Today’s Scripture: Romans 5:19

“By the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.”

How can Jesus take our place both in obeying God’s law and in suffering the consequences of our disobeying it? How can the innocent suffer for the guilty?

Because God appointed Adam as the federal head or legal representative of the entire human race (except for Jesus, of course), we all suffered the consequences of Adam’s disobedience. In the same manner, Jesus was appointed as the legal representative of all who would ever trust in him.

This legal representation is the basis on which Christ’s life and death become effective for us. There would be absolutely no benefit to us if Jesus lived and died merely as a private person. His work brings us benefit only because he lived and died as our representative.

Paul used again and again the expressions in Christ, in Him, and in the Lord, referring to our union with Christ. In a spiritual but nevertheless real way we’re united to him, both legally and vitally. This “legal union” is the basis on which we can say Christ lived and died as our representative and substitute.

Paul has this in view when he wrote that we were crucified with Christ, died with him, were buried with him, were made spiritually alive with him, and will ultimately be united with him in his resurrection (see Galatians 2:20; Romans 6:4-5,10; Ephesians 2:5). All that Christ did in his life and death is effective for us because we’re legally united to him.

Therefore we can accurately say that when Jesus lived a perfect life, we lived a perfect life. When he died on the cross to suffer the penalty of sin, we died on the cross. All that Jesus did, we did, because of our legal union with him.

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