Chapter 5 Why Did Jesus Live a Perfect Life? The Necessity of Christ's Obedience for Our Salvation
Chapter 5 JESUS’S OBEDIENCE AND SALVATION IN THE GOSPELS
1. Jesus as Obedient Representative
But Jesus, conceived by the power and holiness of the Spirit, is protected from the sin of Adam and is in a position, as the head of new humanity, to realize the entire obedience never before (or since) realized in world history. His birth marks a new creation. The baptism and temptation episodes that follow are important for understanding Jesus’s perfect obedience, so we look at them both now in more detail.
2. Baptism of Jesus
The baptism John administered could not actually take away sin, but it anticipated God’s definitive washing of his people from sin. This ultimate washing is only accomplished through the work of Jesus Christ.
2. The Fully Obedient Son of God
1. Jesus Obeys in the Face of Temptation
But Jesus’s temptations are more than only an example for his followers. Jesus’s obedience in the face of temptation is primarily a key juncture in world history when God’s Messiah fends off a frontal assault from the devil. In this pivotal spiritual battle at the outset of his ministry, Jesus is the holy champion who overcomes sin by means of his obedience.
Luke’s genealogy helps us understand that Jesus’s obedience in the face of temptation is the obedience of a new Adam. This is evident in the way that Luke’s temptation account follows immediately after the genealogy that traces Jesus as Son of God all the way back to Adam as son of God (Luke 3:38). By serving as a narrative bridge connecting the baptism of God’s Son with the obedience of God’s Son, Luke’s genealogy highlights Jesus’s obedience as the new Adam.
The same Spirit who anoints Jesus with power for his ministry enables this representative to obey on behalf of his people. Throughout his ministry Jesus will be empowered by the Holy Spirit for good works (Acts 10:38), including the casting out of demons (Matt. 12:28).
The obedience Jesus embodies in the face of the devil’s temptations is the obedience that we as sinful humans could not offer. This is attested in the way that Jesus’s obedience reminds the readers of Israel’s disobedience in their wilderness wanderings. Israel failed as God’s son in the wilderness. In contrast, Jesus successfully obeys in the wilderness as God’s Son. In two of the three temptations, the devil explicitly tests the sonship of Jesus. When the devil asks Jesus to turn stones into bread, Jesus responds from Deuteronomy 8:3, a passage that calls Israel to obey as the son of God even in the midst of difficulty (see 8:5–6). Israel failed in this task; Jesus obeyed. This sonship focus and the temptation to eat in the wilderness also recall Adam’s first sin—eating the forbidden fruit in the garden—and the desolation that resulted from his sin. Adam failed in his task; Jesus obeyed. The temptation of Jesus revealed what was in his heart (see Deut. 8:2, 16). He passed with flying colors. The obedience of Jesus in the wilderness temptation is the obedience of the Son of God who overcomes the disobedience of Israel and Adam.
Jesus’s obedience in the face of temptation also shows us the unity of his active and passive obedience. For in the temptation Jesus actively resists the devil and submits to his Father, even as he suffers the lack of sustenance in the wilderness (see Mark 1:12–13).
“If Jesus had here [i.e., in the temptation] (or indeed at any other time) lost in the conflict, God’s whole plan of redemption in Him would have been defeated.”6
2. Jesus Obeys and Binds the Strong Man
The strong man keeps people in captivity, and only the stronger one can bind the strong man and release the people kept in captivity. When the stronger one comes, he plunders the house, or kingdom, of the strong man.
3. The Lord’s Prayer and Our Lord’s Obedience
The unique, representative obedience of Jesus may also be alluded to in the Lord’s Prayer. This is evident, for example, in the petition that we might not be led into temptation (Matt. 6:13; see also Luke 11:4). When we pray, “Lead us not into temptation,” we are asking to be protected from situations in which the devil would tempt us.
The main point I wish to focus on, however, is the contrast between what the disciples are to pray and Jesus’s own experience. Whereas the disciples are to pray that God would not lead them into temptation, Jesus, as the anointed representative of his people, is led by the Spirit into the wilderness for the express purpose of being tempted by the devil (Matt. 4:1). We therefore must read the petition in Matthew 6 in light of the temptations of Jesus that precede it in Matthew 4. What was proper for Jesus, as the champion of our faith—facing the devil’s temptations in the wilderness—is not proper for those who follow him by faith. Instead, the disciples are to take refuge by faith in the one who has already proved decisively obedient in the face of temptation.
Christ executeth the office of a king, in subduing us to himself, (Acts 15:14–16) in ruling, (Isa. 32:22) and defending us, (Isa. 32:1–2) and in restraining and conquering all his and our enemies. (1 Cor. 15:25, Ps. 110)
Instead, the disciples pray to be delivered from the evil one by placing their faith in the one who has already overcome the devil. John Calvin captured the sentiment well: “It is not in our power to engage that great warrior the devil in combat, or to bear his force and onslaught.”11
3. Lifelong, Necessary Obedience
1. Fulfillment in Matthew
Further supporting this approach is the way Matthew uses the term “fulfill” (plēroō), which is a favorite term of his Gospel to speak about the way that Christ has accomplished salvation.13
What was formerly hidden refers not to completely new meanings of Old Testament passages that were previously inaccessible. On the contrary, Matthew indicates that the Old Testament teachings about Christ were there all along, and he draws attention to the details of how the various messianic hopes in the Old Testament all converge and coalesce in the person and work of Christ
Jesus speaks in parables not only to teach and produce both positive and negative results (Matt. 13:11–17; see also Isa. 6:9–10) but also to draw attention to his own obedience.
Jesus fulfills the Scriptures and overcomes the sinfulness of his people’s history. He brings the new era of redemptive history in which the Messiah reigns, having overcome sin and death by his wide-ranging obedience. Matthew’s fulfillment quotations show us both the need for Jesus to save his people from their sins and the glorious reality that he has done it—fully.
2. “It Is Necessary” (Dei)
The wide-ranging obedience of Jesus is also highlighted by many “it is necessary” (dei) statements in the Gospels. Luke is especially well known for his use of the term dei, which highlights what must be done for the accomplishment of salvation. These statements indicate a range of things that were necessary for Jesus to do to accomplish salvation. It was necessary for Jesus not only to die and rise again (see Luke 9:22; 13:33; 17:25; 22:37; 24:7, 26, 44–47) but also to be about the business of his father (2:49) as a twelve-year-old. It was necessary for Jesus to free a woman in bondage to Satan (13:16) and to complete his work “today and tomorrow” before finishing his course “on the third day” (13:32–33). It was necessary for Jesus to pursue Zacchaeus (19:5) because the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost (19:10). Luke knows of no sharp division between the obedience of Jesus on the cross and the obedience of Jesus more broadly throughout his life and ministry. Jesus’s entire obedience is necessary for salvation.
The Gospel of John also highlights the necessity of Jesus’s obedience. It is necessary (dei) for Jesus to be lifted up on the cross and in his resurrection (John 3:14; 12:34; 20:9). But it was also necessary for Jesus (and his disciples) to do the works of God while the time is right (9:4). Jesus himself spoke of his necessity to go through Samaria (4:4), which probably refers not simply to the best travel route, but to the work he had to do in Samaria, including the message he brought (see 4:24). As in Luke, so in John—Jesus’s obedience beyond the cross was necessary for salvation.
4. Faith in the Obedient Son in the Gospel of John
The Gospel of John not only addresses the necessity of Jesus’s work, but speaks of the way that we benefit from the obedience of Jesus—by faith.
1. Structural Cues in John: Seven Signs Focused on Life in Christ
John’s Gospel highlights seven miraculous “signs” (sēmeia) of Jesus.16 These seven signs are likely presented in a structured, parallel way (in a chiasm, which is arranged like the Greek character chi
2. Chiastic Structure of Seven Signs in John
A Water, wine, cleansing, and blessed life (2:1–11; identified as a “sign” in 2:11)
B Healing of a deathly ill child (4:43–54; identified as a “sign” in 4:54)
C Healing of a lame man (5:1–16; included among the “signs” in 6:2)
D Multiplication of bread (6:1–15; identified as a “sign” in 6:14, 26)
C′ Healing of a blind man (9:1–6; included among the “signs” in 9:16)
B′ Resuscitation of a dead man (11:1–44; identified as a “sign” in 12:18; see also 11:47)
A′ Water, blood, cleansing, and resurrection life (19:1–20:31; identified as a “sign” in 2:18–19; 20:30–31; see also 12:33; 18:32)
If John presents seven signs as a chiasm, the focal or pivot point is the feeding of the five thousand (6:1–15). This miracle encapsulates to a significant degree the entire Gospel of John, which is focused on signs that lead to life in Christ (20:30–31). The significance of the feeding of the multitudes comes in an extended speech of Jesus—the Bread of Life Discourse (6:26–59). The physical bread Jesus provided points to the spiritual bread—Jesus himself—who has come down from heaven and on whom we must feed by faith (e.g., 6:29, 35–40, 48–51, 57–58).
3. Life in Union with the Obedient Son
In the Bread of Life Discourse Jesus exhorts his audience not to work for food that will pass away, but for the food that comes down from heaven (John 6:27, 33). He also tells his audience what the work is that God requires: to believe in the one whom God has sent (6:29). This is ironic: the work that God requires is no work at all; it is instead to look away from ourselves and trust in the one whom God has sent
We are to abide by faith in the Son of Man that we might have life. This language of eating and drinking, along with the verb “abide” (menō), speaks of our union with Christ.17
In sum, John’s Gospel highlights the necessity of Jesus’s obedience for salvation by showing the need to believe and abide in the Son of God for eternal life. Eternal life comes from the work of our Savior. Indeed, in John eternal life is characterized as resurrection life, which points us to the one who laid down his life that he might take it up again (10:17–18). His works are evidence that the Father dwells in Jesus and works through him (14:10–11). Faith in this fully obedient Son yields eternal life (20:30–31). Readers must perceive by faith that to which the signs point. And ultimately the that to which the signs point is he to whom the signs point: the Son who has come down from heaven and has the authority to grant eternal life, which comes through the laying down and taking up of his own life.18
By focusing on the life that comes through faith in the glorious Son of God—the one who obeyed his Father in all things—we again see in narrative fashion the importance of Jesus’s perfect obedience for eternal life.
5. Unity of Obedience and Sacrifice
I argued earlier (in ch. 2) that we cannot divide the perfect obedience of Jesus into parts that belong to his life and parts that belong to his death. Jesus’s entire life (including his death on the cross) is active obedience, and his entire life (including his death on the cross) is passive obedience. Certainly it’s necessary for Jesus to be a spotless lamb of God to serve as a sacrifice. But the Gospels speak about Jesus’s obedience as being more than only a necessary prerequisite for a fitting sacrifice.
This brings us back to Matthew, who shows how in Jesus love and obedience—or mercy and sacrifice—are coterminous. There is no disparity between them. A key text for Matthew is Hosea 6:6
These quotations come in Jesus’s first two conflicts with the Pharisees—they honored God with their lips, but their hearts were far from him (Matt. 15:8; see also Isa. 29:13). In other words, their sacrifices may have been right according to the letter, but there was a disconnect between their outward obedience and their inner spiritual condition. They were like whitewashed tombs filled with dead people’s bones (Matt. 23:27). Despite their rigorous tithing, the Pharisees neglected the weightier matters of the law—justice, mercy, and faith(fulness) (23:23).
In contrast to the Pharisees—whose obedience was insufficient—Jesus fulfilled the two great commandments of loving God and loving one’s neighbor (Matt. 22:37–39). Hosea 6:6 is about the need to love God and neighbor, not simply the offering of (hollow) sacrifices. In light of what God requires, it is striking that Jesus embodied the mercy (or love) that God requires.
What is required for salvation? Salvation requires not only forgiveness of sins (see Luke 1:77) but also the right to eternal life. This means that Zechariah, Elizabeth, Mary, Joseph, Simeon, and Anna—along with all true believers—need an obedient representative to be fully righteous before God. They need a new Adam (3:38).
Conclusion
The Gospels show us how Jesus came to save his people from their sins (Matt. 1:21). He does this not only by dying for sins but also by living a life of perfect obedience. Jesus obeyed as a representative, which means his obedience can be counted vicariously on behalf of others. His perfect obedience does more than only qualify him to serve as a perfect sacrifice; it also realizes what Adam failed to do.
The Gospels do many things. They teach us about how to live as disciples. They show how Jesus fulfills the Old Testament. They speak about the kingdom of God. They narrate the death of Christ. But throughout the Gospels Jesus perfectly obeys his Father. Perhaps this is so obvious that we may miss its implications. But when we read these four narratives of Jesus in concert with the explanations of his work elsewhere in Scripture, it becomes that much clearer that Jesus’s unique obedience was necessary for salvation.