Hebrews 5:8

Hebrews 5:8

Suffering the School of Obedience.

I. In His wisdom and power, God has laid even upon sorrow the destiny of fulfilling His purposes of mercy. In the beginning sorrow was the wages of sin, penal and working death; by the law of Christ's redemption it is become a discipline of cleansing and perfection. God permits it still to abide in His kingdom, but He has reduced it to subjection. It is now changed to be a minister, not more of His severity than of His mercy. It is the discipline of saints, and the safest, though the austerest, school of sanctity; and that because suffering, or, as we are wont to say, trial, turns our knowledge into reality. When pain searches into the body or the spirit we feel as if we had awoke up to know that we had learned nothing really until now. All general truths speak to us with a particular meaning, and speak to us with a piercing emphasis.

II. Sufferings so put our faith on trial as to strengthen and confirm it. They develop what was lying hid in us, unknown even to ourselves. And therefore we often see persons, who have shown no very great tokens of high devotion, come out under the pressure of trials into a most elevated bearing. This is especially true of sickness and affliction. Not only are persons of a holy life made to shine with a more radiant brightness, but common Christians, of no note or visibleness, are changed to a saintly character. They wrestle with their trial, and will not let it go without a blessing; and thereby the gifts which lie enwrapped in a regenerate nature are unfolded into life and energy.

III. Once more: nothing so likens us to the example of Christ as suffering. The sorrows of the holiest minds are the nearest approaches to the mind of Christ, and are full of a meaning which is dark to us only from its exceeding brightness. And therefore, when we look at the sufferings of pure and holy minds, let us rather stand in awe, as being called to behold, as it were, a shadow of our Redeemer's sorrows. Even with bleeding hearts and deep-drawn prayers for their consolation, let us try to believe that God is endowing them with surpassing tokens of love, and with pledges of exceeding glory.

H. E. Manning, Sermons,vol. i., p. 287.

References: Hebrews 5:8. Spurgeon, Morning by Morning,p. 89. Hebrews 5:9. Ibid., Sermons,vol. xx., No. 1172; E. Cooper, Practical Sermons,vol. i., p. 143.Hebrews 5:10. J. Edmund, Christian World Pulpit,vol. iii., p. 200. Hebrews 5:11. Homiletic Quarterly,vol. ii., p. 37.