Chapter IV.
The Obedience of Christ.

Having already directed our attention to the humiliation and suffering of the Saviour, as a sacrifice and atonement for man's transgression, we now propose to consider them as constituting a work of obedience, and shall examine his entire submission to the Divine will, in the first place, as manifested in his ordinary walk and conversation among men; and, in the next place, as exhibited in his undertaking and executing the office of Mediator, in conformity to the will of his Father.

Jesus performed every precept of the Law in his ordinary walk and conversation.—In the natural appetites connected with the bodily frame, and in the passions and emotions appropriate to the rational soul, Jesus was in all things made like unto his brethren. At the same time, he was without sin. He was assailed by temptations of the most terrible kind, and placed in situations of trial which no mere creature could have endured; but being upheld by the indwelling power of the Eternal Son, and having the Holy Ghost resting on him in his fulness, his soul was never moved from its conformity to the will of God, nor did the affections of the animal nature ever usurp an undue influence over him. The commandment of the Lord is exceeding broad; it extends to every thought, and word, and deed. Among ordinary men, even those who are most watchful against temptation, and who are most devoted to the cause of God, are compelled to confess, that their sins are more numerous than the hairs of their head, and that their "trespass is grown up to the heavens." But of Jesus we are told that he "knew no sin." He could boldly challenge his enemies, and ask, "Which of you convinceth me of sin?" And he could address himself to the Searcher of hearts, and say, "I have glorified thee on the earth, I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do."

The first and great commandment requires us to love the Lord our God with all our heart, and soul, and strength. With this the best of men find it impossible to comply; but the Saviour fully performed it, and gave evidence of the extent and intensity of his devotion, by the closeness of his walk with God, by the nights he spent in prayer, and, in short, by the whole of his conduct while here below.

The other great precept of the law, which requires us to love our neighbour as ourselves, received a similar homage.

In all the relations of life he carefully discharged the duties belonging to the situation in which he was placed. In his conduct to his mother he exemplified the duty which the Lord enjoins us to perform to those who are more nearly connected with us. Even after he had met with the learned in Jerusalem, and had astonished the doctors with his understanding and answers, he returned with Mary and Joseph to their humble abode, "and was subject unto them." And in the midst of his own inconceivable agony on the cross, he felt for the sorrows of his weeping parent, and, in committing her to the charge of his beloved disciple, provided her with a home.

In his conduct towards his enemies he has taught us how we should love them that hate us, and pray for those that despitefully use us and persecute us. He wept over the persecuting Jerusalem. He prayed for his murderers as he hung on the cross, and while they were mocking his agony, he offered the tender petition, "Father, forgive them! they know not what they do."

In the manifestation of his affection towards mankind at large, he exhibited an extent of disinterested benevolence of which we are unable to form any conception. It was for rebels against his own authority that he entered on his scene of suffering, and "in due time died for the ungodly."

He observed, at the same time, the ritual of the Jewish Church. Having taken upon him the nature of a man, he not only fulfilled the moral law, the obligations of which are binding on all intelligent creatures, but he carefully conformed to every external appointment prescribed by God as a means of grace for fallen men. He went up and worshipped at the temple. He observed the feasts which Moses had commanded, though they pertained to a dispensation that was speedily to pass away. He was baptized of John in Jordan, and when the Baptist remonstrated, he silenced his objections by saying, "Suffer it to be so now; for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness."

In this scrupulous performance of every precept he continued even to the end. The enemy before whom our great forefather fell came to assault the Redeemer, but he found him clothed in an armour of righteousness, on which his sharpest strokes could produce no impression. He spread out all his snares before him; but every effort was unavailing; and in the rebuke, "Get thee behind me, Satan," he felt the presage of his final defeat. The Saviour's sorrows were multiplied, his sufferings were extreme; but in the midst of them all his heart never wandered from its duty, nor did he ever turn aside from the way of God's commands. His whole life was like the cloudless sky of an Indian noon—no shadow of error ever passed over him, or darkened, for a moment, the brightness of his path.

Jesus manifested perfect obedience to the will of God in undertaking and executing the office of Mediator.—While we look on the Saviour's life and conversation, after his assumption of our nature, as exhibiting an instance of perfect conformity to the Divine law, we are called on more especially to remember that the clothing of himself in our nature, the carrying on and the completing of the work of Redemption, were all undertaken in compliance with the will of his heavenly Father.

He is represented as coming into the world, and seeking and saving those who are lost, in order to fulfil the counsel of the Lord. In the fortieth Psalm, which the apostle Paul, in his Epistle to the Hebrews, expressly refers to the Saviour, he is described as saying, "Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire. ... Then said I, Lo, I come; in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God yea, thy law is within my heart." And in the Gospel by John, Jesus says, "I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me."

Throughout the whole of his earthly career he made frequent references to the pleasure of the Lord, as the great object which he had in view. "To do the will of our Father who is in heaven," is not only set forth as the great purpose and aim which his followers should have before them, but is spoken of as that which he himself had continually in view: "I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say and what I should speak. Whatsoever I speak, therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak." (John xii. 49.) "I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me." (John v. 30.) "My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work." (John iv. 34.) "I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day; the night cometh, when no man can work." (John ix. 4.)

This desire in all things to conform himself to the will of God, is more especially to be remarked, when he makes reference to the sufferings he had to endure at his death. When he informed his disciples of the trials that were before him, and Peter said, "Be it far from thee, Lord; this shall not be unto thee," he turned and said unto Peter, "Get thee behind me, Satan, thou art an offence unto me; for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men." When he looked forward to the season of darkest affliction, he said, "Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name." (John xii. 27.) In the garden he said to Peter, "Put up thy sword into the sheath; the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?"

The description given of the agony in the garden, to which we have before referred, shewed that the same spirit of thorough submission to the counsel of Heaven pervaded his soul, even in the time of his deepest distress: "O my Father," he said, "if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt." (Matt. xxvi. 39.)

The death of Christ was not only the perfecting of a life of suffering, it was also the perfecting of a life of obedience. It fulfilled at once the first and the second table of the law. It shewed the extent of his love and compassion to man; it shewed, at the same time, the extent of his love and devotedness to God.

His obedience was perfect. Every commandment was obeyed; every jot and every tittle of the law were fulfilled. In circumstances inconceivably trying, he stood unmoved. When not only those for whom he suffered "forsook him and fled," but when that God, in compliance with whose will he had come to die, had also forsaken him, he drew not back from the hardest task that ever was imposed. We cannot form an adequate conception of the devotedness which the Redeemer manifested, when, "being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." It was not the devotedness of a mere man, nor of a mere creature,—it was the devotedness of Immanuel. The service which he performed, was a service which could only be rendered by him who possessed the infinite power of God, though clothed in the nature and appearance of man.

The consequences that result from the obedience of Christ as the substitute for men.—When we consider the position in which man, in his natural condition, stands to his Maker, we find that he is not only exposed to the wrath of. God, because he has transgressed the commandment; but that he has lost all title to favour, because he has failed in the performance of duty. He is alienated from God; he is deprived of all claim to his Maker's favour, and of all title to those comforts and blessings which the Creator bestows on the creatures he has made. This portion of the evil consequences which sin has brought on man, has been termed by some of the older divines, "the punishment of loss." It forms no small part of the misery of man's natural estate, and no small part of the doom of the finally impenitent. It is altogether different from the suffering which is awarded as the punishment of transgression. The one implies the withholding of gifts, the other implies the direct infliction of pain; the one arises from Jehovah withdrawing his countenance, the other proceeds from the righteous Judge denouncing wo.

Man thus labours under a twofold evil, and consequently requires a twofold deliverance. He needs, in the first place, an atonement to satisfy the broken law, and free him from the guilt he has incurred; and he needs, in the second place, a substitute to perform a service in his stead, that he may again have a title to favour. In order to accomplish this twofold deliverance, the Saviour, while he suffered, the Just for the unjust, to remove the load of our guilt, also "became obedient," that he might secure a claim to reward, and thereby be enabled to bestow blessings on men.

All the work which the Redeemer wrought on earth, and all the sufferings which he endured while here below, were, undertaken in the room of men, and in obedience to the will of the Father. The nature of the claim which he thus acquires, may be illustrated by referring to the acknowledged principles of equitable government, as established among men. If Justice appropriates a punishment to him who breaks the law, it also provides a recompense for those who obey it. In ordinary cases, all that the obedient expect, is a share in the benefits which a well-ordered government confers on society at large; but when an occasion occurs in which some signal service has been rendered to the law and government of a community, the public benefactor is entitled to a corresponding token of public regard. If anarchy and rebellion, for instance, were to spread through any portion of an empire, he who reduces the rebels to subjection, and establishes order and peace, is justly entitled to some distinguished mark of his country's approbation. And he who not only makes the power of the ruler to be feared, but causes the law to be honoured, and the legislature to be respected, is entitled to a still higher tribute of public esteem. In accordance with these essential principles of equitable government, which have been implanted in the human bosom by the great Creator, in order to preserve the tranquility and social enjoyment of our race, and which are, in fact, the transcripts of those eternal laws by which He regulates the government of the universe, Jesus undertook his work of obedience. "He took on him the form of a servant," that, performing the behests of the law in our room, he might procure for us a title to reward, and thus purchase blessings for those who had forfeited the friendship of God.

When we direct our attention to this part of the Redeemer's work, we find that the circumstances which call for our remark, are precisely parallel to those to which we formerly referred, when we considered his sufferings as a satisfaction and atonement for our sin. Man, by his aggravated transgressions, had incurred a sentence of wrath, which God, as the righteous head over all, could not remit until a satisfaction had been offered to the demands of the broken law. In like manner, man, by his neglect of duty, and by his utter inability to perform the will of God, had lost all title to the rewards which are promised to obedience. All blessings, whether temporal or spiritual, the everyday comforts that sustain the body, and the enjoyment that results from the society of those whom he loves, as well as communion with God, and hope of the divine approbation, had been forfeited by sin. He needed, therefore, not only a sacrifice to atone for his transgression, but a work of substituted service to give him a claim to favour. An inconceivably difficult task was thus required of the Mediator before man could be reconciled to his Maker.

The character of the Mediator must be suitable to the office he has undertaken.—The demands made by the law for service, were precisely similar to those which it made for satisfaction. Man was created that he might glorify God "in his body and in his spirit, which are God's." In order, therefore, that he might be able to offer a suitable service, as well as an appropriate sacrifice, the Saviour took on him our nature in all its parts, and devoted all the faculties and feelings of his rational soul, and all the strength and activity of his bodily frame, to the work of his God. A service similar in its nature to that which man should have offered, was thus rendered to his offended Lord.

It was further necessary, in order to satisfy the requirements of the law, that this service should comply with its widest demands. Jesus, therefore, while he took on him our nature, still retained the almighty power of God; and, upheld by the Divinity dwelling within him, he performed the Creator's will in such a manner as no mere creature ever before had done, or ever could do. He rendered an obedience to the Divine command, such as Immanuel only could offer. He loved his Father, not only with the whole heart, and soul, and strength of a man, but with all the devotion and intensity appropriate to him who is God and man in one.

At the same time, he who rendered this obedience to the Lord, and this homage to the law, was himself under no obligation to obey. In order that his sufferings might be accepted as an atonement for others, it was requisite that the surety should himself be free from guilt, and that the law should have no claim on him for any transgression of his own. In like manner, when he stood in the room of those who had neglected the duty assigned them, and undertook to perform the service which the law required of them, it was necessary that he should himself be free from any obligation to submit his will to that of another. Of this qualification of a surety the Saviour was fully possessed. As God, he was above all law, and owed allegiance to none: he was entitled to make his own will his only rule of conduct. The service, therefore, which he performed in the name of his people, when "he became obedient," was a free gift. As such, he offered it to God on behalf of his people, and as such it has been accepted.

The dignity and exaltation of his nature enhance the value of his work.—Being God as well as man, by his coming under the law, he has not only shewed the extent of its requirements, but he has made known the importance of carefully observing it, far more clearly and impressively than could have been done by the submission of men and angels for ages without end. He has not only obeyed, but he has so obeyed that the law is magnified, and its every claim confirmed. He is therefore entitled to a reward, equal, on the one hand, to the value of the service he has rendered to the law and government of God; and, on the other, to the dignity and power of the Sovereign Legislator; and both of these being boundless, his claims to a recompense are infinitely great.

The Saviour's participation of our nature gave him, moreover, a title to appear on our behalf as one nearly related to us, and therefore fitted for undertaking our work.

The service required by the law has been willingly offered by the Redeemer, and graciously accepted by the Father.—We formerly shewed that in every case of substituted punishment the consent of all parties was requisite. The same remark may be made in reference to obedience performed on behalf of another, and, consequently, before man can be entitled to any favour, the surety must voluntarily offer his services; the Lord, as the party injured by the lack of obedience, must consent to the substitution; and man, for whom the work is undertaken, must express his concurrence. A variety of passages have already been adduced, which shew how readily the Saviour undertook the task; and we are also assured that the work assigned him has been fully completed. In the prayer which we find recorded in the 17th chapter of John, he says, "I have glorified thee on the earth, I have finished the work which thou gayest me to do;" "I have manifested thy name unto the men whom thou gavest me out of the world;" "I have given unto them the words which thou gayest me, and they have received them." The work has been so graciously accepted of the Father, that, in testimony of His approbation, He has exalted the Saviour "far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come." Nothing, therefore, now remains to complete the assurance of blessedness to man, but his own consent to receive the gift. If we may use the language of mercantile life, a treasure has been lodged with the Lord in our name, on which we may freely draw, without any apprehension that the credit of our security can ever fail; but from which we can derive no advantage without our own concurrence and application.

The value of the work which Christ has performed, and the approbation with which Jehovah regards it, will be better understood when we consider the account that is given us in Scripture of the exaltation of the Redeemer.

Before proceeding to that branch of our subject, we shall briefly recapitulate the consequences resulting from the work of Christ, whether it be considered as a sacrifice and atonement for transgression, or as a service procuring a title to reward. In consequence of sin, men had incurred the wrath of God, and at the same time had lost all title to his favour. If no Mediator had appeared, they would have continued in this condition for ever, being alike unable and unwilling to do anything for themselves. But Jesus has taken on him the nature of man, and, in the room of sinners, has not only satisfied the demands of offended justice, but at the same time has "procured gifts for men." An adequate sacrifice for sin, and an adequate work of obedience, having been freely offered by the Saviour, and having been graciously received by the Father, a day of grace is granted to all men, during which the Lord not only withholds the stroke of His wrath, but bestows on mankind at large the comforts of time, and holds forth the offer of salvation. Higher blessings are assured to all who are willing to receive them; the Saviour's sufferings reckoned as theirs procure for his people justification in the present time, and open acquittal at the resurrection; the Saviour's obedience procures for them, immediately on their believing, adoption into the family of God, and, hereafter, a share in all the glory of the Redeemer.

While we find in almost every particular an exact parallelism between the sacrifice and the obedience of Christ, in one respect this correspondence fails. When the Saviour was able to say, "It is finished," and gave up the ghost, his sufferings ceased, the atonement was complete; and it is only in the recollection of former agonies, and in the sympathy which he feels for the trials of his people, that he is now partaker of sorrow. But the case is different in regard to the service which he renders. Though he is now exalted as Head over all and though all power is given unto him in heaven and in earth, yet that power is always employed in his "Father's business." While he sits on the throne, the glory of God is the great object of his care, and "when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all."

When the believer contemplates the work which the Redeemer has wrought, and is enabled by faith to rely on it as wrought for him, he can rejoice in the hope of every blessing. He looks to earth, he knows that all things there belong to the Redeemer, for he has bought them, and bought them for his people; he therefore can say, "All things are mine; mine now in right and title, and mine hereafter in possession." He looks to heaven, and triumphs in the thought, that He who is sitting there, enthroned in glory, is a brother, "partaker of our flesh and blood," and making "all things work together for good to them that love God," while he has promised, "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne." The believer's expectations are high, because he knows that the work which Jesus has wrought affords a broad and sure foundation on which to rest his claim; while the rich and precious promises of the Gospel form a ladder that reaches, like Jacob's, from earth to heaven. All things are his, for "he is Christ's." All things are secured to him by the power of him who is almighty, by the word of Him who changeth not, and by the unalterable decree of infinite justice, which assigns to the Saviour, as the recompense of his work, that "fulness" out of which all his people "receive, and grace for grace."