Perfect Through Suffering

Introduction: It Was Fitting

Have you ever been invited to an event, such as a dinner, and you were unsure what the dress code was? Or worse, you showed up and found out that you were either over dressed or underdressed for the occassion. In social situations, what is appropriate and what is inappropriate are very important to us. They help us feel safe around other people, knowing that we share a similar understanding of what is or is not fitting in a given context. Often, cultural misunderstandings happen because what I understand as appropriate and what someone from a different cultural context see as appropriate will differ, and historically this has often driven fear and bigotry towards other people.

But beyond these cultural differences, there are more objective standards of what is or is not appropriate. While the way in which we address our elders may differ between cultures, it is universally unacceptible to be rude or dishonourable to your elders or parents. Human relationships are only able to function because there is a right way to do something and there are wrong ways to behave. Sometimes, these are as inconsequential as whether I should wear I tie to a formal dinner, other times they are more serious.

When it comes to our relationship with God, there is a right, or fitting way, in which that relationship should go forward, that our salvation should be acheived, and there are many wrong ways. It is inappropriate for us to try to acheive salvation through our own good works, or to worship God in ways he has forbidden. Similarly, God approaches us in ways that are appropriate, according to his own character, nature, will, and plan for humanity. God doesn’t just approach us and save us, but he does so in a way that is fitting and appropriate.

However, that doesn’t mean that it is going to seem that way to us. When we compare to Gospel to every other religion in the history of humanity, it is clear that it doesn’t intuitively seem fitting to us. In our text today, we read that it was fitting, that means it was appropriate and best, that the founder of our salvation should be made perfect through suffering. Now I don’t know about you, but intuitively that doesn’t sound fitting at all. How is it that, in order for us to be saved, restored to God, and made to be who we were created to be, the one who brings us this salvation has to first complete a season of suffering until his suffering can be said to have been completed or perfect? It is a bold statement, and yet in our text today this is exactly what we will see and be reminded of our need to view things from God’s perspective of what is fitting in our salvation.

God the Initiator

Our text speaks of the one for whom and by whom all things exist. This is obviously referring to God, and here specifically God the Father, the first person of the Trinity, as distinct from God the Son. This title for God the Father is used, not out of some overdone poetic elequence, but to point towards the specific attributes of God in view here.

for (because of) whom and by whom all things exist points both towards God’s universal glory and his omnipotent sovereignty. All things were made for God or because of God, meaning that the ultimate purpose of the universe is not the universe itself or the creatures therein. This is often what we assume and it drives how we think about God. In fact, the vast majourity of arguments you will hear people make against biblical teaching is based on the lie that the universe exists for those in it. People’s problems with the biblical teaching of marriage and sexuality, or the way God had the Israelites drive out the Canaanites from the land of promise, only make sense if you view of the world this way. To say that the universe exists for God or because of God and not for or because of us is a humble disposition that reminds us that we are not the reason we exist and that we are given a very small picture in the grand scheme of God’s purposes. That God made the world for himself is offensive to our sensibilities, and yet is impossible to argue against. It is true that one of the reasons he made the universe for himself was to show his love and other characteristics, but this does not mean that we are therefore the centre of the world he made.

All things also exist by him, or through him. That is, everything exists because of him and through his will and purpose. He is the source of being itself, and all that is is only because he wills it to continue being. We saw that Jesus also shares this attribute in 1:3 because he is fully divine in nature. In the OT, God identified himself as I AM That I AM and one way that has often been interpreted in church history is that I AM the source of all being itself.

The point here is God’s complete and total soveriegnty over all that is. Because all things are sourced from him and because all things exist for him, this means God’s will and purpose take centre stage in all that happens and the end for which all things are bound. This means that God has no plan b, no compromise, and no competition. God never reacts to what is happening, but rather uses all things in his sovereign purposes. The way that our salvation is accomplished is not God making the best out of a bad situation, it is the fitting way for it to play out. According to whom? According to the one for whom and through whom all things exist.

The End: Many Sons to Glory

Now that we see that it is God’s work that works all things out and his glory that all things exist for, let us take a look at the end of this plan which God has set in place. The purpose which God is setting out to accomplish is given tto us simply with the phrase in bringing many sons to glory.

Because God is a God of love, he is most glorified when he is able to display his love to those whom he chooses by raising them us to glory in Him.

He calls these his Sons, his children, because of the covenant relationship he initiates with them and because of the promise of an inheritance of glory. Our sonship is due to adoption through the only begotten Jesus Christ, through whom God’s people are raised up to the glory which he has earned on the cross. God desires to bring many sons to glory, to have his church spread across the world for the purpose of bringing the Gospel of life to as many as possible so that the heirs of his promises may be many and yet united in an eternal sonship.

But this is not the state in which humanity exists naturally. God needs to bring many sons to glory. A process is necessary, and so this ultimate end of salvation and glorification for adopted sons must come through a process which is fitting and proper.

The Means: Perfection Through Suffering

This is where we may be surprised because the means that God uses to bring salvation and glory to his sons is not exactly what we may call fitting. Think about the pagan deities you may be familiar with and contrast it with the work of our LORD. If Zeus or Odin wanted to bring many sons to glory, how would they do it? Whatever answer you or experts in mythology may come up with, it probably would not be by making the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. Suffering is, in our minds, usually associated with weakness, defeat, and curse. When things are working like they should, evil people suffer punishment while good people are rewarded with peace and plenty. At this point, it is not a surprise as we already saw in verse 9 that Jesus was crowned with glory and honour because of his suffering, death, and the way he tasted death for everyone. Still, it is hard to understand how this could be the means God uses to accomplish the salvation of his sons. Let us unpack this phrase with a few observations:

First, that God makes the founder perfect through suffering. Again, we are given the idea here that the Father is in complete control of the situation. God is not reacting to the crucifixion of Christ, he planned it to be the way through which he saves his people.

Second, the word founder mean an originator or pioneer, the one who blazes the trail and makes it possible for others to follow. Though the Father makes salvation happen, it is the Son who personally sees to its completion and establishment. Salvation here means the same thing as bringing many sons to glory, it is the completion of God’s purposes for his people through the Gospel.

Third is the word perfect. I though Jesus was already perfect? How can he be made perfect? While we most often think of perfection in terms of something being flawless and undefiled, the Greek and Hebrew concept has more to do with completion and fulfillment. That Jesus needed to be made perfect, which is something that the author of Hebrews talks about more than once, does not mean that Jesus had flaws to sins that needed to be removed, it means that Jesus had to reach a state of fulfillment and completion in what he come to earth to do. In order for salvation to be possible, it is was fitting for Jesus to acheive it through suffering and death (both are in view here as we saw in verse 9).

And so we are left with the conclusion that the appropriate way for God to save many for glory, the one who was sent to effect that salvation, Jesus, had to reach a level of perfection through the process of suffering and death . This is what surprises us, especially with our modern sensibilities who above all avoid suffering and pain. Some have even dared to talk about the sacrifice of Christ as divine child abuse, as if Jesus himself did not willingly and voluntarily submit to it.

Conclusion: A Fitting Salvation

How can we say that this is fitting? This is a question that the rest of the book will help us explain and unpack, and our time is limited today. However, we are still able to leave this text today with a glimpse of the beauty of the Gospel which comes through the suffering of Christ.

For one, we already saw last week that the sufferings of Christ were part of his humiliation, his lowering himself to become the Savour of those who were lower than angels. Since Christ also came for the sick and hurting, it makes sense that he embraced suffering as well.

But as we also saw last week, Jesus tested death for everyone, meaning he experienced death in the place of others. As we know, death is a result of sin, and it is this for two reasons. Death is the natural consequence of sin since sin cuts us off from the source of life and being, the great I AM. Death is also a just result of sin, the penelty of sin for those who engage in sin from the judge of all the earth. When Jesus took on humanity, he was not immortal. He had to eat, he felt pain, he thirsted, he suffered what sinful human beings suffer in the world. Beyond this, he willingly went to the cross where he was torchered and murdered in the most brutal way. In this way, he took both the natural and judicial consequences of our sin on himself from the very moment he was concieved, reaching perfection of this suffering on the cross.

Being made perfect through suffering means everything standing in the way of our salvation was removed because Christ suffered the necessary death to accomplish it. In his resurrection, that perfection was made clear since death could no longer hold him and he was able to establish our salvation in which the Father will bring those who believe to glory as his sons.

What does this mean for us?

A reason to trust God’s purposes, though they go against what makes sense to us. We need to encourage a submission to God that transcends our understanding.

One commentator writes:

The Epistle to the Hebrews E. The Son of Man the Savior and High Priest of His People

The person who says, “I could not have a high opinion of a God who would (or would not) do this or that,” is not adding anything to our knowledge of God; he is simply telling us something about himself.

As disciples, to look at our suffering in this world in light of Christ’s perfection through it and seek that same completion. While Christ’s suffering won our salvation, sanctification will include suffering in us. When that suffering is perfected, our sinful flesh will finally fall away and we will enter glory.

An amazing hope in the Gospel.