The Death of Christ (versus?) the Active Obedience

...Notes taken from Norman Shepherd's article, The Imputation of Active Obedience, in the book edited by Andrew Sandlin, A FaithThat is Never Alone, in which Shepherd offers a critical assessment of R. Scott Clark's view on the doctrine found in the book, Covenant, Justification and Pastoral Ministry....

The active obedience doctrine is built on the covenant of works doctrine, an idea that in order to satisfy divine justice, two things must happen: obedience and punishment. According to Clark, this is not an "either/or" but rather a "both/and" approach to justification, and how a sinner is made right with God.

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The covenant of works doctrine supposes that in the Garden of Eden, Adam in his state of innocence (prelapsarian fall), still had to earn the right to eternal life. By his obedience to not eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Adam would merit the reward from God, and live forever. So, from the start, Adam is in a relationship with God based entirely on justice: he obeys--he earns; he disobeys--he is punished.

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The covenant of works failed, but God promises his Son to fulfill this covenant on Adam's and his posterity's behalf. Christ, in fulfilling the covenant of works as the second Adam, earns the "unmerited merit" of Adam he failed to accomplish in the Garden. This law-keeping and whole life of Jesus is then imputed to the believer as righteousness (total goodness and law-keeping obedience); this fulfills the requirement of divine justice as far as the obedience aspect goes. This is not sufficient, however, in order for us to have the right to eternal life.

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Secondly, the punishment for sin must occur. Jesus' death for us on the cross is the fulfillment of this secondary aspect of fulfilling divine justice, and therefore called his passive obedience. (The resurrection of Jesus is included in this scheme as well).

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Shepherd has a number of problems with this theological construction, and the main one is that such a construction lacks scriptural warrant, in that it is simply not delineated in the pages of the Bible. Rather, the Apostle Paul says plainly in Romans 4:25 that Jesus was "put to death for our transgressions (sins) and raised to life for our justification." And Jesus says in Mark 10:45 that he gives his life "as a ransom for many." The Bible over and over talks about the "foolishness of the cross" (1 Corinthians 1:18), and Jesus himself says about his death: "Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life," (John 3:14).

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Lastly, Paul says, "and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith," (Romans 3: 24-25).


More on this "active obedience for the imputation of righteousness to the believer" some other time...