Revealed Will for Christian Servants #6

The Profound Doctrinal Truths Embedded in Practical Duties

0:04 Now let us turn together in our Bibles to 1 Peter and chapter 2. 1 Peter, chapter 2, and I shall begin the reading at verse 18. 1 Peter 2 and verse 18.

0:28 Servants, or better rendered, house slaves, be in subjection to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the perverse. For this is acceptable, if for conscience toward God a man endures griefs, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it, if when you sin and are buffeted, you shall take it patiently? But if when you do well and suffer, you shall take it patiently.

1:04 This is acceptable with God. For hereunto were you called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow his steps, who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth, who, when he was reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered, threatened not, but committed himself to him that judges righteously, who his own self...

1:38 bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we, having died unto sins, might live unto righteousness, by whose stripes you were healed, for you were going astray like sheep, but are now returned unto the shepherd and bishop of your souls. There are many things about the scriptures which ought continually to astound and to amaze. There are many things about the scriptures which ought continually to astound and to amaze anyone who reads them with serious attention. Many things which ought constantly to astound and amaze any thoughtful reader of the scriptures. And one such source of constant amazement to me is the way in which the most profound doctrinal truths are found embedded in the soil of the most mysterious, mundane and practical duties and responsibilities.

2:48 Now, this is true for the simple reason that the Christian life derives all of its vital elements from the stuff of Christian doctrine. It is Christian doctrine which sustains and shapes the contours of the Christian life. And conversely, Christian doctrine is always set before us as that which has as its end the production of life. It is never set before us as a set of concepts that we are to admire, or merely to point to them and confess that we believe in them. Life is for doctrine, and doctrine is...

3:41 for life. Or I should say, life is from doctrine, and doctrine is for life. And in few places is this more clearly seen than in the passage before us. We're going to be focusing our attention this morning upon 1 Peter 2, 24.

3:59 One of the richest portions in all of the Word of God concerning the nature and purpose of the death of Jesus Christ. Look how complex...

4:11 Concentrated is the language. Who His own self bore our sins in His body upon the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live unto righteousness. A profound statement of the nature of the sufferings of Christ, and also of the purpose of His sufferings. But in what setting does it come to?

4:42 Not in a formal treatise on the biblical doctrine of the atonement. It comes to us amidst Peter's directives to a bunch of no-account house slaves in Asia Minor. Telling them, mind your masters, even the nasty ones. And it's in the midst of this setting of giving directives to these Christian slaves, particularly a directive...

5:12 A directive that focused upon their God-given duty to be submissive to them, not just to the good ones, but to the nasty ones, that we find this profound statement on the death of Christ. And it simply illustrates this basic principle that some of the most amazing, most rich, distilled statements of high doctrine come to us. In the most practical, mundane settings of directives for Christian duty and responsibility. Now let me remind you of the setting in which these words come to us.

The Context of Peter's Directives to Christian Servants

5:57 Peter has called these believers, in chapter 2, verses 11 and 12, to a life in which they abstain from fleshly lusts, and they are to seek to so live that they commend the gospel. As he begins, as he begins to descend into particulars, he says you will live such a life only as you respond as you walk to every single category of legitimate authority. Be subject to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake. And then he focuses upon three specific areas in which this directive is to be carried out.

6:37 The citizen to the state, verses 13b to 17. The servant...

6:43 The servant to his master, verses 18 to 25. And the wife to her husband, verses 1 to 6 of chapter 3. Now having given the directive to servants in verse 18, a directive which Peter knew would be difficult to embrace, even more difficult to implement, he is concerned to give these house slaves who belong to Christ incentives, motives to obey the injunction, to be in subjection to their masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the perverse. We saw that motive or incentive number one is set forth in verses 19 and 20. Such a pattern of patient endurance of undeserved suffering is acceptable or praiseworthy before God. Incentive number two, he takes up...

7:43 He takes up in verses 21 and following. For hereunto were you called. To this very thing you were called. When God laid hold of you in your effectual calling, brought you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

8:00 Verse 9 of chapter 2. It was to this end that you might live such a life. It is to this that you were called. When you were called into the blessings, of God's salvation, and into fellowship of Jesus Christ, you were also called to a life in which you are to patiently endure suffering that you do not deserve.

Christ's Suffering as Example and Purpose for Believers

8:28 And in opening up that concept of being called to such a pattern of life, Peter then focuses upon two facets of the suffering of Christ as the suffering of Christ relates, to their calling. The first is, his suffering is an example. We consider that last Lord's Day, verse 21b through verse 23. So that when one of these house slaves is in a situation where he is tempted to be insubordinate in his disposition or in his actions, he is not only to remember that patient endurance of undeterred suffering is acceptable to God, it is to follow in the way of the Lamb. It is to follow in the steps of my Master. And it is to that kind of a life that I am called in being called into the fellowship of Christ and into the possession of His salvation. But now the second part of that calling is that which we examined this morning in verse 24.

9:37 The second part of the calling is this. We are not only called to follow the example set by Christ in His suffering, we are called to experience and manifest the purpose for which Christ suffered as we respond to undeserved suffering. How we respond to undeserved suffering will manifest whether or not the very purpose for which Christ suffered is being realized in my life. Hence, she says, who His own self bore our sins in His body on the tree, in order that we, having died unto sins, might live unto righteousness. You, house slaves, were called and all believers with you to such a life that manifests that the purpose for which Christ died is actually being realized in me in the nitty-gritty, of the unpleasant circumstances of undeserved suffering. Shall I respond in a way that is sinful or in a way that is righteous? In a way that manifests that I'm still alive to sin, that sin is still my Master and my Lord and I'm under its dominion?

11:02 Or shall I respond in a way that manifests that I have been delivered from the dominion of sin and that I have been planted in the way of righteousness by the grace and power of God? That's the flow of Peter's thought. And as we attempt to open it up this morning, we'll do so under two headings. We have in the text an expanded explanation and secondly, a profound declaration.

Expanded Explanation: Christ's Intensely Personal and Voluntary Suffering

11:31 First of all, an expanded explanation. An expanded explanation of what? Well, of the precise nature of the sufferings of Christ. Here in verse 24, we have an expanded explanation of the precise nature of the sufferings of Christ.

11:55 You remember back in verse 21, Peter used biblical or theological shorthand when describing the sufferings of Christ. For hereunto were you called because Christ also suffered for you. Why did He suffer? On whose behalf and in what?

12:15 What sphere of concern did He suffer? Peter gives us shorthand. We know that that term, suffered for you, points to Christ's substitutionary sacrifice of Himself for our sins. We know that from this very letter, chapter 3 and verse 18.

12:36 Christ suffered for sins once. The righteous for the unrighteous. There is substitution. There is suffering on behalf of sin.

12:47 But he uses verbal shorthand in verse 21 and simply says, Christ suffered for you. But now in verse 24, when he's bringing in this second part of this incentive, why should we behave this way? He amplifies and further explains the precise nature of the sufferings of Christ. Now remember who's doing this.

13:15 Here's the very man that the first time Jesus makes it plain to him that he must suffer to accomplish redemption. What does he do? He plants himself in front of his Lord and says, this will never happen to you. You can't hack a suffering Messiah.

13:38 He's the Peter in Matthew 16 who's just confessed in response to the Lord's question, who do you say I am? You are the Christ, the Messiah, son of the living God. And the scripture says, from that time on, Jesus began to teach his disciples that he must suffer. Peter says, no way, Jose.

13:58 No way, Jesus. You cannot be Messiah and suffer. This man has come now so to understand how wrong he was that he gives us one of the most marvelous statements of the precise nature of the sufferings of Messiah. And remember, he's doing it to help a bunch of slaves in Asia Minor to know how to react when the Master clubs them on the side of the head for doing nothing wrong.

14:34 Now, what does he say in this expanded explanation about the sufferings of Christ? Well, the first thing he tells us is this. His suffering was intensely personal. Look at the text.

14:45 Who his own self? Bore our sins. In the other relative clauses, verse 22, who did no sin? Verse 23, who when he was reviled?

15:02 There's no additional pronoun to point with intensity to the Lord Jesus in his personal activity. But when he comes to expand on the precise nature of his sufferings under the guidance of the Spirit, Peter adds an extra pronoun. That's what's being translated in your English versions. Who his own self?

15:28 If it said, who bore our sins, we would know to whom he is referring. It's the same who of verse 23, verse 22, a string of what we call relative clauses. And it would have been perfectly understandable that he was referring back to Christ in verse 21. But Peter, in giving this expanded, expanded explanation of the precise nature of the sufferings of Christ, underscores, first of all, that his suffering was intensely personal and therefore wholly voluntary.

16:06 Who his own self? Himself really. Himself exclusively.

16:17 Himself voluntarily. You house slaves, tempted to balk when in the providence of God you have an unrighteous master who cuffs you and buffets you when you've done what is right, doesn't commend you and praise you and reinforce when you've done what is good with any praise, and he even takes a negative attitude when you've done well. Remember, you are saved by one who in his suffering was intensely personal in his commitment to the path of suffering. Who? His own self.

Expanded Explanation: Christ's Genuinely Sacrificial and Substitutionary Suffering

17:01 But not only does he underscore that his suffering was intensely personal and voluntary, but secondly, his suffering was genuinely sacrificial and substitutionary. Sacrificial and substitutionary. Note the words. Who? His own self.

17:20 Who? His own self bore our sins. Now the word Peter uses for bore our sins is a word that in Peter's working Bible, you've often heard us refer to the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament Scriptures that was the working Bible of that generation. And this word that Peter uses for bore was the word used dozens of times in that version referring to the activity of priests under the Old Covenant.

17:59 When they would make an offering, when they would present an offering, it was a word that oozed with the concept of the sacrificial system of the Old Testament. And furthermore, I hope you remember if you were here last week, as Peter writes this section, two streams of reality are flowing into his mind the realities of Isaiah 53 and the realities of the things he saw and heard as an eyewitness of the sufferings of Christ. And this is precisely the word that is used in that same version in Isaiah 53, 11 and 12. Isaiah 53, 11 and 12.

18:44 Speaking of the suffering servant of Jehovah, he shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. By the knowledge of himself shall my righteous servant justify many and he shall, here's our word, he shall bear their iniquities. He shall bear their iniquities. Verse 12, Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great.

19:11 He shall divide the spoiled with the strong because he poured out his soul unto death and was numbered with the transgressors. Yet he bore the sin, the sins of many. He bore the sins of many. He shall bear their iniquities.

19:33 And in the context of Isaiah 53, that is nothing more or less in all the wonder and mystery of it than the fact that our sins are imputed and put to the account and record laid upon the back of the suffering servant of Jehovah, Isaiah 53, 6, All we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He has made to strike upon him. He is bearing the iniquities of others.

20:12 So as Peter is expanding this explanation of the precise nature of the sufferings of Christ, he is careful to use language that underscores the fact that we are not alone. He underscores the fact that his suffering was genuinely sacrificial and substitutionary. He bore our sins.

20:36 He bore our sins. That is, the guilt and the wrath-deservingness of our sins was charged to him. He did not bear our sins in their defilement or pollution, but in their defilement. In their guilt and wrath-deservingness he bears them.

21:00 Bearing shame and scoffing rude, in my place condemned, he stood. That's the language of sacrificial substitutionary death. Now remember again, Peter is not lecturing in the theological hall. He's writing to household slaves who are called upon to do something very difficult.

21:26 And he says, if you're going to be able to do it, you need to know something more than the general motion, Christ died for me. You need to know that his suffering was intensely personal and voluntary. His suffering was genuinely sacrificial and substitutionary. Himself bore our sins.

Expanded Explanation: Christ's Patently Tangible and Physical Suffering

21:53 But thirdly, his suffering was, was patently tangible and physical. Look at the language. Who his own self bore our sins in his body. In body.

22:12 That which is tangible is that which has actual form and substance. Now when Peter writes, he bore our sins in his body, is he suggesting that the sufferings of Christ were primarily or primarily or exclusively physical sufferings? Of course not. This would contradict what he's already written.

22:37 What he will subsequently write in this epistle. It would contradict the whole statement of the word of God. Wherever the sufferings of Christ are set before us, it is clear that he suffered in his whole being. And in a very real sense, his deepest sufferings were not the physical and the corporeal, but the spiritual, the internal, Peter had heard his Lord say, Now is my soul troubled.

23:07 And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? For to this hour I came forth. Father, glorify your Son.

23:16 Peter had heard the Lord say, Now is my soul troubled. Peter knew the mystery of Gethsemane in which the Lord Jesus is so terrified terrified in his soul, so as he faces the prospect of Golgotha that he says, Now my soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. Watch with me. He had heard those words.

23:48 He knew Isaiah 53. This chapter is washing through his mind as he writes. And at least twice in Isaiah 53, the word soul is used. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see of the travail of his soul.

24:10 Why in the world does he write who bore our sins in his own body?

24:20 You've got to remember the Jewish background, the sacrificial system. When you came up to the place of God's appointment to offer a sacrifice, what did you present? You presented a lamb. You presented, a he-goat, a bullock, whatever it was.

24:39 And what happened to that animal? Its throat was slit. Its blood was caught in the basin. Its body was then placed upon the altar.

24:52 Its body was then consumed by fire. There was a concreteness to the sacrificial system. You were not coming up to the place of God's appointment in order to place your sacrifice in the hands of God. You were coming up to the place of God's appointment in order to place your sacrifice in the hands of the man of God's appointment as some kind of mystical, ethereal, non-corporeal religious idea.

25:16 You came with a real lamb that could bleat. And if it grew up to be a sheep, give wool that had a real jugular vein, that spilt real blood, that sent up a curl of smoke when it was placed upon a sacrificial altar.

25:35 There is no teaching in the Word of God that the concept of God or the concept of atonement is a nice religious idea. There is a crass, corporeal, physical, tangible reality. And it is for this reason that one of the other passages that focuses upon the body is in the book of Hebrews. And I want you to turn there for a moment to let Scripture throw light upon Scripture.

26:02 Hebrews chapter 10.

26:07 The writer to the Hebrews showing that in Christ the better things of the new covenant. God has come to us in grace canceling out all of the old covenant rituals. Chapter 10 verse 1 For the law having a shadow of the good things to come, not the image of the same sacrifices, can never with the same sacrifices year by year which they offer continually make perfect them that draw nigh. Else would they not have ceased to be offered?

26:40 It's impossible, verse 4, that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sin. God is saying that those were all pictures, types and shadows of a greater and final sacrifice to come. Verse 5. Wherefore, when he comes into the world, speaking of the Lord Jesus, he saith, sacrifice and offering you would not, but a what?

27:05 A body. Did you prepare for me? In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you have no pleasure. How were those sacrifices offered in the body of those beasts?

27:20 Then said I, Lo, I am come in the role of the book it is written of me to do your will, O God, saying above, sacrifice and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you would not, neither had pleasure therein the which are offered according to the law. Then has he said, Lo, I am come to do your will. He takes away the first that he may establish the second. Now notice verse 10.

27:44 By which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Is it his body apart from his soul? Of course not. But in that Jewish sacrificial mentality there is a concreteness to the sacrifice offered.

Expanded Explanation: Christ's Publicly Judicial and Shameful Suffering

28:09 And Peter is saying to these former pagans, these house slaves in Asia Minor, you need to know that the sufferings of your Savior were not only intensely personal and voluntary, not only genuinely sacrificial and substitutionary, but patently tangible and physical. He bore our sins in his own body. And then fourthly, his suffering was publicly judicial and shameful. Publicly judicial and shameful.

28:49 He adds the words on the tree. Now for some of you Greek students, there is a debate whether the epi should be translated on or upon. I'm satisfied that Dr. Grudem in his commentary on 1 Peter has fully justified the rendering on the tree.

29:10 And I'll not go into the technicalities of that. But his suffering was publicly judicial and shameful. And that is highlighted by the phrase on the tree. Now the word tree simply means the wood.

29:27 It's the word used in Acts 16.26 when Paul and Silas had their hands and feet put in stocks. That's the word. In the sulam.

29:36 In the woods. It's used of clubs with which they beat our Lord in Matthew 26.47. They beat him with sulam.

29:47 Not with the wood. It can mean tree, literally. But in Peter's usage, it obviously referred to the cross of our Lord Jesus. Look at two instances in his preaching as recorded in the book of Acts.

30:03 Acts 5 and verse 30. Peter is preaching.

30:09 Verse 29. But Peter and the apostles answered and said, we must obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up the tree. Jesus, whom you slew, hanging him, here's our word, on a tree.

30:25 Now did they go out and hang him on an elm tree, an oak tree, a sycamore tree? No. They hung him by the hands of the Roman authorities upon a Roman cross. He went forth, the scripture says, bearing his cross.

30:41 And when they had crucified him, Peter says, that was to our Lord being hung on a tree. On a tree. Notice in Acts 10, Peter uses the same terminology. Acts 10 and verse 39.

30:57 Even Jesus of Nazareth, verse 38, God anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good, healing. Verse 39. We are witnesses of all things that he did, both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom also they slew, hang him on a tree. Now why doesn't Peter simply say in the record in Acts 5, you slew, putting him on a cross,

31:29 crucifying him. Why does he say hanging him on a tree?

31:37 Remember, Peter's a Jew by birth, by upbringing. It took a long time for him to even believe that Gentiles were worthy of being entered into with open-faced, unrestricted social intercourse. God had to give him visions and then later on had to have an apostle rebuke him for his ethnic pride and prejudice and all the rest. When Peter uses the term upon the wood, upon a tree, what was in his mind?

32:11 You turn to Deuteronomy 21 and the answer is very quickly forthcoming. Deuteronomy chapter 21 and verse 22.

32:24 And if a man hath committed a sin worthy of death, and he be put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for he that is hanged, that is, hung up upon a tree after he's been stoned to death, is accursed of God, that you defile not the land which the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance. Here was this strange directive that when someone had committed a capital crime, and apparently when it was judged that it was of an unusually aggravated sort, after he had been stoned to death, he would be hung up upon a stake.

33:14 And this would be an open public declaration that this man died under the anathema of God. And so shameful was it that his body was not to be allowed to remain there overnight, lest it defile the land. And having an accursed thing hanging up before the open heavens rather than buried out of sight.

33:39 Now you have two instances of this being done in the book of Judges, where they actually took someone who had been slain and hung them up upon a stake in this open manifestation that they died for capital crimes and that they were worthy of having shame heaped upon them. I'm sorry, the book of Judges, I said Judges, it's the book of Joshua. Let's look at just one incident, Joshua 8 and verse 29. Joshua 8 and verse 29.

34:17 The king of Ai, he hanged on a tree unto leave and hide. And at the going down of the sun, Joshua commanded, and they took his body down from the tree and cast it at the entrance of the gate of the city and raised thereon a great heap of stones, unto this day. The king of Ai was hung up, making it evident that the curse of God was upon him. Now then, coming back to 1 Peter 2.

34:46 Peter, remember now, is writing to ordinary believers. These people who have no citizenship, who have no right of inheritance, who are the property of their masters. And he says, what you need to understand about the sufferings of your Savior is this. That those sufferings, that suffering was publicly judicial and shameful.

35:13 He bore our sins in his body on the tree.

35:21 Have you thought of Galatians 3.13? Paul writes, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. How do we know he was made a curse for us?

35:36 For it is written, cursed is everyone that hangs on a what? Same word, on a tree. Paul, who loved to use the word cross. God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

35:55 The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. But when Paul wants to highlight that Jesus died under the curse of God, under the, the judicial punishment of God, he says, cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree. Quoting directly from Deuteronomy, chapter 21. The very passage that is obviously in Peter's mind when he writes, who his own self bore our sins in his own body on the tree.

36:29 One commentator writes helpfully, crucifixion was not a Jewish punishment. And the quotation from Deuteronomy, 21, 23, originally referred to the hanging of dead bodies of flagrant sinners on the tree of shame to show that they were accursed of God. So the very means of Christ's death showed it to be an accursed death. His being hanged on the tree proved that he was made a curse.

36:59 The manner of death, besides being in consonance with prophecy, was a visible proof and symbol of its real, natural nature. He bore our sins in his own body on the tree. He bore the curse of a broken law. And the mode of his death signally showed that he became accursed.

37:22 For by being suspended on a stake, he became, in the express terms of the law, accursed. And that publicly.

37:36 And that publicly. And so Peter, writes to these household slaves and says, you need to understand the precise nature of the sacrifice, of the sufferings of your Savior. And he gives these four specific elements of that suffering. And when he comes to this final one, suffering was publicly judicial and shameful.

38:08 Judicial is that which pertains to law courts and functions of the court. No one in Israel would have been hanged up on a stake who had not been guilty of a capital offense. And the capital offense would have been determined by the ruling court in Israel. It was a judicial sentence.

38:32 And so when Christ hangs upon the cross, he is there at the judicial sentence, not primarily. He is there at the judgment of Pilate and the cry of the Jews. But because he is voluntarily taking your curse, deservingness, and mine. And it was shameful.

38:59 The artists are kind to us. But it is a known fact that that horrible death, invented as far as we know originally by the Phoenicians, was one in which they stripped the slaves naked. And hung them up sometimes to die in a process that took days. Publicly. Judicial.

The Ethical Purpose of Christ's Suffering: Dying to Sin, Living to Righteousness

39:31 And shameful. And he says to these household slaves, you find it difficult to knuckle under and from the heart to embrace the will of God that has put you under a master who is crooked and perverse and yet you know that you ought to be submissive to him at any point except the point where he demands you do something contrary to the clearly revealed will of God, then remember the nature of your Savior's suffering for you were called not only to follow his steps but you were called to face realistically exactly what he did when he died for you. Now you would think, you would think after laying out these specifics of the sufferings of Christ that they were intensely personal, genuinely sacrificial, patently physical, publicly shameful, that he would then say, look at the text, who his own self bore our sins in his own body on the tree that we might realize whatever troubles we have they are little compared to his. But that isn't what he says. It isn't what he says. What he says is in order that we having died unto sins might live unto righteousness from this expanded explanation of the nature

41:00 of Christ's sufferings he comes in the second place to this profound declaration. And the profound declaration focuses upon the ethical purpose of the sufferings of Christ. Ethical has to do with conduct, with life and attitude. And he says that Christ underwent all of this in order that.

41:24 Now you fill in the blanks. When you think of the sufferings of Christ what would you write about? He suffered all of this in order that. Could not Peter have written that you might be fully freely and irrevocably be forgiven of all your sins? Yes, and that would be true. In order that you might have a right standing with God and that would be true. Many things could be said but notice what the Holy Spirit focuses upon. Peter says you slaves need to understand that in the light of this expanded description of the nature of the suffering of Christ, the purpose of his suffering ought to be a matter of great importance to you.

42:08 It ought to be a matter of all consuming passion. Why did he undergo all of this for the likes of me? Why did he do it? Why did he his own self bear my sins in his body upon the tree? Why did he do it? Here's the answer. In order that you first year might live unto great students in the clause of purpose. In order that we having died unto sins might live unto righteousness.

42:44 Now what kind of double talk is that? Here Peter you're describing his suffering and his death. And now you say we died. Well did he die or did we die?

42:56 Does it confuse you? Look at your Bible. I didn't write it. Who bore our sins in his body that we having died? I get killed.

43:11 I wasn't there. Why die? I thought he died. Peter says you house slaves and not only you house slaves. You notice how he switched from second person plural to first person plural in this verse. It's the only part in this section. Our sins that we having died we might live unto righteousness. What's he saying?

43:38 A strange switch has been made. Well let me try to briefly explain the words. That we having died. That we having died.

43:49 Peter uses a word found only here in the New Testament. It's a word that was in first century Greco-Roman world. It was a word that had become a euphemism for dying. Like we have our euphemisms.

44:03 We say did you hear so and so passed away? When my uncle passed on? We don't like the word died. This became one of those euphemisms for dying.

44:16 Now some commentators say well if Peter wanted to use the word die he could have. But the very fact that it's used as the opposite of live in the context points in the direction that this is the proper rendering that we having died. Died to what? Look at the text. We having died literally to the sins. To the sins. We having died to the sins. To what sins?

44:45 The sins that he bore in his body upon the tree. Who his own self bore our sins in his own body on the tree in order that we having died we having ceased to exist in relationship to the sins may live to righteousness. That is that our whole pattern of life will be in the direction of that which is right as right is defined. by God.

45:16 As right is defined by God in terms of what do slaves do when their masters beat them on the head for no good reason. God says it's right for you to be submissive not only to the good and gentle but also to the crooked and gooders. And Jesus died that you might do what's right. That's it. That's why he died.

45:41 He died that you might do what is right. And he says you will not do what is right unless you die to the sins and then you live to the righteousness. The dying to the sins in the form of the Greek participle points to their conversion and the form of the word that we may live points to the direction and pattern of the life into which they were brought by the grace of God. So what is this profound declaration? It is this that Christ died to terminate in his people a life lived unto sin and to initiate them into a life lived unto righteousness. That's it. All the hours of study all the hours of trying to hammer out Lord how in the world do I open this up and preach it that's it in a nutshell. Why did Christ die?

The Radical Transformation of Conversion: Death to Sin's Dominion

46:45 He's telling us. He's telling us why he died. He died to terminate in his people a life lived unto sin and to initiate them to a life lived unto righteousness. Is that the only purpose for which he died? No.

47:04 The death of Christ is such a glorious multifaceted provision of God's grace that eternity will not exegete all of its glorious purposes. But in this context the purpose that is highlighted for the sake not only of these slaves but Peter includes himself as an apostle and all of the people of God moving from direct references to them Christ suffered for you leaving you an example that you should follow his steps now he says who his own self bore our sins in his body upon the tree that we, Peter included having died unto the sins might live unto the righteousness. This is in seed form the same teaching that Paul gives us in much more expanded form in Romans 6 verses 1 through 14. Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. We who

48:08 died to sin how should we live any longer then? Or are you ignorant that as many of us as were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death we were buried therefore with him by baptism into death that like as Christ was raised by the glory of the Father even so we all should walk in newness of life death and life Colossians chapter 2 you died Colossians 3 you died and your life is hid with Christ in God this is the teaching of the word of God and as I pondered this and said Lord how do I illustrate it how do I explain it I finally had to say in frustration I can't I can only declare it that in a way that I cannot fathom when by faith I am the grace of crucified immolated publicly shamed and accursed of God's savior that faith that unites me to Christ and brings me into the virtue of his dying for my sin so unites me to him that the virtue of his death and resurrection is infused into me and I die to the reign of sin and I emerge to newness of life in the direction of righteousness that's the truth of the word of God no wonder John Owen said in words I shall never forget after I first read them

49:36 unless the death of Christ for sin has become your death to sin you are yet dead in sin how does this happen I don't understand the mystery of it mine is not to understand but to proclaim and Peter does not pause to give a lengthy dissertation he says to these house slaves who are struggling with the will of God for them in a difficult situation remember patient endurance of undeserved suffering is not only acceptable to God but it is that to which you were called that to which you were called has reference to Christ as your example it has reference to the purpose for which Christ died you were called to manifest in your life that Jesus did not die in vain he died that in faith union with him you having died to the sins might live to righteousness you slaves want motivation to respond to undeserved suffering in the way I've directed you

51:02 to respond here's the motivation demonstrate to your masters and to your fellow slaves that there's no explanation for the way you live but that what you were is dead and buried in Christ too and what you now are has no explanation but that you share in the resurrection life and power of Jesus Christ that's what he's saying to them as part of the incentives to embrace the will of God this profound declaration having died unto the sins that you might live unto righteousness now is Peter in any way suggesting sinless perfection of course not he had already written in chapter 2 verse 1 putting away therefore wickedness and guile and hypocrisies and envies and evil speakings he assumes God's people can fall into these specific sins he's already told them in chapter 2 and verse 11 of staying from fleshly lust assuming that they are vulnerable to fleshly lust that they can fall before fleshly lusts he will go on in this third chapter to say that they are not to render evil for evil verse 9 there's no doctrine of sinless perfection but there is a doctrine

52:30 of the radical breach with the dominion of sin that occurs in every true conversion that's the doctrine that is here that if you are a converted man or woman you have died to sin sin has not died to you it's very much alive in your remaining sin in the world in a wily devil but you have died in the sense that sin's dominion is no longer exercised over you you have been brought into a life union with Christ that enables you to live purposefully and really in the realm of righteousness albeit not perfectly that's why the scripture says if any man say he has no sin he's a liar and the truth is not in him if we confess our sins he's faithful and just to forgive us but dear friends if this verse means anything else you tell me what it means when he says that we having died to sins if it doesn't mean that you tell me what it does me and tell me from the scriptures what it does me no this is what it means that then presses a very serious question upon everyone sitting here this morning and the question is this have you died to sin

Application: Have You Died to Sin and Live to Righteousness?

53:54 have you died to sin sitting here this morning can you say that your relationship to sin is not what it was by nature in which sin was your volitionally continually embraced master when sin barked its orders through the mouthpiece of the world through your own lusts and passions when it barked its orders did you throw your salutes and put your feet in the way of its commands that's what you were Romans 6 whose servant you are whom you obey whether of sin unto death or obedience unto righteousness you want to understand this just read Romans 6 it's the detailed commentary and all of us by nature were slaves of sin but if we're in grace sin is no longer we died to sin to its dominion to its lordship to its voluntarily embraced headship over us it may be to us a torturous usurper that plagues us and grieves us and burdens us but it's no longer our delightfully embraced master and the youngest believer here can say yes by the grace of God I'm living

55:21 unto righteousness what is right according to God's definition of right is the deepest passion and desire of my heart what is right as God defines what is right is what I'm committed to be and to do if I must pluck out right eyes and cut off right hands I'm prepared by the strength of Christ out of love to Christ to do what is right is that you my friend if that's what a Christian is I fear there's an awful lot that passes for the name Christian that falls short and knowing that I was coming up on this verse there was something in me that didn't want to preach it because the more I pondered it and studied it and examined it and read the commentators I said Lord it says what it seems to say and it means what it apparently says that Peter with all of these believers can say we having died to sin might live unto righteousness and for we those of us who are the people of God you see how relevant this is when God puts you in a situation where there is a structure of authority whether it's parental whether it's societal whether it's occupational

56:49 and you know what the pattern of obedience is from verse 18 but you say there is such a climate of unreasonableness such a climate of ingratitude and unthankfulness and you know what course God has marked out it's clear from this passage when you're tempted to say why in the world can't I respond as my colleagues do well the basic answer is they're still alive to sin but dead to righteousness you're dead to sin and alive to righteousness that's why you can't act the way they do you don't operate in the same moral and ethical universe you've been radically transformed from the ethical and moral universe of living to sin and dead to righteousness you have died unto sins and you are alive to righteousness that's who you are that's what you are as a child of God Peter says to you and to me whenever we are in circumstances where we're called upon to respond in ways that are utterly antithetical to all the responses around us

58:17 what does it matter how others respond the only thing that matters is what is right according to God's standard of right and in union with Christ I reckon myself to have died unto sin and to be alive unto God in union with Christ and in the grace of Christ and in the power of Christ I will walk in the way of Christ that is the way of righteousness for you who are wrestling with the whole issue of whether or not you want to be a Christian my friend this is what it means to be a Christian you don't tip your hat to Jesus and say thank you Jesus you died and now I'll cash in on that when I die and between then and now I'll just go scot free and do as I please no no my friend you ever behold Christ in the light of a text like this morning bearing sin upon the tree a public judicial shameful death and say it's my sins that put him there my sins that caused his shame caused his agony of soul and of body oh Lord Jesus pardon and cleanse me from all my sins and break the power of the cursed venomous sin in my heart make me a slave of righteousness that I may live out my days

Concluding Prayer and Call to Embrace Christ's Purpose

59:45 as one who has died to sin and who lives unto righteousness our Father we pray that you will bless the preaching of your word that you will use it in those who are yet living unto sin and dead to righteousness that they may see that there is no way that they can fix themselves up but that they may run to the Lord Jesus the one whose death we have contemplated this morning whose sufferings were borne that we having died to sin might live unto righteousness seal your word to all of our hearts and help us by your grace to live out its truth in the various circumstances of the coming week we commit ourselves to you trusting you for your grace in Jesus name Amen