Since Jesus was God, He could have seen everything in the world all at once, all the time, just like His Father did. Instead He used His eyes to see, just like we do. Even though He didn’t have to, He used His tongue to taste and His ears to hear.
And instead of knowing everything all at once, all the time, He used His mind to learn. He didn’t just pretend to learn what He already knew. He acquired His knowledge the same way we all do. For example, He wasn’t born knowing how to talk, read, and write. He learned like the rest of us.
And, like us, He also learned the lessons that can’t be learned from books. We are told in Hebrews 5:7-8 that, “in the days of His flesh…though he was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.”
There is a kind of knowledge that comes by experience only. Jesus’s experiences taught Him first-hand about obedience.
As He learned obedience, He learned who He was. He learned as a human who He was as God.
He was, and is, obedience. He is one with God who created the world.
Colossians 1:15-17 says “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.”
When we read about the creation of the world in Genesis 1, we see that, although the word “obedience” is not used, the act of obedience is described repeatedly. Genesis 1:3, for example, tells us that “God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.”
The account goes on in this manner, “God said…and it was so.” There was no arguing with the word of God. Light did not hesitate to shine. Creation did not refuse to be; it came into being as an act of simple and pure obedience.
This is the same way Jesus lived His life, in perfect obedience. He was surrounded by disobedience to God. He was persecuted by those who were disobedient to God. But the more He suffered because of the disobedience of others, the more He learned obedience: practical, human obedience to the will of God.
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