John 6:35-40; Romans 5:1-21; Isaiah 50:5-10; Psalm 16
The Obedience of Christ for Our Righteousness
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Everything Jesus did, he did for you; he did it as you, in your place. Jesus was conceived and born for you. Jesus was circumcised for you. Jesus was redeemed with the sacrifice of two turtledoves for you. Jesus was baptized for you. Jesus was tempted by the devil and overcame him in the wilderness by the Word of God for you. Jesus was mocked, ridiculed, and spat upon for you. Jesus was flogged, whipped, scourged, and was crucified for you. Jesus died for you. Jesus rested in the tomb on the Sabbath for you. On the third day Jesus rose from death for you. Forty days later, Jesus ascended to the right hand of his Father in heaven for you.
However, when I say that Jesus did all this for you, what I truly mean is that he did it for you because his Father demands this of you, and you are incapable of doing it yourself. You were conceived and born in sin, corrupted by enslaving concupiscence so that any good work you want to do comes out corrupted as filthy rags. You are a skeleton in the valley of dry bones of Ezekiel’s vision, dry, lifeless, dead. You are Lazarus dead in his tomb four days, you stinketh. There is no help, no hope for you within yourself. If there is any help or hope for you it is going to have to come from outside of you, from God himself. Yet, God is love, and God loves you in this way: He gave his only-begotten Son over to suffering and death for you. And the Son went willingly out of love and obedience to his Father. The obedience of Christ has obtained your righteousness, which you receive as a free gift of God’s grace through faith, which he has created within you. Your justification and righteousness is all God’s doing, pure grace, which you receive by faith, which is also God’s doing.
Paul Gerhardt captures this dynamic in a conversation between God the Father and God the Son in his hymn “A Lamb Goes Uncomplaining Forth.” “Go forth, My Son,” the Father said, “And free my children from their dread of guilt and condemnation. The wrath and stripes are hard to bear, but by your passion they will share the fruit of your salvation.” Jesus replies to his Father’s command saying “Yes, Father, yes, most willingly I’ll bear what you command me. My will conforms to your decree, I’ll do what you have asked me.”
We hear the same in prophecy in our reading from Isaiah which is known as the Third Suffering Servant Song. The Messiah says, “The Lord GOD has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward. I gave my back to these who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.” “Yes, Father, yes, most willingly I’ll bear what you command me.” Jesus suffered all this for you. We hear still more in Isaiah’s Fourth Suffering Servant Song: “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
Why would Jesus do this? You must resist the strong Christian sentimentalism that enjoys believing that Jesus suffered all of this out of love for you. While it is true that Jesus loves you, it was truly out of obedience and selfless love for his Father that he laid down his life. It was the Father’s love for you, not Jesus’ love, that moved him to sacrifice his only-begotten Son. God the Father was moved by love for you; God the Son was moved by love for his Father who loves you so much that he gave his Son. Perhaps you think I’m splitting hairs or making much about little. And yet, the Scriptures are clear that God acted, not because of who you are, but because of who he is, so that, “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will,” says Jesus, “but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
Why would Jesus do this? Yes, there is more to the story. Jesus also feared, loved, and trusted his Father above all things. That is to say that, even though it meant excruciating suffering and death for him, because it was the Father’s will it was just and good. The Messiah confesses his faith in his Father saying, “But the Lord GOD helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame.” Because of his fear, love, and trust in his Father, Jesus was steadfast and resolute even in the face of intense suffering and death. Three times Jesus prayed in Gethsemane that there might be some other way, that he might not drink the cup of God’s wrath that was prepared for him. Still, Jesus ended each prayer with the words, “Not my will, but your will be done.” And Jesus faced and endured the cross the Father laid upon him, for “it was the Father’s will to crush him” for you.
We can draw strength from Jesus’ fear, love, and trust in the face of suffering and as we bear the crosses the Father has laid upon us. “Not only that,” St. Paul writes, “but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been give to us.” And our Lord Jesus also encourages us saying, “He who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me. Behold, the Lord GOD helps me; who will declare me guilty?”
Everything Jesus did, he did for you; he did it as you, in your place. The obedience of Christ has obtained your righteousness. “Since, therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.”
In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.
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