Had a great time at the most recent get-together. Looking forward to seeing everyone at the next gathering on July 11th.. Same place, same time......6-8pm in the youth/multi-purpose room. We'll be covering discussing Lesson 3 on page 141, which covers Chapter 4.
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(Follow-up email from 05/17/24):
Hey, guys!
Hope y'all had a good weekend! Happy Father's Day to each one of you...
I just wanted to follow up with y'all since the meeting last week on a couple things. First, I forgot to mention the next meeting date, but I'm pretty sure we said at the May meeting that we could make it easy and just say we'll meet every second Thursday, so that would mean we'll get back together on July 11th. We'll cover Lesson 3 (page 141), which will focus on Chapter 4 only. Lookin' forward to that!
Also, I wanted to just sorta' rehash one subject we talked through a little last week, which was the idea of Christ's "active" and "passive" obedience. Rocky mentioned this briefly, so I'll pick up from there to say that any time you study theology (which, again, don't separate that from studying the Bible - theology is the study of God - so studying theology is a biblically INseparable discipline - we get our theology from the Scriptures), you'll see things put into biblical categories. That's simply for two reasons. One, because they have been placed into a category in/by the Bible itself. In other words, the Bible speaks on things categorically. We see authors throughout the Scriptures doing this often, either implicitly or explicitly. And two, because theologians over the centuries have given words/terms to biblical ideas/concepts. Hence the topic at-hand. You won't see the terms active obedience or passive obedience in the Bible, explicitly, but it doesn't mean there isn't merit to trying to designate a term to summarize a concept a particular author's trying to convey. Just like we don't see the explicit term/phrase "trinity/trinitarian/trinitarianism," but God being Trinity is absolutely taught throughout. This is what Dr. Bridges is trying to communicate on page 19 and 20 in the book when referring to the idea of the obedience and righteousness of Christ being imputed or accounted/credited to the believer - ideas being communicated (in his mind) in Romans 5:19 and 1 Peter 3:18.
Now, theological categories aren't given/communicated to confuse or convolute (though sometimes they can inadvertently), but to condense and clarify. In this case, some theologians do think the idea of "passive" might be somewhat of a misnomer, given that Christ is physically and tangibly active (in one sense) in everything He did, as was mentioned in our discussion, but I think this offers some helpful clarification, perhaps......and keep in-mind this is is an effort to condense and simplify for the sake of understanding. Academic theologians have written an abundance of words on this subject - which, to me doesn't emphasize the incessant need for some people to talk or write at-length, but rather the depth of truth and majesty of all that Christ has done on behalf of sinners.
Louis Berkhof, from his systematic theology:
"It is customary to distinguish between the active and passive obedience of Christ. But in discriminating between the two, it should be distinctly understood that they cannot be separated. The two accompany each other at every point in the Savior's life. There is a constant interpenetration of the two. It was part of Christ's active obedience, that He subjected Himself voluntarily to sufferings and death. On the other hand it was also part of Christ's passive obedience, that He lived in subjection to the law. His moving about in the form of a servant constituted an important element of His sufferings. Christ's active and passive obedience should be regarded as complementary parts of an organic whole."
John Murray (Redemption - Accomplished and Applied):
"We cannot allocate certain phases or acts of our Lord's life on earth to the active obedience and certain other phases and acts to the passive obedience. The distinction between the active and passive obedience is not a distinction of periods. It is our Lord's whole work of obedience in every phase and period that is described as active and passive, and we must avoid the mistake of thinking that the active obedience applies to the obedience of His life and the passive obedience to the obedience of His final sufferings and death. The real use and purpose of the formula is to emphasize the two distinct aspects of our Lord's vicarious obedience. The truth expressed rests upon the recognition that the law of God has both penal sanctions and positive demands. It demands not only the full discharge of its precepts but also the infliction of penalty for all infractions and shortcomings. It is this twofold demand of the law of God which is taken into account when we speak of the active and passive obedience of Christ. Christ as the vicar (substitute) of His people came under the curse and condemnation due to sin and He also fulfilled the law of God in all its positive requirements. In other words, He took care of the guilt of sin and perfectly fulfilled the demands of righteousness. He perfectly met both the penal and the preceptive requirements of God's law. The passive obedience refers to the former and the active obedience to the latter."
The Christian needs the whole of Christ's righteousness and obedience to stand acceptable before God. Jesus' active and passive obedience were lifelong endeavors, again, as an organic whole as He fulfilled the demands and suffered the penalties of God's law. Both culminated at the cross. Both are imputed to the believer. We don't get one or the other. If we only get His active fulfillment of the law, we're made righteous in that respect, but then we don't get the benefit of Christ's atoning death - which we need to be saved. If we only get His atoning death but not His fulfillment of the law, we're only brought back to a point of neutrality. No, what we get is actually Eden, but better. We get ALL of Christ's righteousness and obedience. The whole. And so when we think about how God now views us as believers, we can say whole-heartedly that these texts are true about us:
Colossians 3:3 - "For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God."
2 Corinthians 5:17 - "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."
2 Corinthians 5:21 - "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."
I really hope that's helpful. Again, words and terms are meant to be helpful. But if you simply get from this that you get all of Christ's righteousness through faith, that's enough. Work from there to continue to plumb the depths of the love of God for you in Christ and you'll have enough for a lifetime of a faith that will be continually renewed and invigorated to live unto the glory of God in every area of your life. He's worth it because of what He's done, isn't He?
Love y'all - hope you have a great week!
-Mat