Scripture is how God reveals himself to us—it’s how we know who he is and what his plans are for us. So, it should be no surprise that the whole of Scripture is filled, from start to finish, with this story about the descendant whom God promised us would come to save us. From the moment this promise is uttered in Genesis 3:15, a tension is placed on God’s people, a longing, a hope—someone is coming to fix this. We see it when God promises Abraham that all the earth will be blessed through his descendants (Gen. 12:3), and we see it when he is faithful to his promise to give him a son, Isaac, and the family of faith is established. And when God tests Abraham and tells him to sacrifice his son Isaac, only then to provide a ram caught in a thicket of thorns as a substitute, we are given our first taste of what this promised descendent might be called to do—God’s only son, wearing a crown of thorns, a sacrificial substitute for us (Gen. 22:9–14; John 17:2). As the captive Israelites in Egypt painted their doorposts in the blood of a perfect lamb so that the Angel of Death would pass over them, we get a glimpse of a greater blood shed by a more perfect lamb to save us from the plague of death (Ex. 12:1–28). You can almost see this promised descendant's victorious conquest in the warpaths of Joshua, Gideon, Samson, and Ehud—but one by one, they fail and fall short. Whoever this promised descendant is, he will be greater than King David (Ps. 110:1), more righteous than the great priest-king Melchizedek (Heb. 7:11–22), and a better prophet even than Moses (Heb. 3:3). But who is he?
The Obedient Hero
It is clear that this appointed or anointed one, this messiah, will be obedient to God’s law. Unlike Adam and all his posterity, he will keep the covenant of life, also known as the covenant of works because of its terms of perfect obedience and righteousness. The author of Hebrews describes him as “one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15). Psalm 69, considered a messianic psalm because of how it points forward to Jesus, describes a righteous sufferer—someone who has done no wrong but endures wrongful punishment.
Not only will he keep God’s law, he will love it. Psalm 40, also a messianic psalm, demonstrates this messiah as one who loves God’s law: “Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me: I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart’” (Ps. 40:7–8; cf Heb 10:5–10). Though Psalms and Proverbs often speak about loving God’s law or keeping God’s wisdom in one’s heart, as sinful people, none of us can do this perfectly. Jesus did. When he is pressed about what God’s law really is, he summarizes it like this: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Matt. 22:37–40). Love God; love neighbor. Jesus did these perfectly in his life, culminating in his death on his cross—an act of loving obedience to God the Father and ultimate love for those he died to save. Jesus himself declared of his earthly mission: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matt. 5:17).
The Active and Passive Work of Christ
We talk about Christ’s saving work for us in two ways: his active obedience and his passive obedience. Forget, for a moment, the grammatical concepts that may come to mind—these are theological terms that have a specific meaning in the context of Christ’s work. Active obedience refers to Christ’s actions, from his becoming incarnate according to the will of God the Father to his perfect keeping of God’s law throughout his life and culminating in his willingly going to the cross (John 10:18, cf. Phil. 2:6–8). The term passive obedience comes from the Latin passio which means “suffering.” When we talk about Christ’s passive obedience, we are referring to his emptying himself “by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” and then being “obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:6–8). His lonely, lowly birth (Luke 2:7); the blood that he sweat at Gethsemane (Luke 22:44); the humiliation of a Roman crucifixion (Heb. 12:2); the full wrath of God he endured for our sakes on the cross (Matt. 27:46)—this is all part of Christ’s passive obedience. This is his suffering. Both the active and the passive obedience for Christ are considered one work, his full obedience to the Father.
It’s essential for our salvation that Jesus is perfectly obedient and that he fulfills the law—that he keeps it perfectly and so meets the terms of the covenant of life. He does for us what Adam failed to do and what we cannot do for ourselves. The apostle Paul explains: “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Gal. 4:4–5, emphasis added). The Messiah needed to be born a human being, subject to the same terms of life and death that all people are: do this and live (Lev. 18:5). Just as Adam was the federal head or representative for all humanity, and his actions have binding consequences for us, so Christ is the federal head for all who put their trust in him—his law-keeping secures our salvation under the covenant of life. Paul writes:
Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. (Rom. 5:18–19)
As the obedient hero, Christ saves us by fulfilling the terms of the covenant of life and earning everlasting life for himself and those who trust in him.
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This is an excerpt from Sola Media’s booklet, Saved From What? You can get your copy here.
