Why Did Jesus Live a Perfect Life?:
The Necessity of Christ’s Obedience for Our Salvation
DETAILS:
Publisher: Baker Academic
Publication Date: October 26, 2021
Format: Paperback
Length: 189 pg.
Read Date: December 19-26, 2021
What’s Why Did Jesus Have to Live a Perfect Life? About?
Crowe seeks to focus on this question:
Is perfect obediencce necessary for enternal life?
The question could be rephrased a number of ways; Is perfect obedience necessary for justification? Is perfect obedience necessary for salvation? Did Jesus have to be perfectly obedient in order to save us? And if so, why?
Obviously, he says it is necessary—noting that we’ll underplay and miss all of what Christ did on our behalf and that we’d end up putting too much importance on our own works.
After Crowe establishes the question and ensures that the reader understands the definitions he’s using for the key terms, he turns to the Biblical text for some exegetical looks at key texts. This is, as it should be, the bulk of the book. In the third part of the book, he moves on to practical application—given what’s been said about the necessity of Christ’s perfect obedience, what’s the place of/need of the obedience and good works of the believer?
So, what did I think about Why Did Jesus Have to Live a Perfect Life??
I appreciated Crowe’s approach to the topic of Christ’s obedience—and, as usual, found his study of the texts to be helpful and challenging. The place of works in the Christian life too often is pitted against the obedience of Christ, or tied to it in an unbiblical fashion–Crowe’s discussion was more than helpful and I wish I saw more works like it.
A couple of highlights from the book for me were that third part about obedience and the last chapter in the exegetical part. In that chapter, Crowe examines the connection between Jesus’s obedience and the resurrection. That discussion tied in nicely to his 2020 book, The Hope of Israel: The Resurrection of Christ in the Acts of the Apostles (one of those books I still think about).
This is a careful overview of the topic, and will reward a similarly careful read. By design, he doesn’t posit anything revolutionary or new—it’s a restatement and reminder of what Reformation churches have been teaching for centuries. Even so, it’s something we need to be reminded of.
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