Christ’s Death is Our Death

Those for whom Christ died (and by ‘for whom Christ died’ I mean, those for whom Christ made atonement) have also died in and with Christ in His crucifixion.

• Rom 6:3-11

  “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him”

• 2 Cor 5:14-15

  “For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.”

• Gal 2:20

  “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

2 Cor 5 states that Christ died for ‘all’, but Rom 6 and Gal 2 and other scriptures make plain that the ‘all us’ for whom Christ died are those who have been baptized into his death and who have their life in Christ (i.e. those who have been born again). Our ‘old man’ (that is, our old sinful nature) has died with Christ so that it has been, is, and will be destroyed. Even though we have died with Christ (at least the old ‘us’ has), we continue to live – no longer as slaves to sin – but we live in and through the resurrected Christ.

Says John Murray -

All for whom Christ died also died in Christ. All who died in Christ rose again with Christ. The rising again with Christ is a rising to newness of life after the likeness of Christ’s resurrection. To die with Christ is, therefore, to die to sin and to rise with him to the life of new obedience…

Concerning the ‘extent’ of the atonement, the preceding proposition is very clear: those for whom Christ has died are those who are believers who have died to sin and live a life of obedience. I hasten to add that it is not because of any goodness in them that they are saved, but rather they are obedient because they have been freed from the power of sin and have spiritual life by the power of Christ working in them. As it is obvious that not all have died in Christ, so it must be obvious that Christ has not died, in a vicarious sense, for all.

The Contrary Opinion

The contrary opinion can be best expressed by the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Part 1, Section 2, Article 4 :

God takes the initiative of universal redeeming love

604 By giving up his own Son for our sins, God manifests that his plan for us is one of benevolent love, prior to any merit on our part: “In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins.”408 God “shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.”409

605 At the end of the parable of the lost sheep Jesus recalled that God’s love excludes no one: “So it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.”410 He affirms that he came “to give his life as a ransom for many”; this last term is not restrictive, but contrasts the whole of humanity with the unique person of the redeemer who hands himself over to save us.411 The Church, following the apostles, teaches that Christ died for all men without exception: “There is not, never has been, and never will be a single human being for whom Christ did not suffer.”412

408 1 Jn 4:10; 4:19.
409 Rom 5:8.
410 Mt 18:14.
411 Mt 20:28; cf. Rom 5:18-19.
412 Council of Quiercy (853): DS 624; cf. 2 Cor 5:15; 1 Jn 2:2.

The Baptist Confession

Although most Baptists currently agree with the Roman opinion, this has not always been the case. The 1689 London Baptist Confession, Chap 8, Of Christ the Mediator, para 5 -

The Lord Jesus, by his perfect obedience and sacrifice of himself, which he through the eternal Spirit once offered up unto God, hath fully satisfied the justice of God, procured reconciliation, and purchased an everlasting inheritance in the kingdom of heaven, for all those whom the Father hath given unto Him.

( Hebrews 9:14; Hebrews 10:14; Romans 3:25, 26; John 17:2; Hebrews 9:15 )

The Aim of the Atonement

Introduction

What was the aim (or goal) of the atonement? In other words, what exactly did Christ intend to accomplish by offering up Himself as a sacrifice for sin? Two answers are commonly put forth in modern Evangelicalism: 1) to make all men savable, and 2) to actually save a definite people.

Reconcilliation

There is a sense in which Christ’s death is for every man – “for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matt 5:45). Certainly God would pour no blessing on a sin-cursed world except that He had a foreknown kindness through Jesus Christ to redeem it; and that the Earth is the dwelling place of the people He will redeem. Indeed, because of Christ, the Earth has been preserved until the final day of judgement (consider the Noahic Covenant and 2 Pet 3:7).

The question we are asking here is, whose sins have been expiated by the death of Christ? That is, whose sins have been actually taken away? On whose behalf has Jesus propitiated the just anger and judgement of God? Who are the ones who have been reconciled to God on the basis of Christ’s sacrifice of atonement?

• (Col 1:20-22) And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight
• (Rom 5:8-11)being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.

These Scripture passages refer to mankind as being ‘alienated’, ‘enemies’, and ‘wicked’ workers. But now, those who have ‘received the atonement’ are ‘justified’, ‘saved’, ‘reconciled’, at ‘peace’, ‘holy’, ‘unblameable’, and ‘unreproveable’. The reconciliation which Christ wrought makes men at peace with God. Those who have not received it stand apart from God and are under His curse. As not all men are justified by the atonement of Christ, it is logical to conclude that Christ’s death reconciles a definite number of people to God. The only question left to ask is, was this Christ’s aim in the atonement or has he been foiled? In other words, did Christ achieve what He set about to achieve, or has He lost out on a great number of those whom he has atoned and redeemed.

Says John Murray,

Did Christ come to make the salvation of all men possible, to remove the obstacles that stood in the way of salvation, and …to make provision for salvation? Or did he come to save his people? Did he come to put all men in a savable state? Or did he come to secure the salvation of all those who are ordained to eternal life? Did he come to make men redeemable? Or did he come effectually and infallibly to redeem? The doctrine of the atonement must be revised if, as atonement, it applies to those who finally perish…

Can the Gospel Be Preached If Christ Death’s Atones a Definite People?

Says John Murray,

It is frequently objected that this doctrine is inconsistent with the full and free offer of Christ in the gospel. This is grave misunderstanding and misrepresentation. The truth really is that it is only on the basis of such a doctrine that we can have a free and full offer of Christ to lost men. What is offered to men in the gospel? It is not the possibility of salvation, not simply the opportunity of salvation. What is offered is salvation. To be more specific, it is Christ himself in all the glory of his person and in all the perfection of his finished work who is offered. And he is offered as the one who made expiation for sin and wrought redemption.

The Active Obedience of Christ

Introduction

“I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, …For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.” (1 Cor 15:1-3)

According to this passage and many others, we understand that Christ, the Lamb of God, died for our sins. Christ, by his sacrificial death, bore the penalty of our sins and appeased the holy wrath of God (see ‘Passive Obedience‘). Those who have this sacrificial gift imputed to their account stand un-condemned (just) from their legal trespass. But, is that all that is required in Justification? Is a sinless record all that we require to be adopted as sons of God, or must we have a record of positive merit applied to our account also? In other words, does Christ merely purge away our sins by His death, or does He also impute His infinite merit and holy righteousness to our account as well? Was Christ our representative and substitute in both life and death? If so, then every aspect of Christ’s life, obedience, suffering, and battle and victory over sin and temptation are all on our behalf – every aspect of Christ’s life – is an element of the gospel and our justification.

Made Under the Law

• “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law” (Gal 4:4)
• “I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law [is] within my heart.” (Ps 40:8)
• “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” (Rom 5:10)

J. Gresham Machen

Says J. Gresham Machen -

I have not merited eternal life by any obedience of my own, Christ has merited it for me by His perfect obedience. He was not for Himself subject to the law. No obedience was required of Him for Himself, since He was Lord of all. That obedience, then, which He rendered to the law when He was on earth was rendered by Him as my representative. I have no righteousness of my own, but clad in Christ’s perfect righteousness, imputed to me and received by faith alone, I can glory in the fact that so far as I am concerned the probation has been kept and as God is true there awaits me the glorious reward which Christ thus earned for me. …How gloriously complete is the salvation wrought for us by Christ! Christ paid the penalty, and He merited the reward. Those are the two great things that He has done for us.

Louis Berkhof

From Dr. Berkhof’s ‘Summary of Christian Doctrine‘ -

[Christ's atonement] included Christ’s active and passive obedience. It is customary to distinguish a twofold obedience of Christ. His active obedience consists in all that He did to observe the law in behalf of sinners, as a condition for obtaining eternal life; and His passive obedience in all that He suffered in paying the penalty of sin and discharging the debt of His people. But while we distinguish these two, we should never separate them. Christ was active also in His suffering, and passive also in His submission to the law. Scripture teaches us that He paid the penalty of the law,

• Isa. 53:8; “By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who [among them] considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people to whom the stroke [was due]? (Isaiah 53:8)”
• Rom. 4:25; “who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification. (Romans 4:25)”
• Gal. 3:13; “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: (Galatians 3:13)”
• I Pet. 2:24, “who his own self bare our sins in his body upon the tree, that we, having died unto sins, might live unto righteousness; by whose stripes ye were healed. (1 Peter 2:24)”

and merited eternal life for the sinner,

• “that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (Romans 8:4)”
• “For Christ is the end of the law unto righteousness to every one that believeth. (Romans 10:4)”
• “Him who knew no sin he made [to be] sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)”
• “…but when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, that he might redeem them that were under the law…”

Phil Johnson

When a controversy over active obedience arose in the FIRE Fellowship, Phil Johnson wrote a paper to FIRE members addressing the errors of those influenced by Dallas Theological Seminary. That full letter may be found HERE. Segments of Phil’s letter are reproduced below (Full Scripture quotations added by me):

…those who deny Christ’s active obedience are teaching that redemption is accomplished by the setting aside of the law’s absolute demands, not by Christ’s perfectly fulfilling the law on our behalf. That overturns the clear teaching of Christ in Matthew 5:17: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.”

2 Cor 5:21 - “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.“ 

Second Corinthians 5:21 teaches that Christ’s righteousness is imputed to believers in exactly the same sense that our guilt was imputed to Him. In other words, justification involves a double imputation: Just as our violation of the law was imputed to Christ, His fulfillment of the law is imputed to us. Any other view destroys the parallelism of that verse.

Rom 5:19 – “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.“

Romans 5:19 clearly teaches that Christ’s obedience is the ground of our righteous legal standing. …the “obedience” of Christ in this context must include the whole course of His lifetime of obedience to God. …righteousness and obedience are inextricably linked in Scripture. A perfect righteousness clearly requires something more than just the forgiveness of sin.

To deny the role of Christ’s active obedience in justification is to distort what Paul meant when he described believers as “in Christ”—united with Him in such a way that our very life is hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3). We are clothed in His perfect righteousness—not merely stripped of our guilt (Isaiah 61:10). Indeed, Christ is our righteousness (Jeremiah 23:6; 1 Corinthians 1:30). Furthermore, Christ’s “righteousness” consists not merely in His sufferings, but in all his actions (1 John 2:29).

Phil 2:8 – “And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.“

Philippians 2:8 suggests that Christ’s obedience only culminated in His death. The full scope of the obedience He rendered on our behalf was manifest in His whole life, not merely in His dying. See also Romans 8:3-4.
Christ became man for us, not for Himself (2 Corinthians 8:9); and therefore the obedience He owed to the law was for us, not for Himself (Galatians 4:4).

Scripture teaches that God’s own righteousness involves numerous positive elements—His goodness, His love, His mercy, and so on. So God’s righteousness (Romans 10:3) is certainly something more than merely the absence of guilt.

The law’s promise of life to those who obey would seem to be pointless if Christ somehow obtained life for us without obeying the law on our behalf. Why else would the law promise life for obedience (Leviticus 18:5; Ezekiel 20:11; Luke 10:28)? Note that the law promises life not to the one who suffers, but to the one who obeys. If Christ’s active obedience has no relevance to our justification, those promises would add up to nothing but an empty, pointless bluff.

The context of Philippians 3:9 makes clear that the ground of the believer’s justification is an alien righteousness, not any degree of righteousness we obtain for ourselves. To deny that this is the righteousness of Christ is to diminish His unique role as our proxy, our mediator, and our substitute.

Conclusion

If we then, as sinners, stand in need of not only Christ’s vicarious sacrifice, but also his positive righteousness applied to our account, then the Scriptures absolutely exclude any and all merit of our own applied to our account in our justification. Truly, when we consider the full obedience of Christ, it shows us our utter helplessness, complete dependence on Christ for grace and mercy, and it magnifies not only the death and resurrection, but the sinless and perfect life of our Saviour and Lord!

My hope is built on nothing less,
than Jesus’ blood (passive) and righteousness (active).

The Passive Obedience of Christ

The great question of religion is how can a fallen man stand justified before his God? Can a just and holy God wink at sin? There are two things that man lacks: payment for his debt of sin and a positive righteousness. Modern conservative religion places (rightly) an emphasis on man’s need for forgiveness, but what of his lack of righteousness? According to John Murray, “…the law of God has both penal sanctions and positive demands. It demands not only the full discharge of its precepts but also the infliction of penalty for all infractions and shortcomings.”

In my last post on the atonement provided by Christ (The Obedience of Christ), I looked at what John Murray defines as the central rubric by which the atonement can be summarized: obedience. In this post, we look at the passive element of Christ’s obedience. In the next post, we will consider the active aspect of Christ’s obedience. Again, we turn to John Murray to define the precise terms we use to describe Christ’s work on our behalf:

Christ as the vicar of his people came under the curse and condemnation due to sin and he also fulfilled the law of God in all its positive requirements. In other words, he took care of the guilt of sin and perfectly fulfilled the demands of righteousness. He perfectly met both the penal and the preceptive requirements of God’s law. The passive obedience refers to the former and active obedience to the latter. …His obedience becomes the ground of the remission of sin and of actual justification.

Passive Obedience

The passive obedience of Christ is His willingly submitting himself as the sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the church in order to propitiate the righteousness of God on her behalf.

Jesus said to the Pharisees:

I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. …But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, [and] one shepherd. Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father. (John 10:11,14-18)

Christ Died for the Church

“I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep…and I lay down my life for the sheep”

• The flock is the church of Christ – see Acts 20:28.
• Christ is the Shepherd of the flock – versus 2-4, 11, 14
• Christ lays his life down for the sheep (the church) – verses 11 and 15

There is One People of God

“other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, …and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.”

• Christ will bring other sheep [gentiles] into his fold
• There is one fold – one people of God – One Church

Christ Died for the Church

“I lay down my life…No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.

• Christ laid down His own life
• Christ’s life was not taken from Him, but He laid it down of His own power.

Was Christ Really ‘Passive’ in His Death?

Christ’s atonement is not called passive in the sense that his death is something that was done ‘to’ Him by the forces of evil. Christ stated plainly that he was to lay it down of His own will and power. Rather, Christ’s death is referred to as passive obedience in the sense that Christ willingly subjected Himself ‘in perfect obedience’ to suffering and death.

See Webster’s 1828 Dictionary entry for ‘Passive’ -

1. Suffering…

2. Unresisting; not opposing; receiving or suffering without resistance; as passive obedience…

Other Aspects of Passive Obedience

It would be a mistake to think that only Christ’s death is included in His passive (or suffering) obedience. In fact, everything Christ suffered in His state of humiliation on Earth was a part of his suffering obedience: lowly birth, rejection by men, ‘many sorrows’, Garden of Gethsemane, etc. The cross, however, was the culmination of Christ’s humble obedience and as such, is the central focus of the Gospel message and Christian piety and adoration.

From the 1677 Baptist Catechism:

Q. Wherein did Christ’s humiliation consist?

A. Christ’s humiliation consisted in His being born, and that in a low condition, made under the law, undergoing the miseries of this life, the wrath of God, and the cursed death of the cross, in being buried, and continuing under the power of death for a time.

(Luke 2:7; Gal. 4:4; Is. 53:3; Luke 22:44; Matt. 27:46; Phil. 2:8; Matt. 12:40; Mark 15:45,46)

Click HERE for Benjamin Beddome’s exposition of this question and answer.

Scriptural Support Related to Christ’s Suffering Obedience

• For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. (Rom 5:19)
• [Christ] in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation… (Heb 5:7-9)
• [Christ] made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. (Phil 2:7-8)

Doctor Death

On June 3, 2011, Dr. Jack Kevorkian’s physical body succumbed to the weight and curse of sin. Dr. K died, not by taking his own life or by having his life taken in a mercy killing, but in the comforts of a hospital bed. Today, his body deteriorates in the grave, but his soul is reserved in Hades as he awaits his final judgment.

For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; …The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished: (2 Pet 2:4-9)

A sober reminder that life passes like a vapor (Ja 4:14)…

…and that…

And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment (Heb 9:27)