For this submission, I focus on Romans 5:19 as it relates to the question of whether the Lord Jesus was impeccable or peccable. While there is a generalized consensus and support for impeccability there are significant questions needing to be answered. One of those is on the topic of obedience. Was Jesus’s obedience compelled or voluntary?
I will present Jesus as the obedient Son who voluntarily obeyed, but not due to an impeccable human nature. Rather, Christ overcame the act of Adam’s disobedience, by obedience, as Paul records. Schaff makes this clear, “Had he been endowed from the start with absolute impeccability… he could not be a true man, nor our model for imitation…” Sproul accounted that if Jesus’s obedience be from an impeccable nature, his temptations are a charade. First, I will give definition to the terms “disobedience” and “obedience” in Romans 5:19. Paul’s words here, ὑπακοή (obedience) and παρακοή (disobedience) will provide a proper understanding of Paul’s intended usage and sense of these words and examine other Pauline letters to avoid unintentionally application and examine other passages utilizing these words in conjunction with one another.
I will thematically trace Romans 1-5 as the text will need to be understood in its literary context. Then, I will identify how Romans 5:19 fits together with the immediately surrounding verses and paragraphs keeping Paul’s theme of Justification center.
Finally, I will turn to Paul’s typological pattern. It is here that a significant press of Jesus’s role as the better Adam is a fulfilment and escalation of Adam’s role. As Adam was tempted, so Christ was tempted, and if there was no ability for Christ to sin, then his temptation, and the typological pattern given by Paul, is unreal.