Active and Passive Obedience

Pastor Martin drives to the essence of Christ's priestly sacrifice through two key texts: Hebrews 9:14 and Hebrews 7:27 — 'He offered up himself.' He unfolds Christ as both the passive substitutionary victim (Isaiah 53, 1 Peter 2:24) and the active representative priest who bound Himself to the altar with cords of love. Drawing on Hugh Martin, he shows that Christ's death was His grandest doing — not mere passive endurance but the most intense spiritual activity, through the eternal Spirit, offered to God without spot.

Pastor Martin opens the very essence of the justifying act, showing it is two distinct yet inseparable elements: God pardons all our sins and accepts our persons as righteous in His sight. He marshals texts on forgiveness from Acts 13, Romans 4, Exodus 34, Psalm 103, Psalm 130, Isaiah 43-44, and then turns to the master-and-two-servants illustration to demonstrate that pardon alone is not enough - positive righteousness is also required, conferred in Christ as 1 Corinthians 1:30 and Romans 5:1-2 declare.

Having excluded both works done by us and grace wrought in us, Pastor Martin now sets forth the positive ground of justification: the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ alone. He develops three lines of biblical truth - that the ground is in the person of Christ alone, in His perfect obedience alone, and in His full satisfaction alone - drawing on Romans 5:19, Philippians 3, 2 Corinthians 5:20-21, and Hebrews 10:5-10. He briefly explains the active and passive obedience of Christ as one indivisible obedience.