The Atonement of Jesus Christ – Part 3 – Obedience
December 24th, 2008 by Bill HyerThe Bible reveals to us five areas of the overall atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ. All five areas are vital and essential, with none being greater or more important than the other. Each area of the atonement is effectual to its particular aspect of required need and each specifically accomplished that for which God intended it to accomplish. Those five areas are:
- Obedience
- Sacrifice
- Propitiation
- Reconciliation
- Redemption
Obedience
The first area of the overall atoning work of Christ is obedience. This is because the obedience of Christ in doing the will of the Father is foundational for all that was accomplished in His work of atonement. The Scriptures characterize the work of the atonement as being obedience to the will of the Father. In the garden, Jesus prayed, “Not my will but yours be done.” Philippians 2:8 says, And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. And Hebrews 10:7 says, “Then I said, Here I am – it is written about me in the scroll – I have come to do your will, O God.” This obedience of Christ to the will and commandments of the Father is to be contrasted to that of the first man, Adam, who disobeyed God in the garden. Romans 5:19 states, For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
There were two aspects in which Christ was required to be obedient. These were:
- Active Obedience – The obedience of Christ was, first of all, active, in that it was something that He positively did and active worked. In His active obedience, Christ positively fulfilled the law and earned perfect and complete righteousness for us This active obedience of Christ had to do with three things to which He became subject:
- The Moral Law of God. – This was His obligation as a human being. All human beings are under moral obligation to obey God Who created them.
- The Mosaic Law of God. – Being born a Jew and a member of the covenant People of God, Christ was under obligation to actively obey and fulfill the Mosaic Law of the Old Testament.
- The Covenant Law of God – As the second Adam, the federal head and representative of the people of God, Christ was under obligation to obey God to fulfill perfect obedience and be declared righteous. On the basis of His fulfilling the law, He then earned righteousness for all those who would be saved by His atoning death and perfect righteousness.
Someone might ask, “How could Christ fulfill more than his own obligation to the law and earn righteousness for all who will be saved?” He could do this for two reasons:
- He was our Covenant Head – In this capacity, He was not merely acting as one individual but as the public representative of the people of God. Just as when our representative votes in Congress and with that one vote we all vote, so also when Christ acted, He did so for us. His actions are credited to us by virtue of His office as the Second Adam and Covenant Representative.
- He was the Son of God – His death has infinite value not only because of His office but because of His Person as the Son of God.
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Passive Obedience – The second aspect Christ was required to be obedient in was that of passive obedience. We speak of the passive obedience of Christ when we refer to the fact that His death was one of bearing our sins, suffering the just wrath of God for us and Him being punished as our substitute. It is this aspect of the obedience of Christ that especially had to do with atonement for sins. In this area of the work of Christ in His being obedient to the will of the Father, Christ accomplished the taking away our sins by receiving the punishment we deserved. Paul speaks of this in II Corinthians 5:21 saying, He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf. And Hebrews 9:26 says, Now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
