Shortly before his death on January the 1st, 1937,

the theologian Dr. J Gresham Machen dictated a final telegram to one of his friends.

It was very short, only 13 words. He wrote, I'm so thankful for the active obedience of Christ. No hope

without it. The active obedience of Christ, what did he mean by that? Well let me ask you a question.

If Christ had come to earth and simply earned forgiveness for our sin, would that have been enough

to reconcile us to God forever?

Many of us instinctively would say, of course course of course what more could we possibly need

but the great reformers would have said no no we need more than forgiveness for breaking God's law. We also need to have perfectly

obeyed God's law. It's one thing to have our guilt removed, but we also need to be credited with perfect righteousness.

That's why the reform has talked about what's called the active and passive obedience of Christ.

Both are essential parts of Christ's work on Earth,

because both are needed if you and I are to have any hope of salvation.

Jesus active obedience is his perfect obedience to God's law.

Jesus passive obedience is his paying the penalty for our failure to obey God's law.

Some people stumble at this point because they imagine that the bulk of Jesus' life was occupied

with obeying God's law for us, act of obedience, and then in dying

Jesus paid the penalty for us, passive obedience, as if his life was all active obedience,

with a tiny bit of passive obedience at the end as he pays the

penalty for our sin on the cross.

But actually Jesus is demonstrating both passive and active obedience together throughout his life.

As Theologian Herman Bavink says, Jesus' entire life and work,

from his

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