The Obedience of Christ | Behold Your God Podcast

Welcome to another episode of the Behold Your God podcast. I'm Matthew Robinson, director of MediGratiae, and I'm here with Dr. John Snyder again today, pastor of Christ Church New Albany and author of the Behold Your God series by MediGratiae.

Letters, Correspondence, and the Theological Question of Christ’s Obedience

So we've been talking about letters recently on the podcast, spiritual correspondence, different letters that have been written, whether it's from a pastor to parishioner or husband to wife, lots of different correspondence.

There's one other one that I think I'd really like to bring up and talk about a little while today because it brings up a really important theological issue for us to discuss. A little before his death, on January the 1st, 1937, Dr. J. Gressom Machin dictated a final telegram to his friend and his colleague, Professor John Murray.

So these are men who were the old Princeton men who were instrumental in founding Westminster Theological Seminary. Machin went on to found the OPC, the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, as sort of a bastion of orthodoxy and reformed orthodoxy.

So he writes a telegram on either the day of his death or just shortly before his death. He writes it to his old friend, John Murray, and this is what the telegram said. I'm so thankful for the active obedience of Christ.

There's no hope without it. So that may not mean a whole lot to a lot of people, the active obedience of Christ. What could that mean? And how this man with his great theological mind on his deathbed as he faces the reality of coming before the eternal God, what's the one thing that he can say?

He says, I'm so, so thankful for the active obedience of Christ. No hope without it. Just a little before this statement, Machin in his radio address spoke a little bit about what he meant. So this is previous.

He says, if Christ had merely paid the penalty of sin for us and had done nothing more, we should be back at best in the situation in which Adam found himself, where God placed him under the covenant of works.

In other words, if Christ only paid the penalty for our sins through his passive sufferings, then we're merely transported back to the garden of Eden. He goes on to develop his point. The covenant of works was a probation.

If Adam kept the law of God for a certain period, he was to have eternal life, or some theologians have said eschatological life. If he disobeyed, he was to have death. Well, he disobeyed and the penalty of death was inflicted on him and his posterity.

Then Christ, by his death on the cross, paid that penalty for those whom God had chosen well and good. But if that were all that Christ did for us, do you not see that we should be back in just the situation in which Adam was before he sinned?

The penalty of his sinning would have been removed from us because it had been paid by Christ. But for the future, the attainment of eternal life would have been dependent upon our perfect obedience to the law of God.

We should simply have been back in the probation again. Here we begin to understand why Jesus's passive obedience is not enough if divorced from his active obedience. The passive sufferings of Christ the enormous debt we owe due to our sins and due to the sin of Adam.

In effect, Jesus's passive obedience alone would bring our account from hopelessly overdrawn back to a zero balance. Our debt would have been retired. But having our debt retired and our sins forgiven does not get us into heaven.

It simply returns us to the starting point. More must be done if we are to gain heaven. Righteousness must be completely fulfilled either by us or by a representative acting on our behalf. So here's Machen developing this thought a little bit more.

John, talk to us about the active obedience and the passive obedience of Christ and how we distinguish.

Between these two. Machen really, you know, says it so well. And if we if we slow down and think through those things, it's this is not just some topic for theologians. I mean, really, what we're dealing with here lies at the heart of how is a man right with God?

And it's the kind of thing that Luther agonized over. It's the kind of thing that Calvin and the other reformers wanted to lay out clearly that those that followed them, the Puritans, evangelicals, men like this who wanted to return American evangelicalism and in his case, in Presbyterianism to its biblical foundations, you know.

So it really is if we don't get this right, then all our hope falters because we're.

Back, like you mentioned, to a work salvation. Yeah. And he goes on to say, moreover, we should have been back in that probation in a very much less hopeful way than that in which Adam was originally placed in it.

Everything was in Adam's favor when he was placed in the probation. He had been created in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. He had been created positively good. Yet despite all that, he fell. How much more likely would we be to fall?

Nay, how certain to fall if all that Christ had done for us was merely to remove from us the guilt of past sin, leaving it then to our own efforts to win the reward which God has pronounced upon perfect obedience.

Yeah,.

I mean, if Adam in a perfect environment with the sinless nature fails, how can we as his offspring in a very imperfect environment and with a very imperfect nature, though a slate washed clean, how could we hope to prevail?

If we, you know, if we could take what he's, the theme he's mentioning, the act of impassive obedience of Christ and kind of maybe simplify it to our language, we're not quite where he's at. We can think of this, a man comes to a judge and he has been declared guilty of murder.

And by an extraordinary act, the judge has, with all the evidence against him, has somehow, in a way that is right, legally right and fair and just, without bending the law at all, he has declared that man innocent.

And it's through someone becoming his substitute. So, we see the picture of Christ on the cross, the substitute. But that man is, let's in this situation say that man comes to the judge and he hasn't had a chance to wash up.

He's covered in the blood of the people he's killed. And he's ashamed of it. How can he bear to look at the judge? How can, how can he bear for anyone in the courtroom to look at him still covered? And so, when we think of that kind of a picture, God through the cross of Christ washes the shame of our guilt away.

We call that, we talk about that in the, in the idea of imputation. Our sin is imputed or legally placed upon the account of Jesus of Nazareth. He becomes the substitute. It is a substitutionary death.

It is a substitutionary atonement. It is, it is punitive. He is being punished in our place. It is a full and right and just payment. But if we think of a man being brought before the judge and he's declared right, he still has this issue.

And so he's, he's, the filthy clothes are removed. He's washed and new clothes are put on him. And the new clothes in our illustration representing the righteousness that he had, he doesn't have natively.

So Christ does wash our sins away, but Christ also weaves for us in his perfect obedience, a righteousness that we need. And as, as Machen points out, apart from this, we're, we're back to square zero.

Like some people would think of Christianity as this, Jesus washes your sins away at the cross. You, you cast yourself upon him in a repentant faith. But now what? Well, now that I'm a Christian, he's, he's going to help me work out a really good life.

And that plus what he did is going to be brought together on the judgment day. And together, those are going to get me through. And that is a very dangerous, unbiblical, and offensive teaching. When we think of what Christ has done, Christ has actually provided both aspects, the washing and the clothing, the act of obedience of Jesus Christ.

Christ doing positively everything the father desired for him to do from his birth to his death and resurrection and ascension and Christ never failing to do the father's pleasure, always delighting in the father's pleasure.

We, we think of the statement where he said, as a young boy in the temple at age 12, when his parents said, you know, why, why did you do this to us? We thought you were with us. You're, you're back here at the temple still.

And he asks them, did you not understand that I must be about my father's things? That's one way to translate that phrase. Did you not understand that my whole life is to do my father's will at, you know, we read in Hebrews, the quote from Psalms, where it says that it is written in the book.

I delight to do your will. I don't, not just, I must, but I delight to do my father's will. So always doing what the father wanted them to do, always refusing to do everything that offended the father.

Now, when we take all of that perfection, is it only to, to provide a, um, a perfectly white lamb for us, a spotless lamb. That's what John Wesley thought among others. Uh, some people have taught that, well, that perfect life made him a perfect sacrifice.

Well, it did. And Wesley said, and that's the end of it. Christ dies. He washes us from our sins and through his work in our heart. Now we'll be we will be enabled to live a life of obedience that will in the end be added to his, his justifying death and our good works, his righteous, his sacrificial death together will make us right.

With God. So it doesn't sound like very good news to me. No, no. I mean, obviously it does put it.

Back on us. And, and John Wesley's friends asked him, John, how righteous. So Matt, if, if God has washed you and put within you his spirit, so you are able to live a different life and you will live a different life because you're his now.

And that's true. But if that different life is a part of the payment, how much does Matt Robinson need to do? What if this has been a bad week? What if they're a string of bad weeks? How many bad weeks before God has to say to you, Matt, there's no way for you to make the payment.

Now there's been too many bad weeks. What if you've had a lot of great weeks? What if this is a good week? What if there's been so many good weeks in a row? Would God say to you ever, Matt, you've actually, actually, you've already crossed.

The line. You've paid. Yeah. The rest of it goes in the treasury of merit or something. Yeah. Or.

You can just kind of coast man. It's, it's, um, so, you know, the friends asked that question of John Wesley. He didn't have a good biblical answer because of course John had the gospel wrong there. Um, some people would say God's work in me is part of my justification.

And we would say, no, the foundation of our peace, our justification is the completed work of Jesus Christ on the cross, but also that perfect life and that perfect life being attributed to us. When we're united to him by faith, just like that sacrificial death is attributed to us.

So I'm not just washed, but I am clothed. I'm not just forgiven, but I'm actually given a righteousness that has perfectly completed every expectation of God. So my position with God is built entirely on Christ.

You could think of it this way is Christian obedience, an expression of love, faith working by love, or is it a bribe? Are we saying to God, okay, Jesus washed me, but I need to finish working this out.

I need to finish paying this. So my obedience today is not an act of love. Father, it's a bribe. Um, how very different, but John Wesley was really worried about that. I, um, I mentioned Wesley because at the end of his life, his friends were gathered around him and they were whispering back and forth about how much he had done as a Christian.

Now I'm not saying that John Wesley wasn't a believer or didn't love the Lord. Uh, I, I believe he was mistaken in this area. Uh, but as his friends kind of talked about how great a Christian he was, Wesley roused and, you know, kind of set up and said to them, no, best of all, God was with us.

Now that's a wonderful statement. John saying, no, it's not what I did. It was God working through us and our other brothers and sisters in the great awakening. Well, that's true, but that is not as good a statement as Machen's.

Machen's statement that all our hope is in the perfect obedience of that God, man is a much deeper, a much sweeter foundation than John Wesley saying, you know what? God worked through us. God working through us is good, but it reminds me of Christ's statements to the disciples.

Don't rejoice. He said to them when they came back from one of their ministry trips, don't rejoice that the spirits are a subject to you. Okay. So God has just used you and that's a wonderful thing, but that's not the great thing.

The great thing is that your names are written in the book of life, that you are his. Um, so we could say it in our language. Don't rejoice that God has worked through you or with you primarily, but for our justification, we rejoice in the finished work of Christ.

Now, the reason I bring up Wesley is that John Wesley's statement toward his death was rooted in his view that, um, not like Machen, but other than Machen, he, he viewed that his righteousness with God rested on what he did after receiving Christ plus the cross of Christ.

And he was concerned that if you said to someone the righteousness of Christ, the act of obedience of Jesus, his life has been attributed to your account that that would leave no motivation for anyone to obey from that point forward.

And, uh, but we believe that's exactly the opposite of what scripture says. The one that's forgiven much loves much the one that loves the Lord obeys the Lord. So it's the, it's the completeness of Christ's perfect obedience placed on my account.

And every time I draw near to the father with my imperfect prayers, my imperfect worship, my imperfect obedience, my imperfect loyalty, my imperfect repentance, my imperfect faith. And yet I look to the father and I'm, and I'm concerned.

Will you say to me now, I don't want to see you this time. I'm tired of this. No, he sees me wearing the perfect righteousness of Christ and I am embraced. And when I see that, I say to myself, why would I ever want to sin against a God like that again?

You know, the two categories that we could talk about these two views that these men held, um, you could really, you could list those as an imputed righteousness versus an imparted righteousness. So Wesley believed and held what has come to be known as an imparted righteousness that as you mentioned, uh, after the new birth, there's a gift of God, a gracious gift of God that's given to a Christian, uh, that allows them and enables them to strive after holiness and sanctification.

So this righteousness is imparted, it's given to you and it works in tandem with you. So, you know, it's, as you said, it's what Christ did. And I believe that. And when I believe that I'm regenerated and then I'm given this gift of imparted righteousness and that imparted righteousness.

So they believe, okay, God has to work here. He works in us, He works through us so that we then go on and, you know, we perform some actual righteousness and that those two things together make us right.

But on the other hand, and what we believe that the gospel actually teaches is what Machen was celebrating, the imputed righteousness of God, uh, through Christ Jesus. So talk to us about that. There's, there's a imputed righteousness.

There's double and even triple imputation. So tell us about it.

Right. Yeah. That may seem, look, it's not just the unbeliever that struggles with this. I mean, the believer loves the Lord. And I mean, I remember being a young believer and talking to the man that led me to the Lord and he would talk about the love of Christ in such a free and full way that me knowing John Snyder, I would say to him, look, if that's, if that's true, I'm afraid I would abuse that.

And I, just what Wesley feared. And I would take holiness optionally, you know, but it's not a big deal because I'm just so loved. And, and he would say to me, John, as a believer, that can never be the case.

You, I mean, not, not as a general pattern. I mean, we know that we can sin, we can use grace as a license to sin, but we have a father who works in us. So that fear gripped me when, as a young believer, but I have, uh, since then learned that, um, God is infinitely wise in the way he has given and given and given.

And though it looks like he's about to spoil his children, the way he gives us his love is the most powerful cure to a self-centeredness. Uh, it's not, it's, it doesn't aid our self-centeredness. It's, I think of the love of God as a wrecking ball that comes smashing against every little paper wall that John Snyder sets up between God and him.

And I, you know, I think, okay, I want today, today's my day. This is my hour. This is my dollar. This is my relationship. This is, and, and here comes the wrecking ball. And I think, how can I, how can I maintain those walls against that love?

So, so we think about imputation. It's so full. It's astonishing. And I think that one test for us is we know we've understood the gospel and the doctrine of the imputed righteousness of Jesus when, when we're shocked at it, even as believers.

But if we back up and get the big picture, I think I can think of the three big teachings of the, of imputation in scripture. The first comes all the way back in Genesis, when Adam and Eve sinned. The, the consequence of that was that Adam's sin was imputed to his lineage, to every human.

We say it, you know, colloquially we say, well, we're all born sinners. And so, you know, you hear that from the pulpit. You hear people say, just look at children. They're there. We love them. They're a sweet gift from the Lord, but they are sinful.

They're born with a selfish nature. They're kind of bent toward me. And that, that becomes obvious. They have a sinful nature, but more than that, the Bible is very clear that we are also sinful or guilty before the Lord because the, what our representative did affects us.

He did not just embrace a sinful lifestyle, but he incurred a guilt and that guilt has been put on everyone he represented. Now that to us as, as Americans, we don't like that. We say, wait, now what my representative did with God, I didn't vote for Adam.

What my representative God, I don't want to be punished for him. I wasn't there. Yeah, I didn't do it. And Paul talks a lot about this in the book of Romans. You know, we think of chapter five and, but the wonderful thing is that's not the only imputation that we read about.

There is also the imputation that we mentioned that on the cross, God's chosen people, their sins, we could say the believer's sin has been imputed to Christ. So if we don't like the idea that what Adam did affects us, then we have to argue and say, then I have no hope in the cross because it's not fair for God to take my sin and place it on my representative.

But then there, then we had the third imputation, which we've mentioned. And that is that the perfect life of Jesus has been placed upon the believer's account by union with Christ through faith. What he did is in a sense shared with us.

He did it. Not as what we, what we say is not as a private person. It wasn't just an individual obeying. He wasn't just a wonderful example of what perfection looked like or what perfect love looked like.

He was acting as a representative of his people and everyone who believes in him is there is, is after that is, is impacted by what he did. So Adam, my representative affected me in a horrible way. And God warned Adam, but Christ, the last Adam, the final representative, when I have embraced Christ, then all that Christ did affects me now by being put.

On my account by imputation. Yeah. Yeah. So just to summarize, we have, uh, the sin of Adam imputed to all of his people, all of his lineage down through the age of which every person, man, woman, and child on the planet, uh, the sin of Adam is imputed to us.

Then on the cross, Christ's passive obedience involves the sin of all who will believe being imputed to him and God dealing with him as though he were the one who committed all of these terrible sins.

And he literally drinks down the hell that we deserve in our place. Yeah. And I want to say that some theologians.

Don't like the term passive obedience. I mean, it's a classic category, active obedience, passive obedience, life cross, because the cross was not passive. He was giving himself for his people, but we understand he is handing himself over to the father's perfect justice.

Right. And.

The father is acting upon him as a perfect judge. And then the third imputation being Christ's perfect life, every choice that he made from literally birth to giving himself actively there on the cross is then what we, what theologians call the active obedience of Christ is imputed to us, uh, as believers.

And that's the reason that that double, or even you could say triple imputation is the reason that those who have been saved by the Lord Jesus Christ are in a far more blessed condition than even Adam was before he fell.

Adam, uh, was created holy and righteous before the Lord, but he was in a state that where a fall was possible. We are now by faith because of imputation of Christ's passive and active righteousness. We are, uh, holy and righteous before the Lord.

And we're in a state where the probation period is over. We're beyond the possibility of becoming unrighteous. And that's absolutely wonderful. It's only because Christ has stood in our place and he's merited for us the reward by his perfect obedience to God's law.

Christ has, has already passed the test. Machen went on to write, do you see Christ has passed the test. He has earned the reward. Heaven has been secured by his perfect obedience to God's law. And he did not do all this for himself as if he needed to earn heaven for himself.

He did this all for his people, even for you, O believer on your behalf. He actively obeyed thereby saving you and placing you beyond the possibility of ever becoming unrighteous. Again, your status is secured eternally.

What a great hope. And when we allow him to explain what he means, we can understand why this, you know, this great man, this, this great theologian, uh, is reduced to very, very few words on his deathbed.

So thankful for the active obedience of Christ, no hope without it, but there is a complete hope with it.

Yes. And that is not only the only immovable comfort that we could build our justification on our peace with God on, but it is also the greatest engine within that moves us today to get up to present ourselves as a living sacrifice to this God.

Yeah. Yeah. To remember that it is.

All of grace and that, um, I mean, there's, if we could get hold of that, we would live differently today. It would not lead us to, um, um, you know, well, great. That means we can just go fishing at the sin pond and get as dirty and muddy as we want to.

Uh, instead it means, man, we are free to go and live for this King, completely free from sin and from its consequences. We're now alive to God and we can go and live for him. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, the fear of, uh,.

Of a loose lifestyle is a legitimate fear. If that doctrine, which we've just touched on is held by a person in their hand, kind of intellectually at a distance and they say, um, okay, I understand now what you're talking about.

And I completely agree with that. That's wonderful news. But when that doctrine, when, like what Paul says in Romans six, when you're handed over by God, when God hands you over to that doctrine, to the gospel poured into that, yes, when that mold wraps itself around you and a man experiences this moment after moment after a thousand sins and, uh, after, after brokenheartedness, he sees that it hasn't grown less.

It hasn't dimmed it. God hasn't become indifferent. This extraordinary provision hasn't been lessened. Uh, then there's just no escaping the influence of that for holiness.

Well, if you'd like to look more into what we're talking about, which is this, this, uh, amazing, almost too good to be true. Good part of the good news. Um, we'll put more links in the show notes for you to dig in there for, uh, more on the active and, and the passive obedience of Christ.

Is that a legitimate distinction? How far can that really be pushed? They can never be separated. It's not as if you could have one and not have the other. Uh, we'll put links in there for you to do your own study.

We do appreciate you listening to us and hope that this has been a blessing to you.