Paul reminds us in Romans 5:19 that “by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.”
But who is that one? And how is it that that one could be obedient? Then how is that one’s obedience that could make others righteous?
Paul was speaking of Jesus Christ who is the one and only Son of the Heavenly Father. When Jesus came to earth, it was his choice to be obedient so that we might experience his righteousness to be ours, not upon our own selves because we cannot meet what is righteous.
Jesus is said to have a name above every name. The prophet Isaiah reminds us that, “And his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” It is Jesus who is so special that he is the only one to give us righteousness before God so that we might avoid what we deserve as sinners. We all must come to the place that no matter how good we are, our goodness falls short of the holiness of God.
This Jesus is the God-man: fully God and fully man. Not only did Jesus die on the cross for our sins, not only did he rise from the grave to remove the fear of death from us, but he is now in heaven mediating between God and man. Our efforts and goodness will always fall short of what it needs to be-disappointing even ourselves.
Consider the obedience of Jesus. Because of his active obedience he delivered us from the sins of omission which are those we do not intend to commit but do anyway. Because of his passive obedience as the perfect God-man he has delivered us from the sins of commission or those actions that have been intentional to gratify ourselves. Because of his perfect obedience he has delivered us from our nature to sin. Because of his original obedience he has delivered us from Original Sin that occurred by Adam and continues to all of his descendants.
The benefits of those who are connected to Christ by spiritual birth have upon them his righteousness that none could attain. Jesus gave us a righteousness that is justifying before the judgment seat of God. That righteousness is not within us because of his justification which can be defined as just-as-if-I-did not do it. Jesus leads us in the direction of righteousness which is called sanctification that is a progressive and maturing spiritual growth. With Jesus in our hearts, we can look forward to a heavenly righteousness not that we are perfect but that he is. He has made us perfect before the Father and for all eternity.
By serving God through Jesus Christ, we have hope based on his obedience. We can praise God that he provided us what is needed for eternity because of who he is and not who we are.
Christian Writer 