The Holiest of All By Andrew Murray

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a self-determining power, without the voluntary giving up to
God in all that He asks, even where it
appears a sacrifice. The
creature can only attain his perfection
under a law of growth,
of trial, and of development, in the overcoming of what is con
trary to God s will, and the assimilating of what that will
The
reveals.
Of Jesus
it is written :
child grew, and waxed strong,
becoming full of wisdom. What is true of His childhood is
true of His maturer years. At each stage of life He had to
meet temptation, and overcome it; out of each victory He
came with His will strengthened, and His power over the weak
ness of the flesh, and the danger of yielding
to its desire for
earthly good, or its fear of temporal evil, increased. In Gethsemane
His trial and His obedience reached their consummation.
He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.
Suffering is something unnatural, the fruit of sin. God has
made us for joy. He created us not only with the capacity, but
the power of happiness, so that every breath and every healthy
movement should be enjoyment. It is natural to us, it was so
to the Son of God, to fear and flee suffering. In this desire
there is
nothing sinful. It only becomes sinful where God
would have us submit and suffer, and we refuse.
This was the
temptation of the power of darkness in Gethsemane for Jesus
to refuse the cup. In His prayers and supplications, with strong
crying and tears, Jesus maintained His allegiance to God s will :
in wrestlings and bloody sweat He became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. The deepest suffering taught Him
the highest lesson of obedience : when He had yielded His will
and His life,
His obedience was complete, and He Himself was
perfected for evermore.
This is our High Priest. He knows what the weakness of