Who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. (Hebrews 5:7-8)

In The Days Of His Flesh

God created man in His own image as an eternal being. As an immortal creature, man will never cease to exist. His flesh will decay and die, but not his spirit. When death comes, a man will lose his fleshly body and take on an eternal body to either enjoy the blessings of God’s presence or the horrors of eternal flame and darkness. It is difficult to comprehend fully the transition of flesh to everlasting life. What is a greater challenge is to know that God left His divine form to take on flesh. Jesus did not consider His equality with God to stop Him from the task the Father had for Him to come to the world they created and live in the flesh. The salvation of the world would come at the cost that God became flesh.

When Jesus came in the flesh, He was completely God and flesh. During His earthly journey, Jesus experienced all the things of the flesh as other men. He was conceived in the womb of Mary by the Holy Spirit and came into the world nine months later as a small infant. He had to learn to talk, walk, care for Himself, and engage with His brothers and sisters. His life was not as uncommon as the other children in Nazareth. He grew in the wisdom of men, the stature of the Lord, increased in height and weight, and had favor will all those who knew Him. In every sense of the word, Jesus was a model son and an example of holiness to the community. He was well known at the synagogue, where He read from the Law frequently. Life in the village of Nazareth was as common as any other man growing to maturity.

Everything changed for the carpenter’s son when He turned thirty years old. John the Baptist had been baptizing people near the Jordan, preaching repentance. Jesus came to John to be baptized to fulfill all righteousness. Immediately, Jesus was taken into the wilderness, where He fasted for forty days. Afterward, He was hard-pressed by Satan directly. Rejecting the devil and his ways, Jesus began a public ministry that would take Him to a hill outside Jerusalem where He would die on the cross. For roughly three years, Jesus taught the people of God the coming kingdom. He performed thousands of miracles, healing untold numbers of people. No miracle ever failed. Jesus raised the dead and cast out evil spirits and demons. He challenged the Jewish leadership, and they had no answers for Him. Jesus had a mission, and the end was death.

Throughout the more than thirty years of His life, Jesus knew the burdens of the flesh. He hungered, needed water to drink, became tired and weary, and was often filled with the frustration of His disciples lacking faith. The Lord was patient with all men because He knew they could not understand His path. They could not know or understand the powerful image of the cross that would change their lives. After Jesus was arrested, they beat Him, spit in His face, mocked Him, and treated Him with contempt. Before nailing Him to the cross, Roman soldiers scourged Him in a very severe way. Jesus never uttered a word or called down the legions of angels to His rescue.

The Hebrew writer describes the tortuous life of Jesus as He suffered. In His prayers and supplications, Jesus cried out with prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the One who could rescue him from death. His Father remained silent. Jesus cried out with vehement cries. His tears consumed Him as He begged for mercy. He knew His Father would not answer His prayer because He could not. The suffering of Jesus was necessary, and God permitted it. God heard every cry and every tear Jesus uttered and remained silent. Jesus suffered in the flesh because He was flesh. In His suffering, He learned obedience and love. Jesus was obedient unto death because that is what the Father required. He learned obedience to the will of the Father by the things He suffered in the flesh. Everything Jesus did to save humanity was for the glory of the Father. Jesus died. He arose. Victory came because God came in the flesh.