“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the Name that is above every name, that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is LORD, to the glory of God the Father.”

Philippians 2:5-11

Today is the day between Good Friday and Easter. Yesterday we celebrated the death of the LORD Jesus Christ on the cross as atonement for our sin. Tomorrow we rejoice in the Resurrection of our LORD from death. The grave could not hold Him. He triumphed over it becoming the first fruits of the resurrection. In Him we are raised to abundant and eternal life.

Today is the day between those two events. It is Holy Saturday, a day for meditation on what all this means. In the Introduction to Machen’s book God Transcendent, Ned Stonehouse writes regarding a telegram written by Machen’s nurse to John Murray on the day before Machen’s death. “I am so thankful for active obedience of Christ; no hope without it.” (Machen, J. Gresham, God Transcendent, The Banner of Truth Trust, Edinburgh, 1982, p.14).

Here is where our hope finds its anchor. As Paul writes to the Philippians He was obedient to the death on the cross. We have not hope without this active obedience of the LORD Jesus Christ. John Calvin expounds upon this at length in His Institutes. Here is a sample meditation to guide us in our reflections today.

"Now someone asks, How has Christ abolished sin, banished the separation between us and God, and acquired righteousness to render God favourable and kindly toward us? To this we can in general reply that he has achieved this for us by the whole course of his obedience. This is proved by Paul’s testimony: “As by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man’s obedience we are made righteous” [Romans 5:19]. In another passage, to be sure, Paul extends the basis of the pardon that frees us from the curse of the law to the whole life of Christ: “But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, subject to the law, to redeem those who were under the law” [Galatians 4:4-5]. Thus in his very baptism, also, he asserted that he fulfilled a part of righteousness in obediently carrying out his Father’s commandment [Matthew 3:15]. In short, from the time when he took on the form of a servant, he began to pay the price of liberation in order to redeem us.

Yet to define the way of salvation more exactly, Scripture ascribes this as peculiar and proper to Christ’s death. He declares that “he gave his life to redeem many” [Matthew 20:28]. Paul teaches that “Christ died for our sins” [Romans 4:25]. John the Baptist proclaimed that he came “to take away the sins of the world,” for he was “the Lamb of God” [John 1:29]. In another passage Paul teaches that “we are freely justified through the redemption which is in Christ, because he was put forward as a reconciler in his blood” [Romans 3:24-25]. Likewise: “We are …justified by his blood …and reconciled …through his death.” [Romans 5:9-10.] Again: “For our sake he who knew no sin was made sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” [2 Corinthians 5:21] I shall not pursue all the testimonies, for the list would be endless, and many of them will be referred to in their order. For this reason the so-called “Apostles’ Creed” passes at once in the best order from the

birth of Christ to his death and resurrection, wherein the whole of perfect salvation consists. Yet the remainder of the obedience that he manifested in his life is not excluded. Paul embraces it all from beginning to end: “He emptied himself, taking the form of a servant …and was obedient to the Father unto death, even death on a cross”

- Calvin's Institutes 2.16.5