Learning obedience through suffering.

The Lord Jesus Christ learned obedience through the things He suffered. He was made perfect through suffering. In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering. (Hebrews 2:10-NIV)Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him (Hebrews 5:8-9-NIV)

Think carefully about the above two passages. We are referring to the Lord of Glory, the eternal Logos who has been with the Father from the beginning. How could it be that Jesus Christ needed to learn obedience to God?

The Scripture says He did and so we accept this fact. Christ had to be made perfect and learn obedience on the earth. This tells us that such perfection and obedience cannot be learned in the spirit Paradise. If we are going to learn obedience and be made perfect, it must be while we are on the earth. Something to think about, in that Evangelicals are trusting they will be made perfect after they die or when the Lord appears!

Satan rebelled against the Father. The Father has determined to put down all rebellion, all disobedience, through an instrument termed the Kingdom of God. The King of the Kingdom, the Lord Jesus Christ, was the first to be tested. He passed the test gloriously. He has been proven totally obedient to God. Prior to His being made flesh the Logos was perfect in righteousness and holiness. However it is the earth that is the crucible where the obedience of the King and His royal priesthood must be tested to the limit.

The test given to Christ was the question whether He would ever be restored to God after having borne on Himself the sin of the world. One might say, "It wasn't really a test because He knew God would never fail Him." May we say we have the same assurance, but the tests are very difficult at times. The Lord Jesus agonized in the Garden and then pressed forward into God's will. He drank the cup of suffering. "God's will be done regardless of the consequences to me!"

We must do the same. We must always pray, "Your Kingdom come. Your will be done in the earth as it is in Heaven regardless of the consequences to me personally." Until we can pray this prayer with singleness of heart we are a rebel against our Creator and not fit to return with Christ to judge and govern the nations. The purpose of the two thousand years of the Church Age has been to bring forth the nobility of the Kingdom, the members of the royal priesthood. Each member of the priesthood will be tested in the realm of obedience to the Father. No individual ever, ever, ever will be a member of the royal priesthood until he or she has been tested severely in the realm of obedience.

This is why we suffer as we do. We are being judged as to every possible source of disobedience in us. It is a fiery trial, no doubt about this. As soon as our obedience is complete, God then will be ready to send the Lord and punish the disobedient on the earth. Antichrist is the lawless one, the disobedient one. Antichrist cannot possibly be overcome except by those who have been found utterly obedient to God. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete. (2 Corinthians 10:5-6-NIV)

The members of the Body of Christ have bowed the knee to God and called on God for their salvation. God sprinkles the blood of the covenant on us so we have the authority to begin the program of salvation. The members of the Body of Christ have bowed the knee still further and have sought to live in the Spirit of God rather than in their carnal thinking and fleshly appetites. The Holy Spirit gives us the power to pursue the program of salvation. Now we have both the authority and the power to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.

The salvation itself is the Kingdom of God, that is, the receiving of the Father and the Son into our personality such that They are on the throne of our life forever. To have God and Jesus on the throne of our personality forever implies total, utter obedience. So the issue today is obedience. Our desire to be obedient should be spoken out loud so God and the rest of the spirit realm can hear us, and so we can hear ourselves. With the mouth confession is made to salvation.

Then God begins to make us obedient. The issue is God against our self-will. God keeps sending suffering in one form or another and we have to keep choosing to obey Christ rather than to try to dodge the suffering. It is through patient suffering that we enter the Kingdom of God. God keeps us cheerful through the process of learning obedience, that is, if we have an obedient, trusting heart. If suffering makes us gloomy and depressed then it does us no good. In fact, we will become bitter, hating the instruments God uses to frustrate us. The same suffering will make the obedient, trusting believer a mature saint and the disobedient, faithless believer a bitter warped soul. If we suffer with Christ we will rule with Christ. Suffering creates obedience in us and assists in the program of developing iron righteousness and fiery holiness in us. Until the scepter of iron is formed in us we cannot return with Christ to judge and bless the nations. The scepter of iron is found only in the overcomer. He will rule them with an iron scepter; he will dash them to pieces like pottery-just as I have received authority from my Father. (Rev 2:27-NIV)