The child of God is much advantaged to come to grips with the life lived by his Savior. I would suggest that the insights to be listed here are essential to a proper understanding of that most wonderful of all lives, and thus that the believer is well advised to consciously and deliberately include these realities in his conception of that life.
#10 – The prospect of the cross was horrifying to Jesus. Early in His ministry He could anticipate the cross with some measure of equanimity (Jn 4:34), but as it drew near it filled Him with terror (cf. Jn 12:23-38). Indeed, probably the most severe temptation faced by Jesus during His lifetime was the temptation to turn back from the cross (Mt 4:8, 9; 16:22, 23). This temptation is most graphically seen in the Lord’s Gethsemane experience (Lk 22:41, 42, cf. :43, 44). However, that which so terrified Him was not the physical sufferings of crucifixion (as awful as those physical sufferings were); rather, He was filled with dread at the prospect of being made the sin-sacrifice for men, of being judicially forsaken by the Father (Mk 15:34). Furthermore, in that temptation and during all the period of His mortality, Jesus had no more spiritual resources than you and I have; He was submissive to the Father, dependent upon the Spirit, obedient to the Scripture and sustained by prayer (Heb 5:7). It was thus that He “learned obedience” and was qualified to be the believer’s high priest (Heb 5:8-9)
