Christ's Vicarious Obedience

“[Jesus’] entire experience was lived out both as a private person in his own right and also on our behalf and in our place…Our Lord’s obedience reaches back over the course of his whole life, so every part and every facet of that life was lived for us. Not only did his redemptive suffering on the cross happen in place of us but so did his agonizing sorrow in Gethsemane, his wholehearted trust in God and his prayer to the Father…When he was baptized by John the Baptist, a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins, he transparently did it on our behalf rather than on his own. It fulfilled all righteousness, being prospective of the cross itself. Thus his faith as well as his obedience was vicarious…If Christ’s whole life was vicarious, every aspect of piety was on our behalf and in our place. It is his faith, his obedience, his faithfulness, his prayer that avails for us. As our great high priest, he offers up worship and praise acceptable to a holy God, the fruit of a life of perfect faithfulness, flawless and pure. By virtue of that perfect intercession we are acceptable to God, having been bought by the grace of God to entrust ourselves into his hands. We therefore have full and open access to God precisely because Christ himself ahs full and open access to God. It is fully and only in Christ’s mediation that we have such confidence to know that the way is open” (Robert Letham, The Work of Christ, 117-118).