience while in His flesh.
Prior to becoming flesh and dwelling among us, Jesus had no competing influences to His will or doing the Father’s will. When “the Word was with God” (Jn 1:1) and the Father gave Him a task He would obey without any conflict. But it was different when He came into the world.
When Jesus tabernacled among us He entered into a cursed realm. He entered into a “present evil world” (Gal 1:4). He entered into an arena in which the prince of darkness had dominated and overcome every man. He entered a place in which He could and would be tempted to disobey God. Never before had He endured such an affliction. Thus, the text declares “He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.”
Jesus learned to obey in the midst of adverse circumstances. He learned to obey in the midst of temptation. He learned to say “nevertheless not My will, but Thine, be done” (Lk 22:42). He learned how to take “the way to escape” provided along with the temptation (1 Cor 10:13), and He took it every time. He learned to suffer through the affliction and temptation without giving in to it. He overcame the world.
Jesus graduated from the school of hard knocks without being corrupted, defiled or stained by it. Because of this He is qualified to be a merciful and faithful High Priest. He learned obedience by the things which He suffered and is therefore able to teach us how to obey as well. “For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succour [come to the aid of] them that are tempted” (Heb 2:18).
Jesus, the very “Prince of Life” (Acts 3:15) and creator of all things (Col 1:16) learned obedience “to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (Phil 2:8), and by HIS obedience, we “will be made righteous” (Rom 5:19). We are justified because of his righteous obedience.
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