As we read this letter from Peter, remember that each word is colored by things which he had experienced. Ie. there were negative things, like his denial of Christ, when the Lord was being questioned and tortured. And then there were his foolish suggestion to build three memorials to commemorate transfiguration; his walking on water, followed by his near-drowning; his refusal to agree with the Lord about the upcoming crucifixion; his condemnation of strangers serving Jehovah but not while in the company of Christ. And there was his question about the future of John in relation to his own. On the other side of the coin there were a dozen or more positive things as well. Things like the miracle of the healing of his wife’s mother, and several other miracles in which he was personally involved. Every once in a while he opened his mouth and good things proceeded out of it. Certain events must have come back to Peter as he later labored to bring glory to his Saviour.
Peter shows us what sort of people Christians ought to be when thinking of the Lord Jesus. Previous to our salvation we were fools in sin – like pigs in a mud puddle. For example, before my conversion I would hear about evangelist Billy Graham, thinking he was the fool. But later the Lord saved me; He rescued me from the disaster to which I was headed. And how was it that He rescued me? By picking up the punishment for my sins, putting them on His back and bearing them to the place of execution which had been reserved under my name. He pushed me aside and climbed up on the cross where I should have been there.
Two of the greatest Bible verses on Jesus’ substitution for the sinner were written by Peter. Did the Holy Spirit put them into his mind using past events as the catalyst? Did Peter say, “I was there. I saw what Jesus did for my redemption?” I Peter 2:24 – “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness, by whose stripes we are healed.” And then there is our scripture in chapter 3.
I hope that the members of Calvary Baptist Church never tire of hearing of Jesus’ death. I wish that we were more faithful and consistent in bringing the lost to our morning service each week to hear about another aspect of Jesus’ sacrifice. I plan to finish this message and this verse this evening, praying that lost souls will be here. “I love to tell the story; more beautiful it seems, than all the golden fancies, of all our golden dreams.”
Let’s join Peter in thinking about the fact: “Christ also hath once SUFFERED….”
Some time ago I listened to a couple of people talking the various pains they were suffering. Eventually one of them said “all suffering is caused by sin.” The words “caused by” may be open to a bit of interpretation. I disagree that all suffering is “CAUSED by” sin. I know that I have mentioned this many times, but let’s consider it from another angle. I look at human suffering and sin as almost inseparable twin brothers, but they are not the same boy. Certainly, there would be no suffering of any kind in this world if it was not for the introduction of sin. It is a part of the curse brought upon creation because of Adam’s disobedience in the Garden of Eden. Just as that curse lays universally upon all creation, and “death by sin, so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned…..” Just as the curse and death are universal, so is suffering. But few people ever suffer in exactly the same way or for exactly the same reason. And it may not be that a person suffers for some specific action in his own life. Is the antelope guilty some personal sin as she lays at the feet of the victorious lion? And what about the unborn baby, torn apart in the murder which is euphemistically called “abortion?” When the disciples came across the man born blind in John 9 they asked, “Who did sin?” Jesus’ authoritative answer showed there was no sin DIRECTLY responsible for the man’s malady. While these arguments illustrate that I may sometime die of lung cancer caused by my parent’s smoking, there is a much more potent and pointed argument.
When Christ hung on the cross it was with the most brutal and intense suffering. But it was not for any sin which HE had committed – He committed no sin at all. As Peter has told us earlier in this epistle: Christ “did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.” He suffered because of the sins of others – He suffered and died FOR my sin. It is correct to say that He suffered the curse because God placed the sins of His elect on Christ. But that is just the point – He suffered for others, not for Himself. And what about the pain of Gethsemane and other pains and tears He endured prior to the cross?
It is an awful thing to attempt to comfort someone by telling them, “My pain is much worse than yours!” While it may be the truth, it is a tacky way to minister to someone in pain. As Job said, “Miserable comforters are ye all.” But there is an exception where that is always a perfectly good statement. My heart is warmed to think that Jesus, my Saviour, knows what it is to suffer – to really suffer. His pain and His passion were infinitely more severe than my broken leg or my pleurisy – or yours. And He endured His suffering without regret; it was for me – for my salvation.
I may be taking Hebrews 4:15 out of its context just a little bit, but… “We have not an high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling our infirmities; but was in all points tempted, touched, and pained, like as we are, yet without sin.” I am comforted when I read of the God of Comfort in II Corinthians 1:3-5 – “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.” Do you remember the meaning of the Greek word “parakaleo” which is translated “comfort”? It means “to come along side.” The God of all comfort comforts by joining His saints in their pain. And Christ Jesus knows pain better than we do. That is even before we examine the suffering about which Peter is thinking here.
If you are hurting this morning – physically, emotionally, mentally or spiritually… I exhort you to visit God’s throne “for grace to help in your time of need.” Fellowship with the omnipotent Comforter is the need of everyone of us. Fellowship with the One who knows pain more intimately that we do, is beneficial for all of us.
Our first fact from this verse is that Christ Jesus has suffered.
But in Jesus’ case, there was a special form of that suffering called “SUBSTITUTION.”
“For Christ also hath once suffered for sin, the just for the unjust.” Peter was not thinking about whether or not Jesus ever had head ache or stubbed His toe. He was not thinking about Jesus’ grief at the death of Joseph, or whether the neighbors treated Him well. Peter was thinking about Calvary and the substitutionary Lamb of God Who was sacrificed there.
This word “substitution” is the at the heart of “salvation from sin.” Some people, while eating cherry pie, worry about finding the pits, the seeds which might be hidden inside. But there would be no cherries if there were no pits. And the same is true with deliverance from sin, something which we call “salvation.” “He was wounded FOR our transgressions, he was bruised FOR our iniquities…” “Wounds” and “bruises” are both painful – both are a part of what Christ suffer. And they were borne, or experienced, by Christ, for those He intended to save.
As the story goes, a minister went to visit an elderly, dying Christian. The preacher said, “Isn’t it wonderful that we have the gospel set down in so few simple words?” The old man looked up and said, “It’s one word, preacher, just one word.” C.H. Spurgeon said, “If you put away the doctrine of the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ you have disemboweled the gospel.” To put it more crudely, you have ripped it’s guts out. It’s my prayer that this building burn to ground if there the gospel preached in this place becomes one without the substitutionary sacrifice of the Lord Jesus.
FOR WHOM was this substitution made? It was made for unworthy, helpless SINNERS.
“Christ also hath once suffered for SINS, the just for the UNJUST.” The words “just” and “unjust” oppose each other in moral character, like night and day. They imply that whatever the Lord is, His substitution was for His opposites. The Saviour is described as our high priest: holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners and exalted into heaven. But you and I are described as unholy, hurtful, filthy, sinners doomed for hell. We are, by nature, what is the opposite of Christ Jesus. When the Father said of Christ, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased,” He could have added, pointing to us, “This, my creation, is defiled by sin and worthy of destruction.” Jesus is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and we are worms of worms, and scum of scums.
But the sacrifice of Christ was nevertheless of the JUST for the UNJUST. The skeptic says, “Jesus was just a man like all the rest of us.” No, my friend. When some statement is wrong, it is wrong. But to say that Jesus was a mere man, is among “the wrongest” statements ever made. The Son of God may have “taken upon him human flesh and was made in likeness man,” but He was personally completely without sin. Thus He lacked the universal and fatal characteristic found among all the denizens of earth. Christ was, and is, “the JUST One;” while each and every one of us are “unjust.”
A lot of people try to deny that mankind is a family of sinners, but the proof is obvious. Why is it that even the well-educated, brilliant, gifted, artistic, idealists are often also scheming, dishonest, begrudging, impatient, arrogant and disrespectful? Why are the twin towers a disaster site? Why was another person murdered last week here in the valley of the Spokane? The answer is plain, “For all are sinners and all have come infinitely short of the glory of God.” Nevertheless, “Christ died, the just for the unjust.”
Our filthy filth is Biblically described as “SIN.”
Have you ever heard the saying, “Cleanliness is next to godliness?” Some people actually have that as a part of their faith, catechizing their children in those five words. As a result, they shower, dress up, doll up, dude up and head off to church, thinking that simply washing off their bodily dirt they have made themselves fit to worship God. And they christen those children, telling themselves once again that cleanliness is next to godliness. But these things only make them two fold more the spiritually filthy children of hell than they were before. “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.” – Matthew 23:25-26. Our real filth is sin– our internal, innate, intense sin nature.
But we have been commanded to seek “holiness, without which no man shall see God.” That verse in Hebrews 13 points the root of our problem with God. We, by nature, are as far removed from holiness as sea turtles from swimming on moon. And yet, “as He which hath called us is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation.” Why must the Lord so exhort us to seek holiness? Why must even Christians have to have to constantly hear that? The reason lies in our sinful depravity, our naturally inexorable filth.
I read of a man came forward during the invitation at the end of a church service. He was visibly and truly broken over the sin in his life. As the pastor met him, the man got tongue-tied and stammered, “My sin is full of life.” Immediately he tried to correct his blunder, but the pastor stopped him. “Friend, the Holy Spirit put those words in your mouth. You have described your problem exactly.” Our sin is full of life, and that is what makes us such sinners. That makes us so needy of a Saviour. Praise God, that there is a substitutionary Saviour.
And what has He DONE? He has provided SALVATION!
“That He might bring us to God.” All men, by nature, are “without Christ, aliens from the commonwealth, strangers from covenant, having no hope and without God in the world.” As these aliens pass through the blood of the sacrifice of Christ, “we who sometimes were afar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.” Peter is thinking about salvation in this great verse of his.
We shouldn’t confine his thoughts to mere justification. “Justification” is the legal aspect of salvation from sin. That is where the ledger of God reads “Declared righteous” next to the name of new the child of God. It is stamped in the bright-red blood of the Saviour. But Peter is not confining himself here to just one aspect of our salvation, like justification. He is talking about the entire realm of salvation – including redemption, adoption, access to Heaven and agreement with God. Where there is agreement with God there is walking with Him – there is fellowship. Christ died on the cross “that He might bring us to God” – now.
Right now. This, I fear, is the great need of so many of today’s so-called “saints.” They are resting on the blood of Christ, awaiting the day when God will suspend their earthly life, so that then might begin their eternity of fellowship with the Lord. What a tragedy, for the Lord Jesus has given His life and blood to bring us to God – today. So many Christians are ambling through life without power, without joy and without the Lord’s abundance. They have somehow separated eternity from their life right now. They attend church and pray now and then, just to maintain contact with the Lord, the way that a good salesman stays in touch with his clients even though it will be months before he is needed again. What a sad shame.
The wonderful Saviour, has given His all that you might enjoy fellowship with the Almighty – today. His comfort, His guidance, His wisdom, His fellowship, His abundant life are available today. What is keeping you from it? Why is your life so nominal; so average?
The question is: “Have you been redeemed?” “Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.” Do you believe that statement to be true? Then insert your name in there. “Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for… David Oldfield… that he might bring ME to God.” Do you believe what the Bible says – that Christ died for you? Then look no other place for your salvation. Forget about baptism and church membership – they can’t cleanse you. Forget about your good deeds to help people and forget your friendly attitude – you can not save yourself. Rather, repent in humility before God and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Trust what Christ did on the cross. “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness, by whose stripes we are healed.”