Jonathan Edwards on the Active Obedience of Christ

Jonathan Edwards, as Craig Biehl has aptly demonstrated, frequently emphasized the importance of the active obedience of Christ. The active obedience (as the corollary to the passive obedience of Christ) is often explained as the perfect record of righteousness that Christ merits for us by His obeying the Law of Moses for us. But Edwards saw a dimension of the righteousness rooted in the mediatorial commands that the Father gave Him in the work of redemption. He wrote:

And yet, in the same person, is found the greatest spirit of obedience to the commands and law of God that ever was in the universe; which was manifest in his obedience here in this world. John 14:31. “As the Father gave me commandment, even so I do.” John 15:10, “Even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.” The greatness of his spirit of obedience appears in the perfection of his obedience, and in his obeying commands of such exceeding difficulty. Never anyone received commands from God, of such difficulty, and that were so great a trial of obedience, as Jesus Christ. One of God’s commands to him was, that he should yield himself to those dreadful sufferings that he underwent. See John 10:18, “No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself.…This commandment have I received of my Father.” And Christ was thoroughly obedient to this command of God. Hebrews 5:8, “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things that he suffered.” Philippians 2:8, “He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” Never was there such an instance of obedience in man nor angel, as this; though he that obeyed was at the same time, supreme lord of both angels and men. 1

1.  Jonathan Edwards Sermons and Discourses, 1734-1738 (WJE Online Vol. 19) , Ed. M. X. Lesser