Christ's Life or Death?

From Pastor Tullian...

I’m becoming increasingly concerned about the neglect of Christ’s active obedience in the so-called “Young, Restless, and Reformed” crowd–of which I am a happy part. There’s a lot of talk about “Cross-Centeredness” as if the death of Christ (his passive obedience) is more important than the life of Christ (his active obedience). The truth is, however, that our redemption depends not only on Christ’s substitutionary death, but his substitutionary life as well. Christ’s life is just as central to our rescue as his death. Apart from his law fulfilling life, there is NO righteousness to impute. As I’ve said before, we are not saved apart from the law. Rather, we are saved in Christ who perfectly kept the law on our behalf. This is nothing new…it’s been a stamp of historic Reformed theological conviction for centuries!

So, Christ’s death is not the center of the Gospel anymore than Christ’s life is the center of the Gospel. One without the other fails to bring about redemption. It’s much more theologically accurate to say that Christ himself is the center of the Gospel. I think this is a really big deal. And the practical life implications of this neglect are disastrous.