ROMANS UNWRAPPED 92

"For as by one man's disobedience many were constituted sinners, so also by the obedience of one shall many be constituted righteous"  Romans 5v19.

Today, we want to examine the important phrase "the obedience of one". This aspect should not be lost on us, since, if there was even the hint of deviation  in the life and death of Christ, all of us are doomed.......only a perfect sacrifice would be acceptable to God, "a lamb without blemish and without spot. His death sacrifice would have been in vain were it not for astonishing devotion to the will of God in every aspect, and at all times. We are assured that this did happen because it is written "He offered Himself without spot to God" Hebrews 9v14;  and again writes the Apostle Peter "ye were redeemed ...............by the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot"  1 Peter 1v18-19.  The words of Charitie Bancroft, penned in 1863 express the thought better:

"Because the sinless Saviour died my sinful soul is counted free, and God the just is satisfied, to look on Him and pardon me"!

The concept of obedience in relation to Christ is totally foreign to who He actually is............

HEIR OF ALL THINGS, CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE, SUSTAINER OF ALL THINGS, EXACT EXPRESSION OF GOD, WORSHIPPED BY ANGELS...........He gave orders to be obeyed, He was under no one all were subservient to Him. All this is in Hebrews 1, yet in Hebrews5 these words are recorded "who in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and was heard in that He feared; though He were a SON, yet learned He OBEDIENCE by the things that He suffered"  Hebrews 5v7-8.  He had to learn obedience, because He was used to receiving obedience!

In the event He was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross; His devotion to God on our behalf went as far as shameful crucifixion. It started from the moment He entered the world and continued to His dying breath, and every heartbeat in between was in tune with the will of God. We can now trace something of this utter devotion to God in His life and death of obedience.

• "When He cometh into the world He saith, sacrifice and offering, Thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me,...........lo I come, in the volume of the book it is written of me TO DO THY WILL O GOD"  Hebrews 10 v5-7. 
• "When the fullness of the time was come God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem them under law" Galatians 4v4.  

In Hebrews Christ came into the world, in Galatians God sent Him, so a united Divine mission; in the first mentioned He came to do the will of God, which no man had ever done; in the second, in order to accomplish that end, He took upon Himself the limitations of a body of flesh, and subjected Himself to the rigorous demands of the law. There is no doubt Paul is referring to the law of Moses, the details of which are found in EXODUS THROUGH DEUTERONOMY. We must not think only of the moral laws, but also the ceremonial law, the civil law, the dietary laws etc. When He was here, people thought that He was come to abolish the law, and in the sermon on the mount He set that misunderstanding to right when He said "think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets, I am not come to destroy but to fulfil". He continues to explain to what extent He would fulfil it by saying further "not one jot or tittle shall pass from the law till all be fulfilled" Matthew 5v17-18.  He could not have made it any clearer, since the jot refers to the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet, and the tittle to a letter marking for the sake of emphasis; every tiny detail of the law of God would be fulfilled in His life.

When Jesus made that astonishing statement that He had come to fulfil the law, He was saying two things: firstly that the law was as yet unfulfilled, and secondly that the law was a temporary measure which would be superseded when fulfilled. At the point when He made this announcement He had three short years to do what no one had done in 1300 years. This was a mammoth undertaking, which involved something like 2000+ laws to be fulfilled in every last detail to the Divine satisfaction. It meant perfect obedience to the holy scriptures, to the law of God, and perfect submission to the Spirit of God such as had never been seen. I refer you to R.T. Kendall's excellent book on the sermon on the mount where he elaborates on the various aspects of the law which came upon Jesus. In short, he speaks of the statutes of law, the standard of law, the structures of law, the specifications of law, the strictness of law, the scrutiny of law, the servitude of law, the shadow of law, and finally the sacrifice of law, which would involve His own sacrifice on the cross. A study of all that plus a cross referencing with the gospel records would reveal a devotion to God that can only be described as staggering.

Perhaps, now we can understand the significance of His final cry on the cross "FINISHED!"....the greek word tetalestai-which means PAID IN FULL. Every demand of justice met, the debt fully paid, nothing left to be done.

"SO ALSO BY THE OBEDIENCE OF ONE, SHALL MANY BE MADE RIGHTEOUS"

Tomorrow d.v. The purpose of the law.