# “Help Wanted” by Robert Peterson

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2012/11/10/help-wanted-by-robert-peterson/
- Published: 2012-11-10T09:00:08-06:00
- Author: tollelege

“How was the incarnate Son ‘made perfect’? Certainly, nothing was lacking in His
divine nature. And His humanity was always without sin. In what sense, then, did
He need to be made perfect?

A hint is provided when Hebrews 2:10 says that God made Christ ‘perfect through 
suffering.’ This idea is expanded when Hebrews 5:8 says that Jesus ‘learned obedience
through what He suffered.’ The Son was made perfect when, over the course of His
earthly life, He learned to obey the Father, especially by enduring suffering.

An illustration will help. Imagine that in the first-century _Jerusalem Gazette_
a listing appears in its ‘Help Wanted’ section for the job of Redeemer of the world.
There are three requirements for the job.

First, the applicant must be God; no others need apply. That would narrow the job
pool to three. Second, the applicant must also have become man. That would exclude
all but one. The point of the passages in Hebrews that teach that the incarnate 
Son was made perfect is found in the third qualification in the job description 
for Redeemer.

Not only must the applicant be God incarnate; he must also have on-the-job experience.
Although Jesus’s humanity was never sinful, in God’s plan it must be tried and found
true. God did not send His Son to earth as a thirty-three-year-old to die and be
raised. He sent Him as an infant in order for Him to experience human life, with
all of its trials and temptations, triumphantly.

It is critical to note the purpose for the Son’s being made perfect, that is, experientially
qualified to be Savior by learning obedience through suffering. ‘And being made 
perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, being designated
by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek’ (Heb. 5:9–10).

Jesus’s sinless life was necessary for Him to become the source of eternal salvation
for every believer. His proven sinlessness enabled Him to die and rise to save sinners.
It qualified Him to offer Himself as a sacrifice in His ministry as our great ‘high
priest after the order of Melchizedek.'”

–Robert A. Peterson, [_Salvation Accomplished by the Son: The Work of Christ_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1433507609?tag=toletaupanre-20)(
Wheaton: Crossway, 2012), 49.

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