Passive and Active

This may be a bit deeper then the norm. The passive and active righteousness of Christ. I am thinking about it this week as I teach theological foundations and as I do some marriage counseling.

Jesus came and died for our sins. He passively went to the cross and without uttering a defense endured the wrath of God. Payment in full for all my sins and the sins of those He came to save. Great news. (Words really can not express how great) His payment got me back to ground zero. All my sins wiped out. That is not enough though. Surprised? God does not want "zero based" or "neutral." He wants perfect obedience. So Jesus lived a perfect life for me and those He came to save. He applies that life to me too. The passive and active obedience of Christ. That is great news too.

Marriage: One partner offends, sins in a deep way against another. He or she asks forgiveness and repents. Forgiven. Sin paid for by Jesus on the cross. Where does the active righteousnes of Christ come in? Going forward. If the "sinner" plans to do better and try harder; he or she will fail quickly or worse, he will live a lie. He needs to put on the active righteousness of Christ applied by faith and then he needs to to follow Him through His power.

Whatever the issue or struggle is, Jesus has the power to overcome it as He already did. He had every temptation thrown at Him and He overcame. That is what we need to rest on. His completed active obedience and His enduring passive obedience.

I know I need to do that in my marriage and I counsel others to look to Christ as more valuable then staying on the straight and narrow, or their marriage, or job or anything....He is behind and before all of that and if we stop short we will fail miserably and hurt ourselves and others in the process. So I am cheerful today as I worship the One who was passive and active for me. Blessings