“My food,” said Jesus,
“is to do the will of him who sent me
and to finish his work” (John 4:34).
All of you puzzlers out there know the frustration of a missing jigsaw piece. Without all the pieces, a puzzle isn’t complete . . . finished . . . perfect.
The complex life of Jesus was layered with an incalculable number of pieces. And every aspect of His life—every single, intricate piece—was necessary . . . essential. They all worked together toward the whole. And, when all was said and done, not a single piece was lacking.
One colossal piece was that of obedience.
And that obedience was but a demonstration of the Son’s love for the Father. An obedience that began in eternity past, was foretold in the psalms (40:7), stretched through His earthly bound days, and now blankets the heavens.
Jesus was obedient to take on flesh. He didn’t come seeking His own will, but that of the Father (John 5:30). He was obedient on earth as a Son and Servant . . . unto death.
But His obedience went beyond that of the Father, to the authorities and the law. The Hebrew writer confirms, “He was without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).
It is because of Jesus’ obedience that we can even call God “Father.” And many are ludicrously made righteous (Romans 5:19). If it had not been for perfect obedience, He would not have been the pure and blameless sacrifice required for complete and final atonement.
The apostle Paul sheds light on the attitude behind that obedience: humility (Philippians 2:8). That same passage which leads into that Servant Song (long thought to be a hymn of the early church) says that we are to have that same mindset.
John Piper wrote, “Just as the perfectly obedient life of Christ is essential to the death of Christ as a covering for our sin, so the perfectly obedient life of Christ is essential to the death of Christ as the supreme act of obedience by which we are appointed righteous in Him.”
The obedience of Jesus was more than a model for us. For by it we have eternal life—yet another beautiful piece of His salvation.
