Jesus Our Model for Sonship

As we talk about sonship there is often a focus on the Father's love and living in that place of love.  This is very important and yet at the same time we never want to forget that Jesus is our model for sonship.  If Jesus did not come to the earth there is no way for us to be sons and daughters of God having the very DNA of God flowing in us.  Jesus lived His life being focused on being a Son to His Father, living in the Father's love, submitting to the Father's will, and on the Father's mission.  When you live from an Orphan Heart you are not subject to Father's mission but your own.  Jesus lived in full dependence on the Father as a man rightly-related to God.

One of the keys of Jesus living as a Son was his submission to the Father at all times which result in His obedience.  Hebrews 5:8 tells us how Jesus learned obedience, "Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered."  I did not understand this verse because how could the perfect Son of God need to learn obedience by the things He suffered.  Wasn't He simply always obedient.  Did His suffering mean everything that happened to Him on the cross or was I missing something?

Jesus in order to be a High Priest that was completely acceptable to God needed to meet certain requirements, one of them fulfilling the Law and another to be the Pure Spotless Lamb.  Jesus was also the High Priest that Hebrews tells us was also acceptable to us in that He was tempted in all ways yet without sin.  He had to know what it was like to be fully human and be under all the pressures, difficulties, temptations, troubles, and even all it means to grow up human.  Learning obedience by the things He suffered meant being under earthly authority that was imperfect, full of sin, and orphan at times.  This included submitting to His earthly parents, their rules, directions, care, their sin, and their failings.

As a Son of God and also son of Joseph and Mary, Jesus walked in humility by submitting to their authority even when they were wrong.  He suffered because He knew the Perfect Authority of His Father but He willingly submitted Himself and honored His earthly father and mother.  He even apprenticed under His father Joseph from age 18 to 30 as a carpenter.  He is the Son of God and yet Joseph is telling Him how to work with wood, when He is the Creator of the trees.  Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness, being tempted by the enemy to take orphan "short cuts" on His Father's Mission of reconciling us with God.

If Jesus learned obedience by the things He suffered as a Son, we also have an opportunity to learn obedience when we suffer or come under someone that our flesh does not want to submit to.  When we live from an orphan heart we are looking for shortcuts, escapes, or some form of comfort to relieve any suffering.  I don't believe that Father is focused on us suffering, He wants us to learn obedience and submission as a son.

Learning to Live as a son,
Bret