The Death of Disobedience in the Death of Christ

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

Romans 6:3

When Jesus died 2,000 years ago, the effects of His death were incalculable. The effects of His death were incalculable in that He died for people of every tribe, nation, and language, to the utmost corners of the world, far as the curse is found. The effects of His death were incalculable in that what His death has done for each individual who trusts in Him will have ripple effects to eternity. And the effects of His death were incalculable in that His death produces numerous changes in the life of each individual who trusts in Him.

For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Matthew 12:40

During His lifetime, one of the ways that Jesus foretold His death was by comparing it to how the Old Testament prophet Jonah was swallowed by a fish. In the same way that Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of a fish, Jesus, the Son of Man, would spend three days and three nights buried in the heart of the earth. In other words, what Jesus is saying is that He's going to die, be buried, and then rise from the grave after three days.

Of all the illustrations that He could have used to describe His death and resurrection, why does Jesus use the illustration of Jonah being swallowed by a fish? This compelled me to look again at the story of Jonah, specifically with this question in mind: "How can this story better help me understand what Jesus accomplished through His death and resurrection?"

The story of Jonah begins in chapter 1:

Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me." But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.

Jonah 1:1-3

What's the point of these first three verses? Jonah is disobedient. God commands Jonah to do something, but Jonah doesn't do it. God commands Jonah to go in a certain direction, but Jonah goes somewhere else. Jonah is disobedient.

Now, look with me at the beginning of chapter 3:

Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you." So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD.

Jonah 3:1-3

What's the point of these three verses? Jonah is obedient! God commands Jonah to do the very same thing that He commanded him to do back at the beginning of chapter one. Think about this: it's the very same command! And, this time, Jonah obeys!

And what happened in between the beginning of chapter 1 and the beginning of chapter 3 to transform Jonah from disobedient to obedient?

And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights...And the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.

Jonah 1:17, 2:10

The decisive event that brought about Jonah's transformation from disobedient to obedient was the three days and three nights that he spent in the belly of a fish. And just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a great fish, the Son of Man was three days and three nights in the heart of the earth (Matthew 12:40). What does this teach us about what Jesus accomplished through His death and resurrection?

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

Romans 6:4

The story of Jonah foreshadows the death and resurrection of Christ. Before Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of the fish, his life as communicated to us in the Bible was one of responding to God in disobedience. But after being vomited out on dry land by the command of God speaking to the fish (the glory of the Father in Romans 6:4!), we most certainly see a newness of life in Jonah: He responds to God in obedience. Spending three days and three nights in the belly of a fish brought him from disobedience to obedience!

This shows us that one of the reasons Jesus died was so that when we put our faith in Him, we would share in His death, burial, and resurrection. Not in a literal sense but in the sense that we would, like Jonah, be brought through this spiritual experience of death, burial, and resurrection from disobedience to obedience.

Paul tells the Ephesian church that they "were dead in the trespasses and since in which you once walked following...the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience--among whom we all once lived" (Ephesians 2:1-3, emphasis added). Apart from Christ, we all walk in a certain kind of life. It's a life marked by disobedience. It may not be the outrageous, flagrant kind of disobedience that lives in shameless rebellion. For some of us, it's a subtle, quiet kind of disobedience that on the surface parades as being good but deep down pursues the agenda of self rather than the agenda of God. Apart from Christ, we are all sons of disobedience.

And what we deserve as a result of this disobedience is the wrath of God, which is why another way Paul describes the Ephesians apart from Christ is as "children of wrath, like the rest of mankind" (Ephesians 2:3).

When Jesus died, one of the main things His death accomplished was to take upon Himself the wrath of God that we all deserved.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us--for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree"

Galatians 3:13

After living a life of perfect obedience, Jesus died in our place so that instead of being cursed by God we would be accepted by God on account of His obedience, not ours (2 Corinthians 5:21).

But Jesus didn't just live, die, and rise again in order to perform the perfect obedience to God that we couldn't. Jesus lived, died, and rose again in order to make it possible for us to obey God as His adopted children (Ephesians 5:1-2). He died so that we could go from being sons of disobedience who walk in trespasses and sins to resurrected sons who walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4).

For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Romans 8:3-4 (emphasis added)

Does walking in this newness of life (Romans 6:4), walking according to the Spirit (Romans 8:4) mean that we will no longer disobey? That we will always walk in perfect obedience? Of course not. The story of Jonah shows us that even after spending three days and three nights in the belly of a fish, Jonah still struggled at times with having desires, attitudes, and behaviors that weren't fully in submission to God (Jonah 4:1-2, 9-11). But the trajectory of his life had significantly changed.

The cross doesn't take away the need for us to obey God. The cross makes it possible for us to obey God. God's standards haven't changed. He still demands and requires our obedience. And the only reason obedience to God is possible is because of the death of disobedience in the death of Christ, which happened decisively 2,000 years ago and will be brought to its perfect completion when Jesus comes back one day soon.

For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Matthew 12:40

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

Romans 6:3-4

Do you even have a clue what happened to you when He died?
When that tomb got rolled when He rose in the sky
...
When Jesus died in our lives something strange happened

--Flame, from verse 2 of the song "Make War" by Tedashii