Active and Passive Obedience

[Wayne]

What is the earliest instance of the phrase "the active and passive obedience" of Christ?

Reading this evening in Flavel's The Fountain of Life (1671), and he employs the phrase, "the active and passive obedience":

He went through all the parts of his active, and passive obedience, cheerfully and faithfully."

- Works, vol. 1, p. 58.

Which had me wondering who came up with this expression. A Google search limited between 1000 A.D. and 1670 A.D. produced only these results:

1658
Hudson, Samuel, A vindication of the essence and unity of the church-catholick visible, and ...‎ - Page 66

"... visibly performed, his active and passive obedience were visible, and multitude of benefits that the external Ca- ..."

1659
Gell, Robert, An Essay toward the Amendment of the last English-Translation of the Bible ...‎ - Page 147

"...The Text here mentions nothing at all, it speaks not one syllable of the active and passive obedience of Christ, his suffering, or death ; but onely of a ..."

1660
Ussher, James, The whole works of the most Rev. James Ussher...: with a life of the author...‎ - Page 144

"...I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil it.' And he fulfilled it to the utmost, both in his active and passive obedience. Now for his active obedience,"

[two other entries returned for Ussher, but probably the same sermon]

Wilkinson, Henry, Three decades of sermons, lately preached to the university ...: in Oxford‎ - Page 111

"Christ by his active and passive obedience made full, ..."

As far as I remember, the Westminster Confession speaks of Christ's "perfect obedience" but does not employ the expanded phrase "active and passive obedience".

 

[VictorBravo]

I ran across a reference to "passive obedience" in Turretin, Volume 2, p. 448. That's about the same time frame as the other references you listed.

 

[DMcFadden]

John Gill, somewhat later than your citations, referenced it at least 9x in his Doctrinal and Practical Divinity:

So that it cannot be perfectly fulfilled by man in this his sinful and fallen state; and therefore he cannot be justified before God by the deeds of it; since it requires a perfect righteousness: and happy for man it is, that there is such a righteousness revealed in the gospel, manifested without the law, though witnessed to by law and prophets, even the righteousness of Christ, consisting of his active and passive obedience; who is the end, the fulfilling end, of the law for righteousness, to everyone that believes.

In his Christian’s Reasonable Service, à Brakel (1635-1711) says:

Nevertheless these two aspects of His humiliation— the atonement for guilt and punishment, and the meriting of eternal life— are not identical, but essentially differ from each other. The active and passive obedience of Christ are equally beneficial to the elect.

George Whitefield, writing a bit later, employed the phrase in at least three of his sermons 3, 14, and 40.

The Lord Jesus Christ is our righteousness; and if we are accepted with God, it must be only in and through the personal righteousness, the active and passive obedience, of Jesus Christ his beloved Son.

John Flavel (1627–1691) used the phrase in the Method of Grace and at least 5x in his Fountain of Life:

And at last his out was made an offering for sin, so that he could say as it is, John 17 : 4. “Father, I have glorified thee on earth, I have finished the work thou gavest me to do.” He went through all the parts of his active, and passive obedience, cheerfully and faithfully.

John Owen (1616 –1683) writes:

And herein I shall not immix myself in the debate of the distinction between the active and passive obedience of Christ; for he exercised the highest active obedience in his suffering, when he offered himself to God through the eternal Spirit.

A later Puritan, Thomas Boston (1676-1732) cab be seen using the term at least 6x:

By his active and passive obedience, he glorified the holiness and justice of God; by his humility, the power and sovereignty of God; and by his trust and confidence, the divine faithfulness and veracity. All which must needs render his sacrifice a sweet smelling savour to God, and efficacious for men.

 

[Scott1]

Most of these references seem to be adjectives jointly describing "obedience," that is, it seems they both describe what "obedience" is, rather than distinguishing it.

Grammatically, more like, "a big red house" is one house- not two separate ones- one being big, the other being red.

That might be why the Westminster Standards do not really distinguish them as two different concepts but refer to "obedience" or "perfect obedience."

E.g. [emphasis added]

Westminster Confession of Faith

Chapter XI
Of Justification

I. Those whom God effectually calls, He also freely justifies;234 not by infusing righteousness into them,
but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous; not for any thing
wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ's sake alone; nor by imputing faith itself, the act of
believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them, as their righteousness; but by imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ unto them,235 they receiving and resting on Him and His righteousness by faith;
which faith they have not of themselves, it is the gift of God.236

....

 

[KMK]

Could it have originated in the Savoy of 1658?

11:1 Those whom God effectually calleth, he also freely justifieth; not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous; not for anything wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ's sake alone; nor by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them, as their righteousness; but by imputing Christ's active obedience to the whole law, and passive obedience in his death for their whole and sole righteousness, they receiving and resting on him and his righteousness by faith; which faith they have not of themselves, it is the gift of God.

 

[Wayne]

Ken:

As the Samuel Hudson quote was also 1658, my guess for now would lean towards the idea that a division of the perfect obedience of Christ into His active and passive obedience (in good Ramean fashion) is a post-Westminster phenomenon.

 

[Prufrock]

Wayne, are you looking for that English phrase explicitly? Of English authors, it was used at least by Perkins in 1595 in his work on the Apostle's Creed, though I'm sure it could have been used earlier. The question is far older than that.

 

[Wayne]

Paul:

I would have thought it older. Can you provide a citation for Perkins without much trouble? Otherwise I'll look myself later this week.
For the moment it is almost a trivia matter for me, but in many cases original discussion should inform and guide subsequent usage.

 

[Prufrock]

Obviously it's not "English," but here is Piscator:

Errant igitur qui putant, vitam nobis esse partam per sanctam vitam Christi, quam non nulli vocant obedientiam activam: sicut alteram illam nominant obedientiam passivam, p.128 of the 1595 printing of Analysis Logica Epistolae Pauli Ad Romanos (1589 original).​

For an actual English usage, here is Perkins:

The end of the passion, is that God might bring to passe a worke in which he might more fully manifest his justice and mercie, then he did in the creation, and that is, the reconciliation betweene God and man. And heremember with the passion to joine the active obedience of Christ in fulfilling the law; for Christ in suffering obeyed, and in obeying suffered. And they must be jointly conceived together for this cause. In reconciliation with God, two things are required: the remooving of sin in regard of the guilt, of the fault, and the punishment, and the conferring or giving of righteousnesse. Now the passion of Christ considered apart from his legall obedience, onely takes away the guilt & punishment, frees man from death, and makes him of a sinner to be no sinner: and that he may be fully reconciled to God, and accepted as righteous to life everlasting, the legall obedience of Christ must also be imputed. And therefore in the Scriptures, where all our redemption is ascribed to the death and passion of Christ, this very obedience which stands in the perfect love of God and man must be included and not excluded. (p. 186 of An Exposition of the Apostles' Creed, 1616 edition [1595 original])​

 

[Wayne]

Thank you, Paul. This would appear to put Piscator in the running as author of the phrase, at least for the moment.

 

[Prufrock]

I would be highly surprised if he were the first to use the phrase [I only cited him as I had recently read him and remembered the phraseology]; in the Protestant churches especially, even from its earliest days, the concept was taught of Christ's obedience comprising both his active fulfilling of the law's demands and his passive fulfilling of its curse; off the top of my head, I can't think of the exact phrase "active obedience" or "passive obedience" being used in Calvin, Bullinger, Martyr, etc., but I would be surprised if it weren't used at least by their immediate successors.

 

[Christusregnat]

Also, Piscator says that "not a few call it the active obedience" (non nulli vocant obedientiam activam), which indicates a current of thought.

My guess? Beza may have been influential in its formulation, which would explain:

1. Why Perkins believed in it.


2. Why many had come to believe in it (due to Beza's influence).

Yet another reason for more of Beza to be translated out of Latin.

Cheers,

 

[Prufrock]

Adam, Beza certainly teaches that Christ's obedience consists of both active and passive aspects; but I don't know that he uses the *terms.* He may.

 

[Backwoods Presbyterian]

Also, Piscator says that "not a few call it the active obedience" (non nulli vocant obedientiam activam), which indicates a current of thought.

My guess? Beza may have been influential in its formulation, which would explain:

1. Why Perkins believed in it.


2. Why many had come to believe in it (due to Beza's influence).

Yet another reason for more of Beza to be translated out of Latin.

Cheers,

Seriously. Anyone here willing do a Ph.D on Beza and make translation the center of your work?

 

[Christusregnat]

Seriously. Anyone here willing do a Ph.D on Beza and make translation the center of your work?

If you have friends with money, let me know; I'd be doing my Beza translation full time. As it is, I'm only working on one book, and that for a mere Master's program. I'm hoping that some of these translations will turn into profitable or semi-profitable publications, in which case I would have more time to work on publications.

Cheers,

 

[Christusregnat]

Adam, Beza certainly teaches that Christ's obedience consists of both active and passive aspects; but I don't know that he uses the *terms.* He may.

Generally, so far as I have found, Beza uses "actively" rather than the specific term. Here's a loose translation:


tum quatenus activè consideratur, nempe ut plena & numeris omnibus absoluta utriusque tabulae illius
then so far as it is consider actively, certainly as satisfied & the sum total of all being acquitted from both tables from
praestatio, aeternae vitae compotes fiant
his payment, everlasting life they have been made partakers of.

This is from

APOLOGIA PRO IUSTIFICATIONE PER UNIUS CHRISTI VIVA FIDE APPREHENSI IUSTITIAM GRATIS IMPUTATAM by Theodore Beza