Adam Embraces Jesus in the Heavenly CityBible World
5:19Romans 5:19
For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
Romans 5:19 sets one man's disobedience, by which many were made sinners, against one man's obedience, by which many shall be made righteous. The two men are the first Adam and the second Adam, Christ, standing as representative free moral agents whose conduct decides the fate of those they represent. Adam, placed under perfect obedience as head of his posterity, believed Satan's lie, yielded to appetite and ate the forbidden fruit, and by that one revolt judgment came upon all to condemnation, with death, bondage to Satan, and ruin upon a race unable to redeem itself. Christ took fallen Adam's place and passed over the same ground where Adam fell, facing far severer temptation in weakened fallen humanity yet rendering lifelong perfect obedience unto the death of the cross, bearing human guilt and the curse to satisfy justice. By that obedience the free gift comes unto justification of life, counted as righteousness and imputed to believers to make them complete, pardoned and reconciled, while proving that God's unchangeable law can be kept through divine power and must be obeyed by all who would regain Eden.
Contrast of Two Men
Romans 5:19 sets one man's disobedience, by which many were made sinners, over against one man's obedience, by which many shall be made righteous. Adam's disobedience broke his relation to God and brought him under the law's condemnation and into bondage, while Christ's obedience is the answer to that sin and condemnation and brings the free gift of justification unto life. This is the mystery of faith and the righteousness of Christ, that condemnation came through Adam but the gift of justification and life comes through Christ. Christ obeyed even unto death, accepting the suffering and chastisement that made salvation for the world possible, serving the Father with all the strength of His humanity in complete obedience lived in human nature. His obedience means that people can obey through His strength, and His life in human flesh shows what God can do for them and what they can do in cooperation with God, while reconciliation comes through His death and salvation through His life. The law cannot pardon the transgressor, yet obedience to God's law guards human happiness, and righteousness comes only through Christ's obedience.
Sin and righteousness come through two representative men, the first Adam and the second Adam, Christ. Both stood as free moral agents responsible for their conduct and free to choose on probation, able by faith to hold to divine power or to yield to temptation. The first Adam abused his freedom, allowed appetite to overcome him, listened to doubt, and by his own free will by disobeying the expressed law became a sinner, lost his innocence, separated himself from God's favor, and brought the race under sin and Satan's control. His descendants were born with an inclination to disobey, giving occasion for the claim that no man after Adam could keep God's law. The second Adam, Christ, the world's Redeemer, the only begotten Son come as a man, took human nature without evil propensity, was placed in a much less favorable situation for leading a sinless life surrounded by intensely subtle and misleading influences in the midst of sinners, yet resisted every temptation, never yielded, maintained His innocence, remained ever sinless and faithful to God and His word, and by passing over the same ground where Adam fell revealed that men can keep the law. He bore the sins of the whole world and endured the punishment and terrible consequences of transgression, and His obedience stands against Adam's disobedience by which many are made righteous.
The Garden of Eden with its foul blot of disobedience is to be carefully studied and compared with the Garden of Gethsemane and the cross to understand why Christ had to come and what His obedience means. By one man's disobedience in Eden many were made sinners and the floodgates of woe were opened to the world, and by the obedience of one many are made righteous. Adam's disobedience was simply going directly contrary to God's express command without considering all the consequences, eating the fruit of the tree God told him not to eat. Its greatness lies not in the act itself, for sin is not measured by the greatness of the act but by variance from God's expressed will in the least particular, which shows sin reigns in the heart. Doing the very thing the Lord told not to do is disobedience and transgression even when it seems small, and disobedience of God's expressed will is a virtual denial of God and refusal of His government no matter how small the act appears. The same principle that decided whether Adam ate decides the Sabbath question of what day is kept, where what day is kept makes every difference.
Christ's obedience meant honoring the Father by doing His will and bearing His curse, the consequence and curse of man's transgression. When the sins of the whole world were rolled upon Him He consented in Gethsemane in superhuman agony, praying not as I will but as Thou wilt, and continued obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. The contrast of Eden set against Gethsemane and the cross shows the virtues of obedience against the sinfulness of disobedience, what was involved in Adam's act and what the Son's obedience means for humanity. Happiness is found only in obedience to God's law as the hedge placed to protect from evil, and Adam's experience with its terrible results warns that disobedience brings ruin, leaves no excuse, and cannot be met with impunity. The law and the gospel belong together as a complete whole.
Adam's Disobedience Explained
Adam stood under a requirement of perfect obedience as representative for his posterity as well as for himself, and the test given to prove loyalty was the smallest that could be devised, the prohibition against eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge. He believed Satan's lie, listened to insinuated doubts of God's wisdom and accusations of selfishness for withholding that fruit, yielded to appetite, and ate what God told him not to eat, while Eve fell under temptation and Adam accepted the forbidden fruit from her hand. As a free moral agent responsible for his conduct he abused his freedom, allowed appetite to overcome him, lost his innocence, and by his own choice became a sinner separated from God's favor. Doing the very thing the Lord told not to do was disobedience and transgression even though the act itself seemed small, for sin is not measured by the greatness of the act but by variance from God's expressed will.
If he had stood the test of temptation and preserved his allegiance to the Creator, his obedience would have secured God's acceptance and favor and established him forever in holiness and happiness, with those blessings extending to all his descendants, even retaining beautiful Eden and finally becoming an inhabitant of heaven. Because he failed to bear the test and revolted against God's law, all his descendants became sinners. By that one disobedience and offense judgment came upon all men to condemnation and death reigned, making many sinners. The race was brought under bondage to the law and under sentence to suffer death as the penalty of sin, coming under Satan's power and claim and control, sold to sin, ruined and hopeless, unable of itself to do good or redeem itself.
Adam began with a holy, sinless, pure, undefiled nature in Eden where everything in nature was pure and undefiled and everything he and Eve required was abundantly supplied, yet his fall opened the floodgates of woe upon the world. His posterity was left depraved, receiving from him an inheritance of disobedience, of guilt and death with natural defects and tendencies, and bringing guilt and fall upon the race. A bias to evil followed the fall, yet God did not give human beings a new order of energies and passions nor implant sinful propensities in the human race. Sin also dimmed and nearly erased the law's writing on human hearts, with selfishness entering human life so that man's will no longer harmonized with God's will.
He fell from the upright, perfectly holy and happy condition in which he was made, lost the divine favor and destroyed his own happiness, lost Eden, forfeited all right to heaven, and surrendered the dominion over the earth entrusted at creation. By that sin he plunged the whole race into hopeless misery and despair, entailed sin upon all his posterity and caused the race to deteriorate, bringing sin and its misery and death, wretchedness, calamity, disease, guilt and sorrow upon the human family. He repented, was raised from the dead, and entered Eden again. His experience with its terrible results warns those today who transgress that disobedience brings ruin and leaves no excuse, and no disobedience of the divine law can be set aside with impunity.
Christ's Obedience Accomplished
Christ took fallen Adam's place, stood where Adam stood, and went over the very ground where Adam stumbled and fell, placing His feet in Adam's steps, retracing those steps, bearing the test Adam failed to endure and meeting the strong foe who had triumphed over Adam. With the sins of the world laid upon Him He coped with the tempter on man's account, and by obedience, purity of character and steadfast integrity He overcame and conquered where Adam failed, so that His righteousness might be imputed and open the way for believers to be redeemed from the disgrace of Adam's failure and fall and to overcome the foe in His name on their own account. His humble, firm obedience thus answers Adam's disobedience and makes it possible to regain what was lost through sin.
He faced that test under far less favorable and far more severe conditions than Adam, taking fallen human nature with its weaknesses, infirmities and degeneracy after generations of decline, and meeting a test made almost infinitely more severe. As the second Adam He was a free moral agent responsible for His conduct like the first Adam, yet He was placed in a much less favorable situation for leading a sinless life, surrounded by intensely subtle and misleading influences in the midst of sinners, bearing the effects of sin and humanity's weakness upon Him in order to rescue people from degradation. From the desert to the cross He was tempted in the wilderness and bore for man the test Adam failed to endure, tempted a hundredfold more strongly than will ever come upon the race, enduring every test and temptation any person will ever meet, including the three leading temptations that beset mankind over appetite and the rest, which He overcame by the word of God and by refusing to serve Satan. He did this resting wholly on the power of God in full and entire dependence upon Him, treading the path alone with only angels to minister to Him, by the divine nature combined with the human, and the enemy overcame Him on not a single point, so that He resisted every temptation, maintained His innocence, remained ever sinless and pure and free of Satan's attributes, and did not become Satan's bondslave. Had He transgressed the law in even one particular He would have become a sinner and His offering would have failed, but His obedience stands complete, and the dependence by which He conquered is the dependence by which the one finally crowned conqueror must overcome in self-denial and daily cross-bearing to sit with Him on His throne.
He rendered lifelong perfect obedience to all God's requirements in humanity, serving the Father with all the strength of His humanity and not by a special power of His divine nature unavailable to people, thereby living the law, keeping every precept, answering Adam's disobedience and leaving His obedient life as a sample to all men upon the earth. By a life of perfect obedience to God's law He redeemed man from the penalty of Adam's fall on the same ground where Adam stumbled, bearing the penalty of the law for past transgressions and making a sinless offering and propitiation for sinners, able to speak pardon to the sinner and leaving an open door through which every sinner can approach God. He gives the sinner another chance and second trial and a way to be reinstated in favor, imparting His own righteousness to make it possible to keep the holy law, for His blood avails only for those who return to allegiance and obey the law they violated, since He never becomes a party to sin.
His obedience meant honoring the Father by doing His will and bearing His curse, the consequence and chastisement of transgression, accepting suffering that made salvation possible. In the Garden of Gethsemane He consented when the sins of the whole world were rolled upon Him and suffered superhuman agony, praying not as I will but as Thou wilt, and He continued obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, through humiliation, suffering, fasting, insult, rejection and sacrifice. He gave His life as a ransom, took the sentence of death upon Himself and bore sin and its curse, and through the merits of His blood and obedience to God's law He opened the way for pardon, restoration to life and favor, and regained access to the garden and the tree of life for those pardoned who are brought back to God through obedience.
He clothed His divinity with humanity and combined the human and divine in Himself, reaching the race with a human arm while His divine arm grasps the Infinite and the throne of the Infinite, with His name as the link uniting man to God and God to man. Laying aside His royal robe and crown, the well-beloved Son, the express image of the Father's person, became man's Advocate and Redeemer, becoming a babe in Bethlehem, humbling Himself to take the nature of man in his fallen condition without taking the taint of sin, sharing fully in human experience from childhood to manhood and dwelling as a man among men at the head of the fallen race to associate with those made sinners and elevate them in moral value to partake of the divine nature. Through His human nature He reconciles people to God and through His divine nature He reconciles God to them, bearing guilt, debt and the test Adam failed, overcoming every temptation of Satan in the wilderness in a long fast and single-handed conflict with the prince of darkness that decided man's salvation and revealed the power of appetite, and by that obedience saving men from perishing in their fallen condition. His work gives no license to keep breaking God's law, but His suffering is meant to lead to repentance and obedience, imputing His righteousness so efforts to keep the law become acceptable, giving probation and placing people on trial to teach obedience in His own nature and prove the law can be kept, so that man is to look to Him and not to any finite human agent for counsel and wisdom.
Only the sinless Son of God who created man could make an acceptable atonement for transgression and become humanity's only hope of restoration to favor, for even the life of an angel could not be accepted as a sacrifice for transgression of a law that is the foundation of government in heaven as well as on earth and cannot be abrogated or changed to meet man in his fallen condition. Only the humiliation of heaven's Prince and His humiliation and suffering in the wilderness for the race could satisfy justice, remove the dishonor caused by sin and restore what was forfeited, with anguish over the world's sins corresponding to His purity and divine excellence and to the magnitude of the offense. An angel's coming could neither remove sin nor provide humanity another time of probation.
Righteousness and Restoration Given
By the obedience and righteousness of one, Jesus Christ, the free gift comes upon all unto justification of life, reversing the condemnation and reign of death that came upon all through one offense. His obedience is counted as righteousness and imputed to humanity, so that those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by Him, being made complete in Him, reconciled, pardoned, and able to stand before a holy God without the curse. He is the Lord our Righteousness, with all power in heaven and earth, the strength and hope and salvation of churches, families, and individuals, who alone can pardon transgression and justify repenting sinners. He restores the moral image of God in them and binds the humble, contrite soul to Himself in peace with God through faith, giving access into grace and rejoicing in hope of the glory of God. His grace is His character and does not abolish the law, for the law is the transcript of God's character presenting righteousness, giving knowledge of sin, making sin appear exceeding sinful, and condemning the transgressor, yet having no power to pardon, save, or restore. Pardon comes only through Christ, who lived the law in humanity, was made to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him, and through whose name people may overcome the foe. Reconciliation through His death is joined to salvation through His life.
He became humanity's substitute and surety, taking human nature and standing at the head of the race on the ground where Adam fell, without turning from allegiance to God. He took human guilt, sin, debt, and the sentence of death upon Himself, laying aside His royal robe and crown, offering His life as a ransom and propitiation whose blood avails, bearing the curse of the law and fully satisfying justice. Through the merits of His blood and obedience, guilty people who cannot redeem themselves or do good by their own power may be pardoned, restored to God's favor, and brought back to God through obedience. He secures their opportunity for salvation and calls them from transgression to return to loyalty, giving moral power to overcome sin through faith in Him as personal Saviour. His work gives no license to keep breaking God's law nor makes Him a party to sin, but His suffering leads to repentance and obedience, and He imputes His righteousness so that efforts to keep the law become acceptable, reconciling people to God through His human nature and God to them through His divine nature.
He redeems Adam's disgraceful failure and fall and makes it possible to regain what was lost through sin: divine favor, happiness, the moral image of God, access to the garden and the tree of life, and the earth itself. As the sinless Son of God He alone could make acceptable atonement, and His humiliation, suffering, anguish, purity, and divine excellence correspond to the magnitude of the offense. He came down to the level of those He wished to save, clothing divinity with humanity to associate with fallen humanity and taking sinful nature, yet in Him was no guile or sinfulness, ever pure and undefiled. In His own character He manifested God's character, pleasing not Himself but going about doing good, with a history of more than thirty years that was one of pure, disinterested benevolence. Recovery requires thorough transformation of soul, body, and spirit to regain the divine image lost through sin and continued transgression. God did not implant sinful propensities nor give a new order of energies and passions, but a bias to evil followed the fall, and through obedience to God's law and faith in Christ, with cultivation of righteous principles and grace bestowed by heaven, victory comes over that bias, the warped senses and perverted faculties are restored, words, thoughts, and energies are purified, a new character is formed, and the debasement of sin is overcome.
His obedience places the race on vantage ground with God and secures another trial and second probation, bearing the penalty of the law for past transgressions and reinstating the sinner in God's favor. He passed over the same ground where Adam fell, stood against Satan's temptations and came off conqueror, drawing human beings under His sway so they would not follow Adam, giving them probation and placing them on trial to teach obedience in His own nature and prove the law can be kept. The present life is that probation in which all are tested whether they will return to allegiance, with the privileges and opportunities of free choice and the exercise of God-given power, the day of arraignment being postponed until bound over to appear at the bar of God in the judgment. His blood avails only for those who return to allegiance and obey the law they violated, for righteousness means conformity to its enduring requirements and does not set aside the law. Through Him people are placed where they can find freedom from the misery and bondage of sin.
This other trial is given without abolishing God's law to give unconditional pardon, for the Father does not put benevolence above justice nor set aside the principles of righteousness, since to do so would exalt the sinner in impenitence and encourage transgression instead of abating it. The disobedience of Adam with Eve lost Eden and reveals the justice of God, while the obedience of the Son who stepped in and pledged His own life as the penalty for transgression gives man another trial on this ground.
The fall called for the grace of God to appear in behalf of sinners, and the meaning of grace would never have been learned had man not fallen. Grace is shown only to undeserving fallen human beings, not to sinless angels who serve God in obedience to all His commands, who never sinned and never needed it. Sinners did not seek after grace, but grace was sent in search of them, and God rejoices to bestow it on everyone who hungers for it, not because they are worthy but because they are utterly unworthy, so that need itself is the qualification that gives assurance of receiving the gift.
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that Christ in His humanity could grasp divinity and so that human nature through faith, having overcome, is able to grasp the divine nature.
Law Upheld and Proved
The law is the transcript of God's character, presenting His righteousness in contrast with unrighteousness. It gives the knowledge of sin and makes sin appear exceeding sinful, convicting the sinner and condemning the transgressor. It has no power to pardon, save, or restore, but can only condemn, and pardon comes only through Christ who lived the law in humanity. Grace, which is Christ's character, does not abolish the law of God.
God's law is the foundation of His government in heaven as well as on earth. It is so sacred and unchangeable that not one jot or tittle, not one precept, could be altered to meet man in his fallen condition. Therefore Christ had to clothe His divinity with humanity and by His death meet its claims and make it possible for people to be restored to the favor Adam lost. Even the life of an angel could not be accepted as a sacrifice for its transgression.
By passing over the same ground where Adam fell and coming off conqueror, Christ disproved Satan's declaration that no man after Adam could keep God's law. Adam's disobedience had given occasion for that claim and left men following Adam's example and believing the law could not be kept. Christ's holy lifelong obedience, rendered as a man tempted as a man and not by a special power of His divine nature that man cannot share, proves by actual fact that man can keep the commandments. That testimony stands before unfallen worlds and fallen humanity that men can keep the law through divine power granted from heaven, placing them on trial to teach them obedience in His own nature.
Christ's work did not give people license to keep breaking God's law, for He never becomes a party to sin. His suffering was meant to lead them to repentance and obedience, bearing the penalty of the law for past transgressions and giving the sinner another chance, a second trial, opening the way to be reinstated in God's favor. His blood and His imputed righteousness avail only for those who return to allegiance to God and obey the law they have violated. That imputed righteousness brings in everlasting righteousness, makes reconciliation for sin and makes an end of sin, so believers are complete in Christ and can stand before a holy, sin-hating God without His curse, yet the same gift exacts obedience from those who receive it so they do not continue in sin, for righteousness means conformity to its enduring requirements.
Doing the very thing the Lord told not to do is disobedience and transgression even when it seems small. Adam's disobedience was simply going directly contrary to God's express command without considering consequences, and its greatness lies not in the act itself, for disobedience of God's expressed will is a virtual denial of God and refusal of His government no matter how small the act appears. The same principle that decided whether Adam ate decides the Sabbath question, where what day is kept makes every difference. True happiness is found only in obedience to the law of God as the hedge He placed about His vineyard to protect from evil.
What was lost through disobedience must be brought back by obedience. That restoration is connected with keeping the commandments, loving God with all the heart, soul, strength and mind and loving neighbor as self. Entering eternal life requires following Christ as the true Shepherd and leader and doing as He did, walking in the light of God's perfect rule and standard in order to be brought back to the Eden home.
Obedience Enabled in Life
Through His strength people may obey, overcome temptation, share in the divine nature, live without sin, and receive eternal life. His life in human flesh shows what God can do for them and what they can do in cooperation with God, for He rendered the obedience required of humanity without relying on a special power unavailable to people, and people overcome only as divine power works through humanity by faith. As the second Adam He took human nature and faced the ground on which Adam failed, and though tempted as humans are He lived without sin, redeemed Adam's failure, worked out a perfect character for humanity, and proved that through God's power human beings can live without sin. He overcame the enemy in every point under humanity's temptations and trials, disproved Satan's claim that people could not keep God's law, and faced temptation a hundredfold more strongly than will ever come upon the race.
His obedient life is the example humanity must live, for He lived the law in human life with perfect obedience to all God's commandments and left that life as a sample to all upon the earth. He conquered Satan in behalf of weak humanity as man's representative, bearing for man the test Adam failed to endure and resting wholly on the power of God against the wily foe, without yielding on one point. His obedience carries the conflict for man, guarantees the plan of salvation will be fulfilled, takes away Satan's power and makes his destruction certain, elevates and ennobles humanity by His merits, and makes it possible through His name and grace to overcome the degradation of the fall and be linked to the Infinite. His triumph in the wilderness where Adam had failed redeems Adam's disgraceful failure, brings salvation within humanity's reach, provides an example of temperance, and makes divine grace and strength available so people can resist temptation and overcome in His name. All must travel His path of self-denial and daily cross-bearing to overcome as He overcame and sit with Him on His throne, for the life He lived in meeting temptations without swerving from allegiance and resisting every claim that sinners can be saved in their sins is the example humanity must live, with His righteousness distinctly made apparent in overcoming every temptation.
Guilty people cannot redeem themselves or do good by their own power, having sold themselves to the enemy of all righteousness, yet through Him they can return to loyalty. He became humanity's substitute and surety, took human nature, stood at the head of the fallen race, faced the temptations on the ground where Adam fell without turning from allegiance, met the claims against people enslaved by sin, and conquered on their behalf to give them a position from which they may return to loyalty to God by keeping His law. He secures their opportunity for salvation, gives the sinner another chance and second trial, bears the penalty of the law for past transgressions, opens the way to be reinstated in favor, and calls them from transgression to obedience to a personal Saviour. His blood and imputed righteousness avail only for those who return to allegiance and obey the law they violated, for He never becomes a party to sin; that gift brings everlasting righteousness, makes reconciliation and an end of sin, makes believers complete so they can stand before a holy sin-hating God without the curse, yet exacts obedience so that looking to Him for deliverance they owe obedience and do not continue in sin. Faith and obedience through His merits open the way to the city of God and the heavenly reward, giving moral power to overcome sin.
The Father in giving His Son to live and die placed all the treasures of heaven at human disposal to give strength to withstand temptation, so there is no excuse for sin. His sacrifice on Calvary gives a whole Saviour with sufficient grace and power to work away from natural defects and tendencies and to advance in the divine life, so no one may excuse failure to live rightly by saying they are not guilty of Adam's sin or responsible for it and cannot help acting out what is in them, and pleading inability casts reproach on God and denies what He has provided. Through obedience to God's law and faith in Christ, begun as soon as man transgressed, the lost image is regained. Although God did not give a new order of energies and passions nor implant sinful propensities, a bias to evil followed the fall, yet through cultivation of righteous principles in and through grace bestowed by heaven, obedience gives victory over that bias, the warped senses and perverted faculties are restored, words, thoughts and energies are purified, a new character is formed, and the debasement of sin is overcome. Through His sacrificial life sinners may have sins washed away and be purified for heaven, for receiving Him by faith gives power to become children of God, partakers of the divine nature connected with God and Christ on vantage ground, enabled by His example and grace to live as God's children. Being made righteous means walking in the path of implicit obedience as the only path of safety, close to the Redeemer with converted body and soul in harmony with God's laws, daily receiving renovating grace as an overcomer, made rich by title to an immortal inheritance and resting in full and free salvation, imperishable wealth, and eternal weight of glory; what Adam lost through disobedience can be won back through obedience, for those purchased by humiliation and suffering and redeemed from the enemy's power are placed where obedience is again possible, belong to God in body and spirit, and are to glorify Him by reaching His standard, living thankful where blessing and peace dwell in the heart.
Through taking human nature into Himself He wrought redemption by obedience to all God's commandments, so that fallen people by faith may be brought into oneness with Him, share His divine-human life, be united with God in Him, and be made complete. Having clothed divinity with humanity to associate with the fallen race and stand at its head, He by His own merits elevates man to be a partaker of the divine nature, since man can accomplish nothing without God. He redeemed Adam's failure on the point of appetite, for Adam by disobedience to express commands fell from an upright, perfectly holy and happy condition, lost divine favor, destroyed his own happiness, and plunged the race into hopeless misery and despair, while Christ with divinity clothed in humanity passed over the same ground, bore the test Adam failed, and overcame every temptation of Satan to save men from perishing. His long fast and single-handed conflict with the prince of darkness in the wilderness decided man's salvation, broke Satan's power, revealed the power of appetite over human nature, showed how sinful debased appetite is and how strongly it controls humanity, and belongs to His work in temperance by which man was given a second trial.
Restoration reaches fathers, mothers, children, and future generations, for He restores the moral image of God and reshapes character, and that reaches the family when a mother turns from disloyalty to obedience and teaches her children to follow in her footsteps, undoing the inheritance of disobedience, guilt, and death. Had fallen men followed His example of steadfast purity and righteousness they would have given their children and children's children an improving heritage instead of deterioration, perfected faultless characters as God requires, and left results to future generations until the world became as Eden instead of a desert of sin. Adam and Christ will meet in Paradise, while those who reject opportunities given at great cost and refuse loyalty will be excluded. He came and lived obedience to prove false Satan's claim that not one soul would keep the commandments, so that even one soul saved demonstrates the righteousness of God's government; because man created in God's image must not be left for Satan to rule and ruin, by His obedience He showed man can obey, canceled guilt, and clothed Himself with the robe of sorrow so the sinner can stand before God clothed with the robe of righteousness.
Romans 5:19 sets one man's disobedience, by which many were made sinners, against one man's obedience, by which many shall be made righteous. The two men are the first Adam and the second Adam, Christ, standing as representative free moral agents whose conduct decides the fate of those they represent. Adam, placed under perfect obedience as head of his posterity, believed Satan's lie, yielded to appetite and ate the forbidden fruit, and by that one revolt judgment came upon all to condemnation, with death, bondage to Satan, and ruin upon a race unable to redeem itself. Christ took fallen Adam's place and passed over the same ground where Adam fell, facing far severer temptation in weakened fallen humanity yet rendering lifelong perfect obedience unto the death of the cross, bearing human guilt and the curse to satisfy justice. By that obedience the free gift comes unto justification of life, counted as righteousness and imputed to believers to make them complete, pardoned and reconciled, while proving that God's unchangeable law can be kept through divine power and must be obeyed by all who would regain Eden.
Contrast of Two Men
Romans 5:19 sets one man's disobedience, by which many were made sinners, over against one man's obedience, by which many shall be made righteous. Adam's disobedience broke his relation to God and brought him under the law's condemnation and into bondage, while Christ's obedience is the answer to that sin and condemnation and brings the free gift of justification unto life. This is the mystery of faith and the righteousness of Christ, that condemnation came through Adam but the gift of justification and life comes through Christ. Christ obeyed even unto death, accepting the suffering and chastisement that made salvation for the world possible, serving the Father with all the strength of His humanity in complete obedience lived in human nature. His obedience means that people can obey through His strength, and His life in human flesh shows what God can do for them and what they can do in cooperation with God, while reconciliation comes through His death and salvation through His life. The law cannot pardon the transgressor, yet obedience to God's law guards human happiness, and righteousness comes only through Christ's obedience.
Sin and righteousness come through two representative men, the first Adam and the second Adam, Christ. Both stood as free moral agents responsible for their conduct and free to choose on probation, able by faith to hold to divine power or to yield to temptation. The first Adam abused his freedom, allowed appetite to overcome him, listened to doubt, and by his own free will by disobeying the expressed law became a sinner, lost his innocence, separated himself from God's favor, and brought the race under sin and Satan's control. His descendants were born with an inclination to disobey, giving occasion for the claim that no man after Adam could keep God's law. The second Adam, Christ, the world's Redeemer, the only begotten Son come as a man, took human nature without evil propensity, was placed in a much less favorable situation for leading a sinless life surrounded by intensely subtle and misleading influences in the midst of sinners, yet resisted every temptation, never yielded, maintained His innocence, remained ever sinless and faithful to God and His word, and by passing over the same ground where Adam fell revealed that men can keep the law. He bore the sins of the whole world and endured the punishment and terrible consequences of transgression, and His obedience stands against Adam's disobedience by which many are made righteous.
The Garden of Eden with its foul blot of disobedience is to be carefully studied and compared with the Garden of Gethsemane and the cross to understand why Christ had to come and what His obedience means. By one man's disobedience in Eden many were made sinners and the floodgates of woe were opened to the world, and by the obedience of one many are made righteous. Adam's disobedience was simply going directly contrary to God's express command without considering all the consequences, eating the fruit of the tree God told him not to eat. Its greatness lies not in the act itself, for sin is not measured by the greatness of the act but by variance from God's expressed will in the least particular, which shows sin reigns in the heart. Doing the very thing the Lord told not to do is disobedience and transgression even when it seems small, and disobedience of God's expressed will is a virtual denial of God and refusal of His government no matter how small the act appears. The same principle that decided whether Adam ate decides the Sabbath question of what day is kept, where what day is kept makes every difference.
Christ's obedience meant honoring the Father by doing His will and bearing His curse, the consequence and curse of man's transgression. When the sins of the whole world were rolled upon Him He consented in Gethsemane in superhuman agony, praying not as I will but as Thou wilt, and continued obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. The contrast of Eden set against Gethsemane and the cross shows the virtues of obedience against the sinfulness of disobedience, what was involved in Adam's act and what the Son's obedience means for humanity. Happiness is found only in obedience to God's law as the hedge placed to protect from evil, and Adam's experience with its terrible results warns that disobedience brings ruin, leaves no excuse, and cannot be met with impunity. The law and the gospel belong together as a complete whole.
Adam's Disobedience Explained
Adam stood under a requirement of perfect obedience as representative for his posterity as well as for himself, and the test given to prove loyalty was the smallest that could be devised, the prohibition against eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge. He believed Satan's lie, listened to insinuated doubts of God's wisdom and accusations of selfishness for withholding that fruit, yielded to appetite, and ate what God told him not to eat, while Eve fell under temptation and Adam accepted the forbidden fruit from her hand. As a free moral agent responsible for his conduct he abused his freedom, allowed appetite to overcome him, lost his innocence, and by his own choice became a sinner separated from God's favor. Doing the very thing the Lord told not to do was disobedience and transgression even though the act itself seemed small, for sin is not measured by the greatness of the act but by variance from God's expressed will.
If he had stood the test of temptation and preserved his allegiance to the Creator, his obedience would have secured God's acceptance and favor and established him forever in holiness and happiness, with those blessings extending to all his descendants, even retaining beautiful Eden and finally becoming an inhabitant of heaven. Because he failed to bear the test and revolted against God's law, all his descendants became sinners. By that one disobedience and offense judgment came upon all men to condemnation and death reigned, making many sinners. The race was brought under bondage to the law and under sentence to suffer death as the penalty of sin, coming under Satan's power and claim and control, sold to sin, ruined and hopeless, unable of itself to do good or redeem itself.
Adam began with a holy, sinless, pure, undefiled nature in Eden where everything in nature was pure and undefiled and everything he and Eve required was abundantly supplied, yet his fall opened the floodgates of woe upon the world. His posterity was left depraved, receiving from him an inheritance of disobedience, of guilt and death with natural defects and tendencies, and bringing guilt and fall upon the race. A bias to evil followed the fall, yet God did not give human beings a new order of energies and passions nor implant sinful propensities in the human race. Sin also dimmed and nearly erased the law's writing on human hearts, with selfishness entering human life so that man's will no longer harmonized with God's will.
He fell from the upright, perfectly holy and happy condition in which he was made, lost the divine favor and destroyed his own happiness, lost Eden, forfeited all right to heaven, and surrendered the dominion over the earth entrusted at creation. By that sin he plunged the whole race into hopeless misery and despair, entailed sin upon all his posterity and caused the race to deteriorate, bringing sin and its misery and death, wretchedness, calamity, disease, guilt and sorrow upon the human family. He repented, was raised from the dead, and entered Eden again. His experience with its terrible results warns those today who transgress that disobedience brings ruin and leaves no excuse, and no disobedience of the divine law can be set aside with impunity.
Christ's Obedience Accomplished
Christ took fallen Adam's place, stood where Adam stood, and went over the very ground where Adam stumbled and fell, placing His feet in Adam's steps, retracing those steps, bearing the test Adam failed to endure and meeting the strong foe who had triumphed over Adam. With the sins of the world laid upon Him He coped with the tempter on man's account, and by obedience, purity of character and steadfast integrity He overcame and conquered where Adam failed, so that His righteousness might be imputed and open the way for believers to be redeemed from the disgrace of Adam's failure and fall and to overcome the foe in His name on their own account. His humble, firm obedience thus answers Adam's disobedience and makes it possible to regain what was lost through sin.
He faced that test under far less favorable and far more severe conditions than Adam, taking fallen human nature with its weaknesses, infirmities and degeneracy after generations of decline, and meeting a test made almost infinitely more severe. As the second Adam He was a free moral agent responsible for His conduct like the first Adam, yet He was placed in a much less favorable situation for leading a sinless life, surrounded by intensely subtle and misleading influences in the midst of sinners, bearing the effects of sin and humanity's weakness upon Him in order to rescue people from degradation. From the desert to the cross He was tempted in the wilderness and bore for man the test Adam failed to endure, tempted a hundredfold more strongly than will ever come upon the race, enduring every test and temptation any person will ever meet, including the three leading temptations that beset mankind over appetite and the rest, which He overcame by the word of God and by refusing to serve Satan. He did this resting wholly on the power of God in full and entire dependence upon Him, treading the path alone with only angels to minister to Him, by the divine nature combined with the human, and the enemy overcame Him on not a single point, so that He resisted every temptation, maintained His innocence, remained ever sinless and pure and free of Satan's attributes, and did not become Satan's bondslave. Had He transgressed the law in even one particular He would have become a sinner and His offering would have failed, but His obedience stands complete, and the dependence by which He conquered is the dependence by which the one finally crowned conqueror must overcome in self-denial and daily cross-bearing to sit with Him on His throne.
He rendered lifelong perfect obedience to all God's requirements in humanity, serving the Father with all the strength of His humanity and not by a special power of His divine nature unavailable to people, thereby living the law, keeping every precept, answering Adam's disobedience and leaving His obedient life as a sample to all men upon the earth. By a life of perfect obedience to God's law He redeemed man from the penalty of Adam's fall on the same ground where Adam stumbled, bearing the penalty of the law for past transgressions and making a sinless offering and propitiation for sinners, able to speak pardon to the sinner and leaving an open door through which every sinner can approach God. He gives the sinner another chance and second trial and a way to be reinstated in favor, imparting His own righteousness to make it possible to keep the holy law, for His blood avails only for those who return to allegiance and obey the law they violated, since He never becomes a party to sin.
His obedience meant honoring the Father by doing His will and bearing His curse, the consequence and chastisement of transgression, accepting suffering that made salvation possible. In the Garden of Gethsemane He consented when the sins of the whole world were rolled upon Him and suffered superhuman agony, praying not as I will but as Thou wilt, and He continued obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, through humiliation, suffering, fasting, insult, rejection and sacrifice. He gave His life as a ransom, took the sentence of death upon Himself and bore sin and its curse, and through the merits of His blood and obedience to God's law He opened the way for pardon, restoration to life and favor, and regained access to the garden and the tree of life for those pardoned who are brought back to God through obedience.
He clothed His divinity with humanity and combined the human and divine in Himself, reaching the race with a human arm while His divine arm grasps the Infinite and the throne of the Infinite, with His name as the link uniting man to God and God to man. Laying aside His royal robe and crown, the well-beloved Son, the express image of the Father's person, became man's Advocate and Redeemer, becoming a babe in Bethlehem, humbling Himself to take the nature of man in his fallen condition without taking the taint of sin, sharing fully in human experience from childhood to manhood and dwelling as a man among men at the head of the fallen race to associate with those made sinners and elevate them in moral value to partake of the divine nature. Through His human nature He reconciles people to God and through His divine nature He reconciles God to them, bearing guilt, debt and the test Adam failed, overcoming every temptation of Satan in the wilderness in a long fast and single-handed conflict with the prince of darkness that decided man's salvation and revealed the power of appetite, and by that obedience saving men from perishing in their fallen condition. His work gives no license to keep breaking God's law, but His suffering is meant to lead to repentance and obedience, imputing His righteousness so efforts to keep the law become acceptable, giving probation and placing people on trial to teach obedience in His own nature and prove the law can be kept, so that man is to look to Him and not to any finite human agent for counsel and wisdom.
Only the sinless Son of God who created man could make an acceptable atonement for transgression and become humanity's only hope of restoration to favor, for even the life of an angel could not be accepted as a sacrifice for transgression of a law that is the foundation of government in heaven as well as on earth and cannot be abrogated or changed to meet man in his fallen condition. Only the humiliation of heaven's Prince and His humiliation and suffering in the wilderness for the race could satisfy justice, remove the dishonor caused by sin and restore what was forfeited, with anguish over the world's sins corresponding to His purity and divine excellence and to the magnitude of the offense. An angel's coming could neither remove sin nor provide humanity another time of probation.
Righteousness and Restoration Given
By the obedience and righteousness of one, Jesus Christ, the free gift comes upon all unto justification of life, reversing the condemnation and reign of death that came upon all through one offense. His obedience is counted as righteousness and imputed to humanity, so that those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by Him, being made complete in Him, reconciled, pardoned, and able to stand before a holy God without the curse. He is the Lord our Righteousness, with all power in heaven and earth, the strength and hope and salvation of churches, families, and individuals, who alone can pardon transgression and justify repenting sinners. He restores the moral image of God in them and binds the humble, contrite soul to Himself in peace with God through faith, giving access into grace and rejoicing in hope of the glory of God. His grace is His character and does not abolish the law, for the law is the transcript of God's character presenting righteousness, giving knowledge of sin, making sin appear exceeding sinful, and condemning the transgressor, yet having no power to pardon, save, or restore. Pardon comes only through Christ, who lived the law in humanity, was made to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him, and through whose name people may overcome the foe. Reconciliation through His death is joined to salvation through His life.
He became humanity's substitute and surety, taking human nature and standing at the head of the race on the ground where Adam fell, without turning from allegiance to God. He took human guilt, sin, debt, and the sentence of death upon Himself, laying aside His royal robe and crown, offering His life as a ransom and propitiation whose blood avails, bearing the curse of the law and fully satisfying justice. Through the merits of His blood and obedience, guilty people who cannot redeem themselves or do good by their own power may be pardoned, restored to God's favor, and brought back to God through obedience. He secures their opportunity for salvation and calls them from transgression to return to loyalty, giving moral power to overcome sin through faith in Him as personal Saviour. His work gives no license to keep breaking God's law nor makes Him a party to sin, but His suffering leads to repentance and obedience, and He imputes His righteousness so that efforts to keep the law become acceptable, reconciling people to God through His human nature and God to them through His divine nature.
He redeems Adam's disgraceful failure and fall and makes it possible to regain what was lost through sin: divine favor, happiness, the moral image of God, access to the garden and the tree of life, and the earth itself. As the sinless Son of God He alone could make acceptable atonement, and His humiliation, suffering, anguish, purity, and divine excellence correspond to the magnitude of the offense. He came down to the level of those He wished to save, clothing divinity with humanity to associate with fallen humanity and taking sinful nature, yet in Him was no guile or sinfulness, ever pure and undefiled. In His own character He manifested God's character, pleasing not Himself but going about doing good, with a history of more than thirty years that was one of pure, disinterested benevolence. Recovery requires thorough transformation of soul, body, and spirit to regain the divine image lost through sin and continued transgression. God did not implant sinful propensities nor give a new order of energies and passions, but a bias to evil followed the fall, and through obedience to God's law and faith in Christ, with cultivation of righteous principles and grace bestowed by heaven, victory comes over that bias, the warped senses and perverted faculties are restored, words, thoughts, and energies are purified, a new character is formed, and the debasement of sin is overcome.
His obedience places the race on vantage ground with God and secures another trial and second probation, bearing the penalty of the law for past transgressions and reinstating the sinner in God's favor. He passed over the same ground where Adam fell, stood against Satan's temptations and came off conqueror, drawing human beings under His sway so they would not follow Adam, giving them probation and placing them on trial to teach obedience in His own nature and prove the law can be kept. The present life is that probation in which all are tested whether they will return to allegiance, with the privileges and opportunities of free choice and the exercise of God-given power, the day of arraignment being postponed until bound over to appear at the bar of God in the judgment. His blood avails only for those who return to allegiance and obey the law they violated, for righteousness means conformity to its enduring requirements and does not set aside the law. Through Him people are placed where they can find freedom from the misery and bondage of sin.
This other trial is given without abolishing God's law to give unconditional pardon, for the Father does not put benevolence above justice nor set aside the principles of righteousness, since to do so would exalt the sinner in impenitence and encourage transgression instead of abating it. The disobedience of Adam with Eve lost Eden and reveals the justice of God, while the obedience of the Son who stepped in and pledged His own life as the penalty for transgression gives man another trial on this ground.
The fall called for the grace of God to appear in behalf of sinners, and the meaning of grace would never have been learned had man not fallen. Grace is shown only to undeserving fallen human beings, not to sinless angels who serve God in obedience to all His commands, who never sinned and never needed it. Sinners did not seek after grace, but grace was sent in search of them, and God rejoices to bestow it on everyone who hungers for it, not because they are worthy but because they are utterly unworthy, so that need itself is the qualification that gives assurance of receiving the gift.
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that Christ in His humanity could grasp divinity and so that human nature through faith, having overcome, is able to grasp the divine nature.
Law Upheld and Proved
The law is the transcript of God's character, presenting His righteousness in contrast with unrighteousness. It gives the knowledge of sin and makes sin appear exceeding sinful, convicting the sinner and condemning the transgressor. It has no power to pardon, save, or restore, but can only condemn, and pardon comes only through Christ who lived the law in humanity. Grace, which is Christ's character, does not abolish the law of God.
God's law is the foundation of His government in heaven as well as on earth. It is so sacred and unchangeable that not one jot or tittle, not one precept, could be altered to meet man in his fallen condition. Therefore Christ had to clothe His divinity with humanity and by His death meet its claims and make it possible for people to be restored to the favor Adam lost. Even the life of an angel could not be accepted as a sacrifice for its transgression.
By passing over the same ground where Adam fell and coming off conqueror, Christ disproved Satan's declaration that no man after Adam could keep God's law. Adam's disobedience had given occasion for that claim and left men following Adam's example and believing the law could not be kept. Christ's holy lifelong obedience, rendered as a man tempted as a man and not by a special power of His divine nature that man cannot share, proves by actual fact that man can keep the commandments. That testimony stands before unfallen worlds and fallen humanity that men can keep the law through divine power granted from heaven, placing them on trial to teach them obedience in His own nature.
Christ's work did not give people license to keep breaking God's law, for He never becomes a party to sin. His suffering was meant to lead them to repentance and obedience, bearing the penalty of the law for past transgressions and giving the sinner another chance, a second trial, opening the way to be reinstated in God's favor. His blood and His imputed righteousness avail only for those who return to allegiance to God and obey the law they have violated. That imputed righteousness brings in everlasting righteousness, makes reconciliation for sin and makes an end of sin, so believers are complete in Christ and can stand before a holy, sin-hating God without His curse, yet the same gift exacts obedience from those who receive it so they do not continue in sin, for righteousness means conformity to its enduring requirements.
Doing the very thing the Lord told not to do is disobedience and transgression even when it seems small. Adam's disobedience was simply going directly contrary to God's express command without considering consequences, and its greatness lies not in the act itself, for disobedience of God's expressed will is a virtual denial of God and refusal of His government no matter how small the act appears. The same principle that decided whether Adam ate decides the Sabbath question, where what day is kept makes every difference. True happiness is found only in obedience to the law of God as the hedge He placed about His vineyard to protect from evil.
What was lost through disobedience must be brought back by obedience. That restoration is connected with keeping the commandments, loving God with all the heart, soul, strength and mind and loving neighbor as self. Entering eternal life requires following Christ as the true Shepherd and leader and doing as He did, walking in the light of God's perfect rule and standard in order to be brought back to the Eden home.
Obedience Enabled in Life
Through His strength people may obey, overcome temptation, share in the divine nature, live without sin, and receive eternal life. His life in human flesh shows what God can do for them and what they can do in cooperation with God, for He rendered the obedience required of humanity without relying on a special power unavailable to people, and people overcome only as divine power works through humanity by faith. As the second Adam He took human nature and faced the ground on which Adam failed, and though tempted as humans are He lived without sin, redeemed Adam's failure, worked out a perfect character for humanity, and proved that through God's power human beings can live without sin. He overcame the enemy in every point under humanity's temptations and trials, disproved Satan's claim that people could not keep God's law, and faced temptation a hundredfold more strongly than will ever come upon the race.
His obedient life is the example humanity must live, for He lived the law in human life with perfect obedience to all God's commandments and left that life as a sample to all upon the earth. He conquered Satan in behalf of weak humanity as man's representative, bearing for man the test Adam failed to endure and resting wholly on the power of God against the wily foe, without yielding on one point. His obedience carries the conflict for man, guarantees the plan of salvation will be fulfilled, takes away Satan's power and makes his destruction certain, elevates and ennobles humanity by His merits, and makes it possible through His name and grace to overcome the degradation of the fall and be linked to the Infinite. His triumph in the wilderness where Adam had failed redeems Adam's disgraceful failure, brings salvation within humanity's reach, provides an example of temperance, and makes divine grace and strength available so people can resist temptation and overcome in His name. All must travel His path of self-denial and daily cross-bearing to overcome as He overcame and sit with Him on His throne, for the life He lived in meeting temptations without swerving from allegiance and resisting every claim that sinners can be saved in their sins is the example humanity must live, with His righteousness distinctly made apparent in overcoming every temptation.
Guilty people cannot redeem themselves or do good by their own power, having sold themselves to the enemy of all righteousness, yet through Him they can return to loyalty. He became humanity's substitute and surety, took human nature, stood at the head of the fallen race, faced the temptations on the ground where Adam fell without turning from allegiance, met the claims against people enslaved by sin, and conquered on their behalf to give them a position from which they may return to loyalty to God by keeping His law. He secures their opportunity for salvation, gives the sinner another chance and second trial, bears the penalty of the law for past transgressions, opens the way to be reinstated in favor, and calls them from transgression to obedience to a personal Saviour. His blood and imputed righteousness avail only for those who return to allegiance and obey the law they violated, for He never becomes a party to sin; that gift brings everlasting righteousness, makes reconciliation and an end of sin, makes believers complete so they can stand before a holy sin-hating God without the curse, yet exacts obedience so that looking to Him for deliverance they owe obedience and do not continue in sin. Faith and obedience through His merits open the way to the city of God and the heavenly reward, giving moral power to overcome sin.
The Father in giving His Son to live and die placed all the treasures of heaven at human disposal to give strength to withstand temptation, so there is no excuse for sin. His sacrifice on Calvary gives a whole Saviour with sufficient grace and power to work away from natural defects and tendencies and to advance in the divine life, so no one may excuse failure to live rightly by saying they are not guilty of Adam's sin or responsible for it and cannot help acting out what is in them, and pleading inability casts reproach on God and denies what He has provided. Through obedience to God's law and faith in Christ, begun as soon as man transgressed, the lost image is regained. Although God did not give a new order of energies and passions nor implant sinful propensities, a bias to evil followed the fall, yet through cultivation of righteous principles in and through grace bestowed by heaven, obedience gives victory over that bias, the warped senses and perverted faculties are restored, words, thoughts and energies are purified, a new character is formed, and the debasement of sin is overcome. Through His sacrificial life sinners may have sins washed away and be purified for heaven, for receiving Him by faith gives power to become children of God, partakers of the divine nature connected with God and Christ on vantage ground, enabled by His example and grace to live as God's children. Being made righteous means walking in the path of implicit obedience as the only path of safety, close to the Redeemer with converted body and soul in harmony with God's laws, daily receiving renovating grace as an overcomer, made rich by title to an immortal inheritance and resting in full and free salvation, imperishable wealth, and eternal weight of glory; what Adam lost through disobedience can be won back through obedience, for those purchased by humiliation and suffering and redeemed from the enemy's power are placed where obedience is again possible, belong to God in body and spirit, and are to glorify Him by reaching His standard, living thankful where blessing and peace dwell in the heart.
Through taking human nature into Himself He wrought redemption by obedience to all God's commandments, so that fallen people by faith may be brought into oneness with Him, share His divine-human life, be united with God in Him, and be made complete. Having clothed divinity with humanity to associate with the fallen race and stand at its head, He by His own merits elevates man to be a partaker of the divine nature, since man can accomplish nothing without God. He redeemed Adam's failure on the point of appetite, for Adam by disobedience to express commands fell from an upright, perfectly holy and happy condition, lost divine favor, destroyed his own happiness, and plunged the race into hopeless misery and despair, while Christ with divinity clothed in humanity passed over the same ground, bore the test Adam failed, and overcame every temptation of Satan to save men from perishing. His long fast and single-handed conflict with the prince of darkness in the wilderness decided man's salvation, broke Satan's power, revealed the power of appetite over human nature, showed how sinful debased appetite is and how strongly it controls humanity, and belongs to His work in temperance by which man was given a second trial.
Restoration reaches fathers, mothers, children, and future generations, for He restores the moral image of God and reshapes character, and that reaches the family when a mother turns from disloyalty to obedience and teaches her children to follow in her footsteps, undoing the inheritance of disobedience, guilt, and death. Had fallen men followed His example of steadfast purity and righteousness they would have given their children and children's children an improving heritage instead of deterioration, perfected faultless characters as God requires, and left results to future generations until the world became as Eden instead of a desert of sin. Adam and Christ will meet in Paradise, while those who reject opportunities given at great cost and refuse loyalty will be excluded. He came and lived obedience to prove false Satan's claim that not one soul would keep the commandments, so that even one soul saved demonstrates the righteousness of God's government; because man created in God's image must not be left for Satan to rule and ruin, by His obedience He showed man can obey, canceled guilt, and clothed Himself with the robe of sorrow so the sinner can stand before God clothed with the robe of righteousness.