The Active and Passive Righteousness of Jesus

The basic orthodox understanding of the Christian faith centers on the perfect life, death and resurrection of Jesus. God made a covenant with Adam that promised eternal life if he obeyed (Genesis 2:15-27, see Leviticus 18:5). Since Adam sinned and broke the covenant, his sin has been a part of all his descendants ever since (Romans 5:12). Jesus’ righteousness has been credited to those who receive it by faith. How did Jesus specifically do this? It was accomplished through His active and passive righteousness.

The active righteousness of Christ refers to His perfect obedience to the law of God. It is called active obedience because it was a work that Jesus actively did. God’s covenant with Adam required perfect obedience to the law, and Jesus was tempted in every way we are but lived perfectly without sin (Hebrews 4:15).

Jesus’ perfect active obedience to the law was not so that it would be applied to Himself, but so that it could be given to those who believe by faith. Since all humans are by nature sinners, we need what Martin Luther referred to as “alien righteousness” – that is a righteousness that comes from outside of ourselves. This is what Jesus’ active obedience provided and is what Paul meant when he said that he was, “found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith (Philippians 3:9).”

As gracious as Christ’s active obedience is, it does not address the fact that those who have put their faith in Christ have committed actual sins, and the penalty of the sins must still be paid (Romans 6:23). If Jesus’ active obedience is all that God accepts on our behalf, we would still have to face our sin since God cannot be righteous and overlook sin (Romans 3:25). In other words, our sin still had to be paid for. This is what Jesus did through His passive obedience. Through the suffering He endured through His life and especially on the cross, Jesus paid the penalty of our sin.

It is as if you have a tremendous amount of debt and a very poor credit score because of the debt. If someone was kind enough to take the action of paying off your debt, the bad credit score would remain. That person would also need to receive the penalty of your debt for you to receive a high credit score. Thankfully, through His passive obedience, Jesus also satisfied the penalty of our sin.

He was hated by His own people and His own family (Hebrews 12:3-4), He suffered through temptation in the wilderness without sin (Matthew 4:1-11) and even faced the death of others in this world (John 11:35). But He especially faced suffering on the cross. Wayne Grudem ^[1] notes four main ways in which he suffered: physical pain and death, pain of bearing our sin, pain of abandonment and the pain of bearing God’s wrath. While we may understand physical pain, we cannot understand the pain of bearing sin and God’s wrath. It is especially this last aspect which makes us acceptable to God. Since Jesus has no sin for which He should receive God’s wrath, it could be applied to us sinners instead.

It must be stressed that Jesus’ righteousness is not for everyone, only for those who believe (Romans 3:26, Hebrews 5:9). Do you acknowledge that you are a sinner deserving God’s wrath? Do you acknowledge that Jesus lived a perfect life, bore God’s wrath and that it will be applied to all that believe? If not, come to Christ today and live.