though he were Son, he learned obedience from the things which he suffered;
Hebrews 5 shows why Jesus is fit to be a High Priest. Then comes the strangest claim in that argument: the One who is Son had something to learn, and suffering is how He learned it.
The verse first grants His dignity, then sets it against the place He took. One writer explains why obedience was foreign to Him:
Yet in His eternal being, in His rightful position, in His personal dignity that can never be taken from Him, the Son was a divine person. As such, He had nothing to do with obedience. This is the very reason Hebrews 5:8 says that He learned obedience through what He suffered. He did not know what it was to obey until He came down to be man. He knew perfectly well what it was for others, for every creature; but He was no creature but Creator. Still, having become man, He loyally took up the duties of man. And the very first duty of man is to obey God.
Learning obedience is not the same as being taught to obey. That difference explains why the verse names Him as Son (older translations read "though He were Son"):
He learned, not to obey, "for the law of God was in His heart," but He learned obedience. He was obedient in the lowest and most painful circumstances a man could ever pass through, for He went down to death. When Jesus suffered, it was not a necessity He could not avoid. It was according to the will of God, who had appointed Him that portion in the world. The Holy Spirit makes us feel the right Jesus had not to pass through death, when He says, "though He were Son."
We also learn obedience through suffering, but the two lessons run in opposite directions:
We have to learn obedience because we have a wicked will. He learned it because He was God over all, who from eternity had always commanded. We often learn obedience through the suffering our own disobedience brings on us. He learned obedience through the suffering that came on Him because He obeyed the will of God. He learned by experience what it cost to obey. No suffering, however intense, could move Him from the path of perfect obedience.
How much of His life does this suffering cover — only the garden of Gethsemane, or all of it? One writer weighs it up:
The question has been raised whether our blessed Lord learned obedience only through what He endured in Gethsemane. There is no possible doubt that verse 7 refers to His experience in the garden. But the same was true of His whole life, as seen, for example, in His temptation by Satan in the wilderness. He came to do the will of God, and this brought Him suffering at every step. We conclude therefore that He learned obedience by the things which He suffered throughout His whole life on earth. Gethsemane is named as the climax of His suffering, because there the pressure of death came upon His soul.
Another writer agrees, and adds that the suffering was not only physical:
We read that He learned obedience "through what He suffered" (Heb. 5:8). This surely covers all His pathway here, and not just the closing scenes of suffering of a more physical kind.
This learning was not private. It is the ground of the sympathy He now shows to people in trouble:
It was in this school — the school of weariness and weeping, of hunger and poverty, of contact with every kind of human misery and grief. In this everyday school, and not in the untroubled dignities of heaven, He learned the art, rare and precious, of sympathy and of speaking a word to the weary. His sympathy is the result of dearly-bought experience, and is therefore always effective.
The next verse states the outcome. One writer pictures the testing behind it:
Every girder in a great bridge is tested before it goes into its destined place. In the same way, our Lord was tested under the greatest pressure, and He was never found wanting. There was no resistance to God's will in Him, no resentment, no murmuring, no fault, no flaw. The will of God did not chafe His holy soul; He delighted to do it both day and night. He passed through every test and graduated in the school of suffering, and so He is fully qualified to be the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.
- Enrolled. The Son had always commanded; He did not know what it was to obey until He came down to be man.
- The lesson. He did not learn to obey. He learned obedience itself, and found out by experience what obeying costs.
- The classroom. Suffering was the schoolroom — not only Gethsemane, but every step of His life on earth.
- The contrast. We suffer because we disobey; He suffered because He obeyed, and no pressure moved Him off that path.
- The graduation. Out of that school came sympathy bought by experience, and an Author of eternal salvation for all who obey Him.
and having been perfected, became to all them that obey him, author of eternal salvation;
The Son who prayed with loud cries, and learned obedience through suffering, is the One God calls High Priest. Verse 9 gives the result: a Saviour brought to completion, a salvation that never ends, and a surprising description of those who receive it: they obey Him.
The word cannot mean that something was missing in His character.
Not moral perfection — we all know He was morally stainless — but perfection as "the author of salvation." He would never have been perfect in this sense if He had not gone on to death. It was fitting for God to give us a perfect Saviour, and just as fitting for Christ to make Himself a perfect Saviour.
So what was completed? His office as Saviour, reached through suffering and then glory.
The Lord Jesus was always morally perfect, yet Scripture speaks of His being "made perfect" — for instance, as the captain of salvation. All had been completed in view of that office (Heb. 2:10). Though He was a Son, He learned obedience (not "to be obedient") through the things He suffered. And after He had finished the work of redemption, He was made "perfect" — that is, glorified — and became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.
With that completion comes a title. Where the ESV reads "source," older translations have "author."
Our High Priest is the Author of eternal salvation — a title found nowhere else in the New Testament. It belongs to the Lord Jesus alone. He is the Author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, whether they were once Jews or Gentiles... Here too we first meet the word eternal in this letter. Their fathers entered Canaan, enjoyed it for a few years, and then passed away. These, their descendants, were to share in blessing that lasts for ever. It includes everlasting salvation (v. 9), everlasting redemption (9:12), everlasting inheritance (9:15), and all that flows from an everlasting covenant (13:20).
That word "eternal" also marks a contrast with Israel's rescue from Pharaoh.
That salvation lasted only for this life, and most of those rescued from Pharaoh's hand never reached the purpose of God for them... But the salvation brought to light today is said to be "in Christ" (2 Tim. 2:10), and "eternal" (Heb. 5:9). It is not an outward rescue from physical slavery. It sets the soul free from the fear of death, and from the devil, the world, the flesh, and every spiritual enemy.
The wording echoes verse 8: the Son Himself learned obedience.
Hebrews 3 and the start of Hebrews 4 press the value of faith so hard that we might have expected it to read "them that believe." Why does it say "them that obey Him"? The obedience is of course the obedience of faith. But here is the point: the One who asks obedience from us is the One who has learned obedience Himself. In obedience the Son of God worked out eternal salvation, and that salvation is ours when we come under obedience to Him.
But "obey" can sound like a fresh set of rules to keep. One writer rules that out.
The obedience is not the obedience of the law. It is not obedience done to get life. It is what Paul calls in Romans the obedience of faith. This faith has bowed in obedience to Christ. It has owned God's righteous judgment on itself, and it accepts God's perfect provision in what Christ has done.
If the salvation is eternal, the question of timing answers itself.
What is "eternal" salvation, and when do I receive it? Paul says to us that God "has saved us" (2 Tim. 1:9). Is that not "eternal salvation"? If I have obeyed Him — for the gospel calls for obedience, most surely (Rom. 10:16) — if I have obeyed His call of grace and come to Him, is He not the author of eternal salvation to me right then? Or must I wait until there is no more danger before I can speak of being saved for ever?
The certainty rests on who He is and on what He has done.
Everlasting salvation is sure for all who own Him. He is none other than the prophet like Moses whom the Lord promised long ago to raise up. But He is far more, and more blessed. Instead of only the threat of God's punishment on the one who does not listen, He has become author of salvation to those who obey Him. And, against the uncertainty of law, it is "everlasting salvation." How could it be otherwise, if we believe in the glory of His person and the power of His work?
- Perfected, not improved. He was always morally spotless. What reached completion was His course as Saviour — through suffering, death and glory.
- Author, and He alone. No one else in the New Testament carries this title.
- Eternal, not temporary. Israel's rescue from Pharaoh freed bodies for a season. This salvation frees the soul for ever, and starts a chain of "eternal" blessings running through Hebrews.
- Obedience, not law-keeping. The obedient One asks only the obedience He Himself rendered — the heart bowing to Him in faith.
- Now, not later. If God has saved us, we already have that salvation. Waiting until all danger is past misses the word "eternal."