Using Hebrews 5:8 as a touchstone, although Jesus was a son, "he learned obedience from what he suffered", did S.S. Seward or William P—Pushover—Jones prove a better father for their respective sons? Which father called his son to a maturity he didn't have? Demanded personal accountability he hadn't shown? Put him on notice to either discipline his excesses or find himself perpetually enslaved to them? Indeed, which encouraged maturity into manhood and contributed to perpetual childhood?
While S.S. Seward yanked his erring son into reality by refusing his continued residence at home, William P. thought to HELP his child by pampering him, considering his every request a command, thinking that never leaving a need unmet proved parental love. God the Father certainly didn't ease God the Son's way through life. From the age of 12 Jesus knew his destiny, knew the Cross awaited and increasingly felt the burden it imposed. It started in Satan's initial temptation to turn from the Cross and finished in Christ's horrifying experience in Gethsemane. See Matthew 4:1-11, Luke 12:50 and John 12:20-29 for the ever-increased stress Christ's crucifixion placed on him. He never diverted his gaze from Calvary, but always sensed the increasing stress of being separated from God while he became sin--became for us, in our place—II Corinthians 5:21—though NOT a sinner. The lesson every Christian needs to learn from this blog is: accept the pain, cost, rejection, loneliness of being a witness for Christ. Count it an honor when he imposes on us tasks, requirements and commands that get out of our comfort zone into obedience to his sacrificial life. He considered no price excessive to save us. How can we consider any cost in discipleship excessive in his service? Fini
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