Heb. 5:8—“Though he were Son, he learned obedience from the things which he suffered.”
Problem: Though he were Son [i.e., ‘notwithstanding the fact that he was the Son,’ and thus not in a place of obedience or subjection, but co-equal in every way in the eternal relations of the Triune Godhead], he learned obedience [not, ‘learned to obey,’ but ‘learned obedience’ by experience]
from the things which he suffered [on earth as the God-Man].
Solution: “But the plain fact which quickly appears and characterises his [Adam’s] ruin is his disobedience. He disobeyed unto death; the grand contrast of which is the Second man, the Last Adam, who became obedient unto death. Yet in His eternal being, in His proper position, in His inalienable personal dignity, the Son was a divine person, and, as such, had nothing to do with obedience. For this
very reason it is said in Heb. 5:8, that He learned obedience from (or, by) the things which He
suffered. He did not know what it was to obey till He came down to be man. He knew perfectly well
what it was for others, for every creature; but He was no creature but Creator. Nevertheless,
having become man, He loyally undertook the duties of man; and the very first duty of man is to
obey God.”
“Being in the form of God, He emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondman. Of His own will, He
divested Himself of His prerogatives as God, choosing not to command as God but to obey as a
servant. All the inherent rights of deity are His inalienably [as the Divine Son]; obedience,
however, is a function not of deity, but of one who takes the place of submission to the will of
another. Being God, and being come in man’s likeness, Christ Jesus undertook the place of
servitude. ‘Though He were Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered’
(Heb. 5:8). Yet He, ‘according to flesh, is the Christ, Who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.’
(Rom. 9:5).”
“Now, the transcendent glory of the obedience of Christ which He carried as far as death, even the
death of the cross, lies in the fact that being the Eternal Son He deigned to enter into that
relationship of submission for the glory of God. Being Son in the Godhead and exempt from
all obligations and conditions of servitude, He became the Servant of God, of Jehovah. To this
end, He ‘emptied Himself, taking a bondman’s form, taking His place in [the] likeness of men’ (Phil. 2:
7). But while the Holy Spirit in Philippians describes graphically how One ‘in the form of God,’ a
Divine Person, took the ‘form of a servant,’ or bondslave, we nowhere in scripture read that He
took ‘the form of a Son,’ though scripture witnesses that in His incarnation He was still the Son, but
not Child. To the place of subjection, the Blessed One ‘descended,’ for He chose to become the
Righteous Servant of Jehovah, but all scripture is silent as to His becoming the Son. Being the
Son, He both willed and submitted to be sent, and being sent, He did the will of Him that sent
Him. ‘Though He were Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered’ (Heb.
5:8). His obedience was more than the obedience of a Servant; it was the obedience of the Son—an
obedience, moreover, which He learned in the school of suffering.”
“The teaching of scripture concerning our Lord is that He, the Son, at His incarnation came into the
place of subjection or obedience. It was in that place of relationship that He ‘learned’ to submit to the
will of Him Who had sent Him. ‘Though He were Son, yet learned He obedience from the things which
He suffered’ (Heb. 5:8). The personal dignities and glories of Him Who is the Son and Who assumed
the conditions of subjection and suffering are previously unfolded in the same Epistle (Heb. 1). He
Who is there shown to be God and Jehovah as well as Son learned obedience from the things
which He suffered. Does not the essential glory of His Person magnify His obedience beyond all
comparison and elevate His submission to an unexampled excellence? Subjection was foreign to
the nature of the Eternal Son, yet He learned obedience when incarnate. The absurdity of the
assertion that subjection is denoted by the word, Son, is seen at once when applied to this
passage [Heb. 5:8], substituting those words [‘in subjection’] for the word ‘Son.’ The statement
of the Messianic glory is converted into a mere platitude by this change: ‘Though He were in
subjection, yet learned He obedience from the things which He suffered.’ How commonplace!
The one who is subject must obey. The emphatic force of ‘though,’ which means
‘notwithstanding the fact that,’ is lost. The glory of the obedient Son is departed from the passage!
“This gratuitous suggestion is a real dishonour done to the Lord in the circumstances of His
humiliation. If [His] sonship ‘denotes subjection,’ as they say, then obedience is the normal duty of the
Son, and if He does the things commanded Him, He is not worthy even to be thanked (Luke 17:9). If
His obedience cost Him suffering, does not every good soldier endure hardness (2 Tim. 2:3)? By this
faulty interpretation of Sonship as applied to our Lord, the true significance of Heb. 5:8 is
perverted, and the glory of the obedience of the Son is reduced to the level of the faithfulness
of a servant. The subjection described in this text was exceptional and unequalled because it
was found in One Who obeyed, ‘though He were Son.’ His personal status exempted Him from
all obligation to be subject, yet He obeyed. Of His own voluntary will, He undertook the position
and responsibilities of a bond-servant. The Son becoming subject was a glorified excellence
unparalleled in the history of creation, and this excellence the Holy Spirit delineates and
magnifies, especially in the Gospel of Mark and in the Epistle to the Hebrews.”
“It was Christ’s eternal Sonship that imparted the incomparable character to His service on
earth. In the Godhead there is uniformity of will, and therefore no subjection of One to
Another. In Deity, the Son knew no subjection, but on earth, ‘though He were Son, He learned
obedience from the things which He suffered.’ In the lowly place of subjection which He
assumed, the Son chose to receive commandments from the Father and to be obedient to
them with infinite dispatch and infinite delight. What obedience could match this in kind or in
degree?”
Now compare the following for the significance of His name and eternal relationship to the Father—
that is, the Son of God, eternal Son of the eternal Father, co-equal in every way in the eternal
relations of the Triune Godhead:
“And as they went to bring his disciples word, behold also, Jesus met them, saying, Hail! And
they coming up took him by the feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus says to them, Fear not;
go, bring word to my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there they shall see me. . . But the
eleven disciples went into Galilee to the mountain which Jesus had appointed them. And when
they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted. And Jesus coming up spoke to
them, saying, All power has been given me in heaven and upon earth. Go therefore and
make disciples of all the nations, baptising them to the name [not ‘Names,’ but the singular
Name of the fully revealed God, the Triune Name] of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Spirit. And behold, I am with you all the days, until the completion of the age” (Matt.
28:9-10, 16-20)
“But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto and I [the Son] work. For this therefore
the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he had not only violated the Sabbath, but also said
that God was his own Father [in such a manner as to be] making himself equal with God.”
(John 5:17-18)
“That all may honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He who honours not the Son,
honours not the Father who has sent him.” (John 5:23)
“I [the Son] and the Father are one. The Jews therefore again took stones that they might
stone him. Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewn you of my Father; for which
work of them do ye stone me? The Jews answered him, For a good work we stone thee not, but
for blasphemy, and because thou, being a man, makest thyself God. Jesus answered them, Is
it not written in your law, I said, ‘Ye are gods’? If he called them ‘gods’ to whom the word of God
came (and the scripture cannot be broken), do ye say of him whom the Father has sanctified
and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest, because I said, I am Son of God? (John 10:30-
36)
“The Jews answered him, We have a law, and according to our law he ought to die, because
he made himself Son of God.” (John 19:7)
“He that beholds me [the Son], beholds him [the Father] that sent me.” (John 12:45)
“Jesus says to him, Am I so long a time with you, and thou hast not known me, Philip? He that
has seen me [the Son] has seen the Father; and how sayest thou, Shew us the Father?”
(John 14:9)
“I [the Son] came out from [Gr. para, from with] the Father and have come into the world
[‘being the Son, He both willed and submitted to be sent, and being sent, He did the will of Him
that sent Him’]; again I leave the world and go to the Father.” (John 16:28)
“And now glorify me, thou Father, along with thyself, with the glory which I [the Son] had
along with thee before the world was [i.e., in eternity past, before the beginning of
time/creation].” (John 17:5)
“Father, as to those whom thou hast given me [the Son], I desire that where I am they also may
be with me, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me, for thou [the Father]
lovedst me [the Son] before the foundation of the world [i.e., in eternity past, before the
beginning of time/creation, in the eternal communion and intimacy of the Godhead the
Father’s love ever dwelt in complacent affection upon ‘the Son of His love.’ ].” (John 17:24)
“Grace shall be with you, mercy, peace from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of the Father, in truth and love.” (2 John 3)
“That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, which we have seen with our
eyes; that which we contemplated, and our hands handled, concerning the Word of life; (and the
life has been manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and report to you the eternal life
[the eternal Son], which was with the Father, and has been manifested to us). . . . And we
know that the Son of God has come, and has given us an understanding that we should know
him that is true; and we are in him that is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God
and eternal life. Children, keep yourselves from idols.” (1 John 1:1-2, 5:20-21)
“God [God as such, the (now fully revealed) Triune God] having spoken in many parts and in
many ways formerly to the fathers in the prophets, at the end of these days has spoken to us in
the person of the Son [the Son become flesh, the Son in manhood], whom he [the personal God
as such] has established heir of all things, by whom [by the Creator-Son] also he made the
worlds [Gr. aiones, lit. “ages,” meaning the Son made ‘the whole created universe of time
and space’; and since the Son created the ages of time, the Son is therefore timeless, the
eternal Son]; who being [inherently being in His Divine Person in manhood; the God-Man being]
the effulgence of his glory [the radiance of God’s intrinsic splendor and perfections, the
outshining of Divine excellence in display] and the expression of his substance [the exact
expression and representation of the essential nature or being of God], and upholding all things
by the word of his power [i.e., upholding ‘ALL things’ by the Son’s own word of power, and thus
His own Omnipotent, Almighty utterance of power!], having made by himself the purification of
sins, set himself down on the right hand of the greatness on high.” (Heb. 1:1-3)
“But as to the Son [the Father says in Ps. 45:6], Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever, and a
sceptre of uprightness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. . . . And [as to the Son, the Father says in
Ps. 102:25-27], Thou in the beginning, Lord [Jehovah, the Self-Existent, Uncreated, Ever
Existing, Eternal One, who caused the ‘beginning’ of all things to begin], hast founded the
earth, and works of thy hands are the heavens. They shall perish, but thou continuest still; and
they all shall grow old as a garment, and as a covering shalt thou roll them up, and they shall be
changed; but thou art the Same [another Divine title of the only true God, Jehovah, meaning
‘the self-existent one who does not change,’ in contrast to all creatures who are such as
are indeed changeable], and thy years shall not fail.” (Heb. 1:8, 10-12)
“Though he were Son [i.e., ‘notwithstanding the fact that he was the Son,’ and thus not in
a place of obedience or subjection, but co-equal in every way in the eternal relations of the
Triune Godhead], he learned obedience from the things which he suffered [on earth as the God-
Man].“ (Heb. 5:8)
“For this Melchisedec, King of Salem, priest of the most high God [recorded in Genesis 14], who
met Abraham returning from smiting the kings, and blessed him; whom Abraham gave also the
tenth portion of all; first [‘Melchisedec’] being interpreted is King of righteousness, and then also
King of Salem, which is King of peace; [who is further ‘interpreted’ as being] without father,
without mother, without genealogy; having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but
[that is, the Holy Spirit designed the inspired historical record of Gen.14 to omit any such
references, so that Melchisedec’s person and priesthood would serve as a type and thus be]
assimilated to the Son of God, abides a priest continually [our Lord, in regard to His
Manhood, did have ‘mother,’ ‘genealogy,’ ‘beginning of days’ and ‘end of life,’ but absolutely not
so in regard to His deity as the eternal Son of God, who as such has neither beginning nor end,
being Himself the Eternal Life in His Person, who in this sense was thus ‘without father’ too, i.e.,
in the sense of being without any derivation or source of origin/life/existence, but is Eternal,
Timeless and Self-Existent].” (Heb. 7:1-3)
“Herein as to us has been manifested the love of God, that God has sent his only-begotten
[monogenes, meaning only, unique, one-of-a-kind and most-deeply-loved] Son into the
world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us,
and sent his Son a propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 4:9-10)
“No one has seen God at any time; the only-begotten [monogenes, meaning only, unique,
one-of-a-kind and most-deeply-loved] Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath
declared him.” (John 1:18)
The eternal Sonship of Christ is not dependent on the notion of the “eternal generation” of the Son,
which latter I reject. But the truth of His eternal Sonship itself is absolutely vital!
“While I hold to eternal relationships in the Godhead, I reject the metaphysical speculations about ‘the
eternal generation of the Son,’ ‘begotten before all worlds,’ eternal procession’ of either the Son or the
Spirit, or any thought of subordination within the Godhead. The notion that when one rejects ‘eternal
generation of the Son,’ therefore he must also reject the eternal Sonship, is absurd. The eternal
Sonship is not dependent on metaphysical speculations based on misunderstanding of certain
scriptures and confusion about ‘only begotten Son.’ ” (R.A. Huebner)
Note on “only-begotten” (Gr. monogenes): Monogenes occurs a total of nine times in the NT, five
of which are used in reference to Christ (and only in the writings of John: John 1:14, 18; 3:16, 18; 1
John 4:9). It means only, unique, one-of-a-kind and most-deeply-loved, and as such speaks of God
the Son’s underived, unacquired, unique, eternal relationship with the Father. Monogenes carries no
inherent notions of being “generated” or “begotten” (which are entirely different words in the
original Hebrew and Greek, and never used of Christ as to His eternal Sonship in the
Godhead, but only in relation to the manhood taken into His Person as, e.g., in Psalm 2:7 and
Luke 1:35). This is evident from the fact that our Saviour is and always remains the Monogenes Son
even with the myriad of believers who have indeed been “begotten” as children of God through the
new birth and given the place of sonship as “sons of God.” Moreover, compare the use and meaning
of monogenes in Heb. 11:17—along with the Hebrew equivalent in Gen. 22:2 (on which Heb.
11:17 is based)—in regard to Isaac in relationship to Abraham: “By faith Abraham, when tried, offered
up Isaac, and he who had received to himself the promises offered up his only-begotten
{monogenes}” (Heb. 11:17). “And he [God] said [to Abraham], Take now thy son, thine only son,
whom thou lovest, Isaac, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and there offer him up for a burnt-
offering on one of the mountains which I will tell thee of” (Gen. 22:2). But Abraham clearly had more
than one son; in fact, Ishmael was his first son, born 13 years earlier! Isaac was thus Abraham’s
“only-begotten” in the sense of being the unique, one-of-a-kind and most-deeply-loved son in
relationship with his father Abraham!
Christ is “the Son in the highest possible character, the only-begotten Son, distinguishing
Him thus from any other who might, in a subordinate sense, be son of God. ‘The only-begotten
Son, which is in the bosom of the Father.’ Observe: not which was [nor ‘which came to be’], but ‘which
is’ [‘the one being’]. He is viewed as retaining the same perfect intimacy with the Father, entirely
unimpaired by local or any other circumstances He had entered. Nothing in the slightest degree
detracted from His own personal glory, and from the infinitely near relationship which He had had with
the Father from all eternity…. Under all changes, outwardly, he abode as from eternity the only-
begotten Son in the bosom of the Father.”
