The obedience of Christ was marked by the unvarying character of perfect uniformity with the Father's will; and the manner of His compliance with that will was always unhesitating and unquestioning. So that His obedience was of the very highest order. There is an obedience among men which is the result of persuasion or even fear, as when an adverse will is overcome by tender entreaties or powerful reasons or a superior will. But the Lord's obedience was not of any such nature. It was His very meat to do the will of Him that sent Him. “I delight to do Thy will, O My God.” His own will never asserted or exercised itself but in one direction alone; and that, in faultless unison with the Father's. In connection with this thought, it will be observed that the Spirit of God, in witnessing of the obedience of Christ, uses a term highly expressive of its character. The word employed is always ὑπακοή, or its cognate forms, indicating how completely He was governed by what He heard from God. So the prophet had testified beforehand, “He wakeneth morning by morning, He wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned” (Isa. 1:4). This position of continual dependence the Lord never left. “I can of Mine own self do nothing: as I hear I judge.” “The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do “(John 5:19-30). In contrast with the men around Him, self as a ruling motive was obliterated and the spring of His actions lay without Himself in the Divine Will. “If any man willeth to do His will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it be of God, or whether I speak from myself. He that speaketh from himself seeketh his own glory” (John 7:17, 18, R. V.)
Never had there been or could have been such obedience on earth, nor even in heaven. For although the will of God was and is perfectly done above, the angels only fulfill the purpose of their creation in “hearkening to the voice of His word.” But this obedient Man, scorned for that very reason by all the disobedient, was the beloved Son of God in Whom He was well pleased. It was the transcendent dignity of His Person that elevated the obedience beyond compare, to say nothing of the adverse and afflicting circumstances in which it was rendered up to death, and what a death! As the eternal Son, He was the ruler over all. From the meanest creature on earth to the archangel on high nothing stirred but at His bidding. Yet “He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Phil. 2:8). What a marvel was this, that the divine Son should become a bondman and “learn” (subjection being foreign to the Lord of all) “obedience by the things which He suffered” (Heb. 5:8). And the lesson was learned perfectly. From first to last not a single exhortation was needed; for, without exception, He invariably did those things that pleased His Father.
This obedience was unparalleled, and gave infinite satisfaction to God. By so much as He was displeased by the disobedience of Adam, by that much, and far more, was He pleased by the obedience of the Second Man. Not, however, that the obedience was primarily on man's account, nor in any proper way, or strict sense, vicarious; but therein God found a perfect answer upon earth to the divine mind in heaven. Christ alone, as being ever the dependent and subservient One up to the death of the cross, was worthy to be Head of the new creation. In the very particular wherein Adam failed, Christ perfectly glorified His Father and His God upon the earth. Therefore all that are Christ's are bound to exhibit the same moral attitude toward Him Who has called them. For as surely as we are elect, sanctified, and sprinkled, so surely are we called unto the obedience of Jesus Christ (see 1 Peter 1:2). This not only refers to outward action but we are to bring into captivity every thought even to “the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5). And the significance of this phrase is not so much that we are to obey Christ as our Master—which, of course, is in itself true—but rather that the peculiar kind of obedience which characterized Christ should characterize us. There had been obedience of old. “By faith Abraham obeyed” both in leaving his father's country and in offering his son (Heb. 11:8, Gen. 22:18). Again, the allusion seems to be to Israel's obedience of the law under the sanction of death set forth in the victim's blood sprinkled on all concerned. But the obedience of the Son transcended all and afforded an example beyond all. He lived upon every word proceeding out of the mouth of God, His life, as a Man, being the prompt and joyful response below to the divine will above. He obeyed as a Son; while we also are privileged to obey as children. This is in entire contrast with legal obedience in view of a threat or a reward.
And no less than this is what God looks for in His saints.
When the Spirit portrays in detail the incomparable stoop of grace, He precedes it by the exhortation “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5). Conformity to Christ commences in the heart and mind. So that the mind of the saint, like that of his Exemplar, should ever be open for directions from above. Obedience is implicit subjection to that which is heard. This principle marks even the initial stage of the believer's life. The ὑπακοή of faith, was the aim of Paul's preaching (Rom. 1:5; 16:26), for faith cometh by hearing, “ἀκοή” (Rom. 10:17). And no saint, however advanced, gets beyond dependence on the word of God. The most obedient child is the one whose words and ways are most influenced by the scriptures. Not the dull, wearisome, legal-minded, external conformity tp His word, because such and such is known to be His will, and, therefore, must be obeyed; but a running in the way of His commandments a saintly alacrity in divine things, a holy anxiety to know His will and to do it. Such a cheerful obedience to His revelation will be a savor of Christ in His people, well pleasing before Him. And is not this worth seeking? Thank God, He has made us “partakers of the divine nature” and given us of His Spirit, in order that the task may not be in vain. W. J. H.