Christ's Active Obedience

(From a series of devotionals I'm doing at work--a synopsis of Jerry Bridges' The Gospel for Real Life)

"Can any of you prove me guilty of sin?" -John 8:46

"Jesus not only desired to do God's will, He also delighted in doing it." -Jerry Bridges

Before discussing Christ's active obedience for us, we need to first look at a couple of theological concepts that explain why it is important.

First is the concept of "federalism." This means simply that the leader of a group stands for the whole group, and the group's destiny is wrapped up in the decisions of the leader. For instance, while it was true that the Colonial Army defeated the British Army at Yorktown, we usually say, "Cornwallis surrendered to Washington." We might say that all the men on both sides were "in" their leaders.

Biblically, our relationship to Adam is federal. In his fall, we fell, and in his sin, sin indwelt each of us. Likewise, Christ is the federal head of all who have faith in Him. When He lived a perfect life, and when He paid the penalty for sin, all Christians were in Him, and are counted as righteous before God as He is.

The other concept is the "principle of exchange," also known as union with Christ. This is stated clearly in 2 Corinthians 5:21: "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." God reckons our sin onto Christ, who bears it, and reckons us as righteous as our federal head is. This exchange is both legal and vital. "Legal" means that God accepts the exchange outside us--we might say it's a "done deal." "Vital" means that God by His Holy Spirit actually begins a gradual change in us because of the finished work of Christ.

Jesus was always obedient to His Father, and that obedience is "credited" to His followers as if they were as obedient. Theologians describe two types of obedience: active, and passive. Christ's active obedience consisted in how He lived His life; His passive obedience consisted in submitting to what was done to Him, particularly in his crucifixion and death. This can also be seen from the standpoint of the Jewish Law, which gave both precepts and penalties for breaking them. Jesus lived perfectly by the precepts of God's Law, and also bore the penalty exacted for disobedience.

We focus almost entirely on Christ's passive obedience, and often forget that His daily life was lived on our behalf. Christ grew up in a family. There is no indication that he related to them in anger, or jealousy, or selfishness. In His adult life He challenged His contemporaries to find any blemish in Him.

Jesus faced temptations that would destroy any one of us. In the wilderness Satan tempted Him to side-step the will of God. He used the same tactics he used on Adam and Eve in the beginning. He appealed to the "lust of the flesh," (hunger), the "lust of the eye," (coveting), and the "pride of life" (exalting Himself above the Father). Jesus never reacted in anger to the injustice and suffering in His trial and death. He forgave those who crucified Him.

If Jesus was our federal Head and Substitute, then God credits us with His life of perfect obedience. He also places His life within us, and His life is our life, and all our attempts to live for Him, without Him, are useless.