What is active obedience? What is passive obedience?

Its keystone may be said to be the view that Christ during His life on the earth, obeyed the law in our stead; and hence it is said that, when we believe, while the blood of Christ cleanses us from guilt, the obedience of Christ — His vicarious obedience to the law — is imputed to us for righteousness, and consequently we are justified before God by faith. Thus theologians speak of the active and the passive obedience of Christ: the active obedience being His obedience to the law, and the passive His sufferings on the cross; and they tell us that the passive availed for atonement, and the active avails for the imputation of righteousness, so that, as soon as I believe in Him, I stand before God in the value of both — in the value of His sufferings for the remission of sin, and in the value of His substitutional obedience to the law for my righteousness, and that thus meeting all God's demands upon me, I am declared justified.

The Covenant of Grace promises salvation and eternal life to those who place their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Other covenants, such as the promise of the redeemer immediately following the fall in Genesis 3, the one with Noah, the Abrahamic, the Mosaic (the law), the Davidic, and the new are included in the Covenant of Grace. This may look in some points similar to that held by dispensationalists. However, there are important differences, as may already be observed, when the system is developed. An aspect of covenant theology is that Christ obeyed the law for His people — ‘the elect' — and that the obedience of Christ has two parts. These are His ‘passive obedience' in which He suffered on the cross and His ‘active obedience' in which He kept the law in His life.

Until the Father's kingdom is fully established, and a spirit of unvarying obedience to His will pervades the whole earth, obedience to His word by the minority must be attended, by the renunciation of selfish interests and by the persecuting opposition of the disobedient ones. But the faithful Christ will publicly confess as akin to Himself, who came to "do and suffer" the will of God. His obedience had a double character — an active and a passive side — the doing and the suffering. In our case the will of God involves, on the one hand, the active and diligent performance of assigned tasks, and on the other hand, the patient endurance of privation and suffering for the sake of righteousness and the name of Christ. Thus we do (poieo) the will of God from the heart, and we also say in the spirit of the Lord Himself, "Thy will be done" (ginomai), (Matt. 26:39, 42; Acts 21:14).

The scriptures which are to be examined will decide this question for us. Those which relate to our title to heaven and our place before God seem most suitable to be considered first, and afterwards those which speak of justification and of the work of Christ and His obedience in death; for the strange supposition upon which this doctrine is, for the most part, built, is, that Christ's obedience to the law alone deserves to be called "active obedience," whilst that which He rendered in dying is in contradistinction and as if of a lower order, termed "passive," and the conclusion drawn from this, is that the former alone could procure for us, anything of an active or positive character.

The doctrine in question was never heard of in the Church till the time of those who are commonly known as the later Puritans. In these, however, they will find it asserted, that the blood of Christ gives no title to heaven, nor to eternal life, nor does it justify; but that all this is due only and solely to the living obedience of Christ rendered to the law. They affirm that the death of Christ was only "passive obedience," whilst His living obedience to the law was "active obedience;" hence they assume that His death procures pardon or relieves from penalty, but nothing more; justification, life, glory, heaven, are obtained only by means of this legal obedience.

267 Now I believe, and bless God for the truth, that Christ is our righteousness and that by His obedience we are made righteous. It is the settled peace of my soul, as I trust it is of the author's. The important point here is the contrast between the death and sufferings of Christ, as winning our forgiveness, and His obedience as our justifying righteousness — what is sometimes called His active and passive obedience. This doctrine, however, is not fully seen until another point is noticed — the legal character of this righteousness. Mr Molyneux states it in principle as clearly as possible. It is written on the gate of heaven "Do this and live." That is positively and characteristically, as the apostle teaches us, legal righteousness. "To Adam it was so said." To enter into heaven legal righteousness is absolutely required. This alone gives a title.

Now I believe and bless God for the truth that Christ is our righteousness and that by His obedience we are made righteous. It is the settled peace of my soul, as I trust it is of the author's. The important point here is the contrast between the death and sufferings of Christ, as winning our forgiveness, and His obedience as our justifying righteousness; what is sometimes called His active and passive obedience. This doctrine, however, is not fully seen until another point is noticed — the legal character of this righteousness. Mr Molyneux states it in principle as clearly as possible. It is written on the gate of heaven, "Do this and live." That is positively and characteristically as the Apostle teaches us, legal righteousness. "To Adam it was so said." To enter into heaven legal righteousness is absolutely required. This alone gives a title.

202 When I speak of three characters of the sufferings of Christ, it is not that He did not in detail suffer in a thousand ways; yea, everything was a suffering, His perfectness and love being shewn in enduring. I speak merely of three distinct positions in which, or principles on which, He suffered. Another question arises, connected with these points, as to the active and passive obedience of Christ, as it is called — whether the righteousness of Christ, as obedient under the law, is imputed to us; and then also as to His priesthood. But this I must reserve, if the Lord will, for another paper; it will be time enough then to consider the opinions of men. One thing is certain, that without shedding of blood there is no remission; and it is a singular atonement and vicarious work which had no such effect. There was, we are told, "a sin-bearing life" — that the sufferings of Christ during His life were satisfactory; yet they obtain no remission, for without shedding of blood is no remission. My earnest objection, however, is not against this, but against a doctrine which, on the contrary, declares that these sufferings were not vicarious, but the effect of Christ's being born a man and a Jew, and which makes us consequently partakers of these sufferings under wrath as our privilege. Still, those who insist that Christ's living sufferings were satisfactory, and that all His sufferings wrought the work of redemption, should explain how it is that remission is wholly by something else.

But I advance, and assert that it is no question with Mr. Darby and the "Brethren" (as objected against them by the Record) whether, "As by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one many shall be made righteous." And I must say that it is the grossest falsehood to say that they deny it, in the face of its assertion again and again in the very pages that are pretended to be reviewed. What is denial is, first, that this obedience was restricted to law-keeping, whether personally or vicariously, as already shown. Next, it is denied that this obedience was limited to the life of Christ, because Scripture says, "He was obedient unto death," and His death was an essential part of His obedience. Further, it is denied that His living obedience, whether measured by the law or not, apart from His death, is the ground of a sinner's righteousness, as the Record affirms. The question lies in the nature and extent of the Lord's obedience; and whether it is to be separated into active and passive, and made distributively; the one, the ground of righteousness, and the other of pardon; separating pardon and justification (which Scripture never does), and placing them on totally different grounds.

Here we must guard against a thought which has obtained with many, that Christ's active obedience in His life is imputed to the believer. According to this teaching, man, who owed perfect obedience to the law, could not enter heaven without having fulfilled the word, "do and live." Having failed utterly to do this, the law-keeping of Christ is imputed to him, so that God accepts Christ's obedience in place of the sinner's. Now when we see that it is the skin of the animal which is given for a covering, the thought of mere obedience in life being imputed is set aside. The life had to be given up, death had to come in, and thus the perfect robe of righteousness was secured, even Christ Himself, which includes His perfect obedience in life, His death, and what He now is, as the measure of the believer's acceptance and standing before God.