By Jonathan Keller
He is risen! This weekend we celebrated the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, who reigns over those who inherit eternal life through Him. Thinking about the importance of His life in light of the Ten Commandments, it is helpful to remember that He fulfilled all righteousness, including the Ten Commandments we reviewed over the past few months. How did He do it, though? How could a man keep all God’s commandments?
Spirit-Empowered Life
Lest we jump ahead of ourselves and say that Jesus fulfilled the Law because He is God, we must remember that He is a man. He is the God-man, and that means that He is a man. Like us, He experienced temptations. Like us, He tired and slept. Like us, He ate and drank. Like us, He grew in age and wisdom.
If we claim that His virgin birth excepts Him from sin, we also miss the work of His obedience. It is true that the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit allowed Him to be born without the sin of Adam, the corruption seen from Cain and Noah’s day all the way to ours. That sinlessness had to be demonstrated for the glory of God; righteousness could not just be a theological given but had to be shown for all to see. In His mercy, in His care toward the downtrodden, in His training His disciples, and more, He showed His righteousness. How? By the Holy Spirit.
The same Spirit that gave life at creation and now empowers us as Christians to walk in righteousness is that same Spirit in communion with Jesus from eternity into the incarnation. If His Spirit enabled Him to walk in all righteousness, keeping the commandments in their measures, how would His Spirit withdraw from us that same enabling power?
Let us see our exalted and risen Lord and chase after Him by walking in the same Spirit in which He walked on this earth!