Jesus’ Mighty Battle to Be Saved From “Death”

“Who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear . . . .” Heb. 5:7.

This is one of the strongest, greatest, most glorious and most magnificent Scripture references we have concerning what Christ took upon Himself, what He sacrificed and suffered for our sakes! A wonderful scripture about His humiliation! And it is because He humbled Himself so deeply that He was so highly exalted! Glory to His holy name!

His prayers were heard not because He was the Son of God (the Father was completely impartial); His prayers were heard “for His godly fear.” How significant!

When a person asks if Jesus could have fallen in the days of His flesh, he asks just like a fool. Either he can’t understand the Scriptures, even though he may have read quite a bit in them, or he thinks that Jesus’ tremendous battles were mere play-acting or hypocrisy. Or perhaps he thinks that the Scriptures’ descriptions of these battles are just thoughtlessness and empty words. The great thing was, of course, that He was faithful, never falling in one single temptation.

Had He fallen, He would have been subject to death, like we are. However, as we can see from the above, He fought a terrific battle and was faithful to the point of death. He fought with vehement cries and tears in order to be saved from death! He was saved from the death that is a result of having sinned; for He was not saved from the death of the cross, which He suffered for our sakes! Therefore He fought a tremendous battle so that He would not fall in temptation, so that He would not sin. This again confirms everything else that has been said.

To break out in vehement cries and tears, to fight until the perspiration fell like drops of blood in order to be saved from doing His own will—saved from committing sin—and yet have no self-will, and not possibly be able to fall, makes no sense at all. It is utterly absurd! And how could we get that to agree with “in all things being tempted as we are”? How unspeakably great and worthy to be loved is this blessed Son of God, because He ran such a risk and fought such a mighty battle for our sakes!

Therefore, we can understand perfectly well His immense appreciation for those faithful souls who are completely devoted to God, who put their heart into fighting the same battle, into walking in the same steps. It is these people He woos and espouses to Himself. 2 Cor. 11:2. What a love-relationship! What a likeness! Christ fashions a bride comparable to Himself!