# “Jesus Himself establishes and opens the gates of the kingdom through His perfect obedience” by Brandon Crowe

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2018/05/15/jesus-himself-establishes-and-opens-the-gates-of-the-kingdom-through-his-perfect-obedience-by-brandon-crowe/
- Published: 2018-05-15T12:00:52-05:00
- Author: tollelege

“As we conclude, I submit that we do indeed find much good news in the Gospels by
focusing on the life of Jesus unto salvation. As the last Adam, Jesus vicariously
realizes the obedience necessary for eternal life, overcoming the problem of sin
and death.

One would need many, many volumes to discuss the grace that is manifested to us 
through Jesus Christ; indeed, I suppose that the whole world would not be able to
contain the books that could be written. I finish, then, with a few brief reflections
on the wonders of the grace of Jesus Christ that is revealed in the Gospels.

In the Gospels we see that Jesus accomplishes the righteousness that characterizes
the kingdom of God, and this righteousness is a gift. The kingdom demands a better
righteousness than that of the scribes and Pharisees for those who would enter it(
Matt. 5:20), yet it is also the Father’s good pleasure to grant the kingdom (Luke
12:32).

The stringency in entering the kingdom is ultimately answered by the full obedience
of Jesus Himself, who establishes and opens the gates of the kingdom through His
perfect obedience—both active and passive. Jesus shows us the unity of obedience
and love that the covenantal law of God always required.

Jesus’s people, then, must be united to Him by faith, and so receive the blessings
of salvation through the work of the last Adam. By following in the righteous steps
of the Messiah, we learn how to truly love God and love our neighbor.

Jesus is definitively and representatively obedient as the last Adam and Son of 
God, and His people are obedient in a derivative sense, through faith in Him. Jesus
is the mediator of the new covenant, which is sealed in His blood.

The full measure of the law has been met, and the penalty of sin has been overcome
through Jesus’s death and resurrection. Our faith and hope must therefore be in 
Jesus Christ, who has proven obedient on our behalf.

I conclude with the confidence expressed by New Testament scholar J. Gresham Machen.
As he lay dying in a North Dakota hospital, Machen’s last recorded words came via
telegram: ‘_I’m so thankful for the active obedience of Christ. No hope without 
it_.’

Machen’s hope is gloriously narrated for us in the Fourfold Gospel, where we read
of salvation accomplished by the fully obedient last Adam. As Jesus delighted to
do His Father’s will, may we delight to trust in and follow a gracious Savior.”

–Brandon Crowe, [_The Last Adam: A Theology of the Obedient Life of Jesus in the Gospel_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/080109626X?tag=toletaupanre-20)(
Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2017), 214-215.

More on [salvation](https://tollelege.net/category/salvation/)