The Lord Jesus' sacrifice as God's Lamb is able to save sinners because He is morally perfect and totally obedient to His Father.
Not only so, but Christ was obedient in being slain! His perfect obedience continued right up to, and through, His dying for us.
Our perfect Lamb, obedient and never straying, did not stray even in His death. Even in His punishment for us, He was obedient!
Animal sacrifices, on the other hand, are not obedient in their deaths, but are helpless, weak, and unable to escape it.
Not so the Lord Jesus! He had all the power in the world to escape death, and the authority from His Father as to whether to lay down His life. He was obedient in dying to save us in a way no animal sacrifice ever could be.
But, Jesus was also obedient in His resurrection! He had the power to take up His life again, and He was obedient in doing so.
God had promised Messiah's body would not see corruption. Because of Christ's obedience in the resurrection, God's promise was upheld.
In Isaiah 53, God promised Messiah that, after His offering for sin, He would give Messiah long days, a great people, and the rule over His kingdom. It was necessary that Christ be obedient in the resurrection, so that God's promises to Him could be fulfilled.
Christ's obedience in the resurrection was necessary so that His moral purity would be upheld. He had to rise again in order to keep His many promises to friend and foe alike.
He promised His enemies that, when they destroyed His body, in three days He would rise again. Not only must He keep that promise to fulfill the sign, but His own people's faith was vindicated by Christ's obedience in the resurrection. |
