Last Sunday morning in our Hebrews series I preached from Hebrews 5 "A Better High Priest". On one point in the message we zoomed in on v. 7-9 and talked about Jesus denial of His will in the Garden prayer of agony. In that prayer, He submitted Himself to His Father's plan of Salvation through His personal sacrifice of separation from the Godhead, pain, humiliation, etc. That denial allowed Him to "learn" or experience in v.8 the equivalence of what a sinful man must do in repentance: lay down His will and submit to God's Authority. Having experienced this made Jesus "perfect or complete" in v.9 to be the author of eternal salvation to all those that would later submit themselves to Him as Savior. The experiential submission is directly connected to His authorship of your repentance -- He "authored" or wrote salvation first, and then brought many sons to glory after Him. I am no way insinuating that Jesus "needed" personally to repent or was sinful in anyway. I am showing His honorable work as High Priest who truly can understand and have compassion (v.7) because for the only time in history, the Son of God denied himself. This denial begins in the teaching of Philippians 2 and culminates in the Garden prayer. This is Biblical Doctrine from Scripture, it is precious.
After preaching this, John 12:23-28 came into FULL FOCUS. "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die". Jesus died to Himself and then died physically. Because of this great submission, He brings forth much fruit, and the Father can glorify Him. Think of Jesus' denial of His will as you read v.23-28. Linger on v. 28 and realize the hard decision in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus struggled between His personal will and the Father's. Apply it to Salvation Repentance. Apply it to Christian denial of yourself.
PW
