Perfect Obedience
READ
Every year on the Day of Atonement, the high priest of ancient Israel entered the innermost room of the temple—the Holy of holies—to offer a sacrifice for his sins and the sins of the nation. By doing so, the priest cleansed the people of their guilt and put them back in right relationship with God. Jesus is our perfect High Priest. He offered Himself as the final, definitive sacrifice that reconciled us to God forever. But unlike the high priests before Him, He did not have to offer anything to save Himself; He gave everything to save us and us alone.
Despite His holiness, Christ is not distant, unrelatable, or out-of-touch with our daily experience. Though He is fully God, Jesus knows exactly what being human is like. He felt the pangs of hunger, the agony of heartbreak, and the pull of temptation. Yet He remained perfectly obedient to God, so that He could offer Himself and satisfy the debt we owe—once and for all.
Let’s take a moment to read Hebrews 4:15:
For we do not have a High Priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet He did not sin.
REFLECT
It is extremely difficult to bring our cares, worries, and concerns to people who cannot comprehend what we’re going through. It isn’t easy to explain our circumstances to those who are unfamiliar with our unique social, emotional, economic, and physical conditions. Those who love us most can try their hardest to understand our experience, but no one can truly empathize with our struggle unless they’ve walked in our shoes. This is why we feel uniquely seen, understood, and comforted when we talk to someone who has faced hardships similar to our own
Our God is a God Who has personally suffered through every challenge and heartbreak we could ever face. He willingly chose to endure unfathomable pain so that He could have an intimate relationship with us. There is truly no one Who could ever understand our hurt more than the One Who died for us and continues to suffer with us.
It can be easy to reject the notion that Christ knows what it is like to live in our twenty-first century context. However, the same temptations that plagued people in the ancient world persist today (1 Corinthians 10:13). And since Jesus’ Spirit dwells within every one of us (1 Corinthians 6:19), He experiences the unique challenges of our day alongside us as we navigate our modern lives.
Though Christ lived a human life, He remained in perfect submission to the will of His Father. This was no easy task. As C.S. Lewis once noted: “Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is…. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means.” No matter what temptation we’ve faced, it is nothing compared to what Christ has endured. No matter what we’ve overcome, it is nothing compared to what Christ has overcome on our behalf.
Jesus was constantly tempted to safeguard His comfort, convenience, and dignity over serving and saving us. Yet, He continuously chose to do what was in our best interest, even at the highest cost to Himself. Though He had every opportunity to turn around, Christ traveled to Jerusalem, knowing what torture awaited Him there. Though He could’ve easily silenced the scoffers who mocked Him, He allowed Himself to be publicly humiliated. Though He possessed the power to take Himself off the cross, He chose to remain in agony, all so we could be made righteous through Him.
RESPOND
Take a moment to process what God might be leading you to do in light of what you read.
Do you believe God truly understands what you’re going through? How would it change how you approach Him if you trusted that He feels your pain?
REST
Take a moment to rest in God’s presence and consider one thing you can take away from your time reading, then close your devotional experience by praying:
Father God, thank You for feeling our pain and sharing in our human experience. Thank You for being a God Who chose to draw near to us and wade into our mess. Thank You for understanding our struggle, and for enduring more pain than we could ever know so that we could be reconciled to You. God, help me to trust that You empathize with my struggle. Help me to trust that You were perfectly obedient so that I don’t have to fear the eternal consequences of falling short. Remind me that You died a sacrificial death so that I would never taste the fullness of the pain You faced on the cross. Amen.
Port City writer Kate Redenbaugh wrote today’s devotional.