Eventually Like Jesus

For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Romans 8:29

Jesus Christ was both God and man. While it is difficult for us to comprehend such a union, the Bible makes it clear that Christ was a man of two natures. Though He was sinless, Jesus was like us in other ways. When we fail, we can draw encouragement from Hebrews 5:8: “Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.”

Jesus had to “learn” obedience? Who does that sound like (besides your children)? It sounds like every Christian who has ever tried, and often failed, to put off the old man and put on the new (Colossians 3:9–10). Though we don’t understand how or why the Son of God learned obedience, He did. And He suffered in the process. The way we know that He learned it is because when He faced the greatest test in His earthly life, He said to God, “Nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done” (Luke 22:42).

Learning obedience is not easy. If you have recently chosen your will instead of God’s, don’t despair. You have been predestined to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. Let what you know you will become tomorrow keep you moving beyond what you are today.