Sufferings of Christ and His People, # 2

Introduction: The Inevitability of Suffering for Christ

0:02 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, August 1st, 1999, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:15 May I encourage you to turn with me in your own Bibles to 1 Peter, 1 Peter and chapter 3,

0:28 and follow please as I read beginning in verse 13 to the end of the chapter. As Peter begins this section that constitutes the real heart and the focal point of his burden in this letter, he begins with the question,

1:09 It may be always to give answer to every man that asks you a reason concerning the hope that is in you, yet with meekness and fear, having a good conscience, that wherein you are spoken against, they may be put to shame who revile your good manner of life in Christ. For it is better, if the will of God should so will, that you suffer for well-doing than for evil-doing. Because, Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit, in which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison, that aforetime were disobedient, when the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved through water, which also, after a true likeness, does now save you, even baptism, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the interrogation of a good conscience toward God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is on the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, angels and authorities and powers, being made subject unto God.

2:39 Now let us again pray and ask that God, by his Spirit, will help us in understanding his word. Let us pray.

2:53 Our Father, we would again own from the depths of our being, that we do believe the words of our Lord Jesus, who said, without me, you can do nothing. We acknowledge that we cannot draw our next breath unless you give it to us. We cannot think a rational thought unless you enable us. We cannot speak in an understandable way unless you enable us to do so.

3:28 Lord, we repudiate all creature confidence and look out of ourselves to you, trusting you to help us to understand your word, to help me to teach and preach it as I ought, to help us to understand your word. Come to us, O God, come. Come yourself, we pray, in the preaching of the word. Through Christ our Lord we plead.

3:55 Amen. One time or another, in one way or another, to one degree or another, every real Christian will suffer for the sake of Christ. Not only does the Apostle Paul make this fact clear, Not only does the Apostle Paul make this fact clear, Not only does the Apostle Paul make this fact clear, not only does the Apostle Paul make this fact abundantly clear, not only does the Apostle Paul make this fact abundantly clear, not only does the Apostle Paul make this fact abundantly clear, not only does the Apostle Paul make this fact abundantly clear, not only does the Apostle Paul make this fact abundantly clear, not only does the Apostle Paul make this fact abundantly clear, not only does the Apostle Paul make this fact abundantly clear, not only does the Apostle Paul make this fact abundantly clear, not only does the Apostle Paul make this fact abundantly clear, not only does the Apostle Paul make this fact abundantly clear, not only does the Apostle Paul make this fact abundantly clear, not only does the Apostle Paul make this fact abundantly clear, not only does the Apostle Paul make this fact abundantly clear, If we suffer with him, that we may be glorified together with him. 2 Timothy 3.12, all that would live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. And Philippians 1.29, it has been given to you on the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his name.

5:04 But that is not only the teaching of the great apostle, it's the clear teaching of our Lord in those familiar words of the Beatitudes. When our Lord is describing the character traits of all the sons and daughters of the kingdom, and pronouncing them blessed or happy, covenantally fulfilled and enriched, blessed are. He moves from that foundational characteristic of all the sons and daughters, they are poor in spirit, they have been stripped of all creature confidence in themselves. They have been brought to see that they are nothing and have nothing and can do nothing but sin, apart from the grace of God. But the crowning blessed is the double blessed pronounced upon those who suffer for righteousness sake. And as surely as our Lord envisions, no sons or daughters, but those who are poor of spirit, he envisions none who do not suffer for righteousness sake. Only such are the blessed ones.

6:20 And this being true, that at one time or another, in one way or another, to one degree or another, every real Christian will suffer for the sake of Christ. Then know. Every Christian has the luxury of being indifferent to this portion in Peter's epistle in which he is concerned primarily to give instruction concerning the issue of suffering for righteousness sake. He is concerned to enlighten, to comfort and to strengthen the people of God in the face of their present and their future suffering for righteousness sake.

7:08 Four times up until chapter three and verse thirteen. The verb Pascho, to suffer, has been used by Peter, but starting in chapter three and verse fourteen to the end of the letter, eight times that verb is used so that the total of the twelve uses of that verb exceeds the entire use of that verb in all the other epistles of the New Testament combined. It is Peter's word. tremendous pastoral burden to write to the people of God concerning how they are to react to suffering for the sake of Christ.

The Sufferings of Christ as a Pattern for Believers

7:51 And therefore, not to absorb into our spiritual bloodstream the teaching of this section in Peter's epistle is to promote in ourselves a form of spiritual anemia that will leave us unprepared to face what we will inevitably face at one time or another, in one way or another, to one degree or another, namely, suffering for righteousness' sake. Now, having set before these believers in the five provinces of Asia Minor the basic perspectives regarding suffering for righteousness' sake that they ought ever to keep, before them, in verses 13 to 17, beginning in verse 18 through verse 22, Peter goes to the very heart of this issue by treating the subject of suffering for righteousness' sake in terms of bringing into the crosshairs of their spiritual vision the great sufferer himself, even the Lord Jesus. For verse 18 begins, He begins with the words, Because Christ all suffered, as many of the manuscripts have it,

9:15 Christ also suffered with the suffering that issued in death. And he is concerned that the suffering saints remember certain facets of the suffering of the Lord Jesus that they might be enlightened, comforted, and strengthened in the face of their own suffering. Now, what we did last Lord's Day in our initial study of verses 18 to 22 was to consider the basic similarities between the sufferings of Christ and the sufferings of his people. And this is pressed upon us by the language of the text because or for, not merely, Christ suffered. That would be pointing us to put all of our attention upon Christ as the great sufferer. But he says, Because Christ also suffered. If I say to you, Mary also came to your house, you have every right to ask, well, who else came?

10:22 If Mary also, someone else was there. If we say, John also had the flu, we mean somebody else had the flu. Or we would simply say, John had the flu. Mary came to the house.

10:36 And so when Peter writes, For Christ also suffered, the other part of the also is the suffering saint in Asia Minor. He's been speaking about their suffering. And if you suffer for well-doing, take comfort. Christ also suffered.

10:57 You have a fellow sufferer. You have a companion in suffering. Even your Lord Jesus Christ. And then we looked.

11:06 We looked at three lines of truth concerning the similarities between the sufferings of Christ and the sufferings of his people. He suffered in the way of righteousness. He suffered the righteous one. He suffered in the path of securing the highest good, even the salvation of his people.

11:29 And his suffering led to exaltation and glory. And in those three areas, there is, a blessed similarity between the sufferings of Christ and the sufferings of his people. In fellowship with Christ, they too suffer in the way of righteousness. In fellowship with Christ, their suffering results in good to the souls of others.

Exclusive Aspects of Christ's Sufferings: Introduction

11:54 In fellowship and communion with Christ, their sufferings will, as with his, lead to exaltation and to glory. But now, we come back to the text this morning to consider those aspects of the sufferings of Christ on behalf of his people, in which they have no share whatsoever. Christ's sufferings are not only the pattern and the framework in which the people of God share in the sufferings of Christ. There are dimensions of the sufferings of Christ that are utterly exclusive to the sufferings of Christ.

12:36 And this morning, we're going to consider those exclusive aspects of the sufferings of Christ on behalf of his people. And what Peter is doing here in verse 18 is not different from what he did earlier in chapter 2. For in giving instruction to these suffering house slaves who were being abused by their unreasonable masters, Peter had told them in verse 18, for hereunto were you called because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow his steps. He is saying there are aspects of the sufferings of Christ that are exemplary to the people of Christ. But having highlighted certain aspects of the sufferings of Christ that are an example to the people of Christ, he then goes into dimensions of the sufferings, the sufferings of Christ that are exclusive to himself. Verse 24, who his own self bore our sins in his own body up to the tree. That is a suffering in which we do not share and in which we do not follow the example of Christ, but in which we rest upon Christ and in Christ

14:04 and draw from Christ the example of Christ. The grace and the pardon secured by his sufferings on our behalf. And so we come back to the passage this morning and consider those aspects of Christ's suffering on behalf of his people that are exclusive to him. Look at the text with me.

14:26 Because Christ also suffered or died for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might, that he might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit. Note with me briefly the precise identity of the one who suffered the one who died. And I will continually use the two terms. Textually, there is even more weight for died if we look at the external witness of manuscripts, but in terms of internal witness, most, most of the translations use the word suffered because it fits more to the overall motif of Peter's thought. But either one has strong textual attestation. And we know that it was a suffering that issued in death because there's no textual variant when we come to the end of the verse. He suffered how?

15:31 Being put to death, being murdered, being killed. Perhaps would even be a more accurate rendering. So the suffering was a suffering that issued in death. So whether we translate because Christ also suffered or Christ also died, it is suffering that issues in the cruel, shameful death of the cross.

The Precise Identity of the Sufferer: Christ, the Messiah

15:56 And note with me first of all the precise identity of the one who suffered and died. Peter writes because Christ.

16:08 Suffered. Now for many of us, when we read the word Christ, we read the word Jesus, we often think that they are both names of our blessed redeemer. And we fail to remember that the term Christ is not a personal name. Rather, it is the identification of an official title and position.

16:36 When we say President Reagan, the word President is not a part of the name that is on his birth certificate by which Ronald Reagan is identified from any other Reagan. But President Reagan points to an official title of an official office. And likewise, when we read Christ, it is not a personal name. Jesus is his personal name.

17:05 Christ is a title of official identification. The identification of Jesus of Nazareth as Messiah. As the long-promised Messiah. As the Messiah of Israel.

17:21 As the anointed prophet, priest, and king. Now stop for a minute and think. What did it mean for Peter to write without his pen stopping in mid-sentence, for Christ, Messiah, and Messiah. For Christ, Messiah, also suffered or died.

17:47 What did that mean for Peter? This is the Peter you'll remember if you turn back to Matthew 16. Who having identified Jesus of Nazareth in his true identity. Who do men say that I am?

18:05 Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, some Jeremiah. Matthew 16, 15. But he said to them, but who say you that I am? Simon Peter answered and said, you are, now notice, you are, you Jesus of Nazareth, you are the Christ.

18:24 You are the Messiah. And as Messiah as to the identity of your person, you are none other than son of the living God. You are Messiah, God's anointed one, who in your person are nothing less than God the Son. You are Messiah, Son of God.

18:48 And the Lord says to Peter, blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah. Flesh and blood is not revealed unto you, but my Father who is in heaven. And then he goes on to say that Peter will, along with the others, be part of that church that he's going to build upon the foundation of his identity as Messiah, Son of God. And Peter will have a special place of influence, particularly in the early days, the days of that construction.

19:16 But now verse 21, from that time began Jesus to show unto his disciples how he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and the third day be raised up. Here's Peter. The words of the Lord are ringing in his ears. Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah.

19:44 You have rightly identified me. I am Messiah. I am God's promised prophet, priest, and king. I am Son of God.

19:54 Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you. My Father has. This has come by supernatural revelation. You know my identity and my person, my identity and my position.

20:05 But in my identity as Son of God, and in fulfillment of my messianic mission, I must suffer. I must suffer. I must be killed. And Peter says, No way, Lord.

20:18 Verse 22. Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from you, Lord. This shall never be for you. Suffering and being killed doesn't fit my idea of Messiah, Son of God, Ashiach, who suffers and who dies.

20:44 I have a Messiah who conquers and who triumphs over his foes. This shall never be for me. This shall never be to you, Lord. And that disposition followed Peter right up until the eve of our Lord's crucifixion.

21:01 When they came to apprehend our Lord, what did Peter do? He took out the sword and he went for the servant's head and thankfully ducked quick enough to lose only an ear.

21:12 He could not abide the concept of a suffering Messiah. Now that same Peter is writing to a group of believers in Asia Minor, seeking to enlighten, to comfort and strengthen them in the face of suffering. And he says, it's better if the will of God should so will that you suffer in the way of doing what is right than doing what is evil. Because Messiah, Christ, the Anointed One, my Messiah, Son of God, God suffered.

21:52 And his pen does not get stuck on the parchment. It flows freely. What in the world happened to him? Well, you just turn to Luke chapter 24 and you get the answer.

22:05 Luke chapter 24. After his resurrection, in one of the post-resurrection encounters of our Lord with the disciples, verse 44 of Luke 24. And he said unto them, and you look back in the context, it is clear it's the gathered disciples to whom he is speaking. These are the words which I spoke to you when I was yet with you, that all things must needs be fulfilled that are written in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms concerning me.

22:40 That includes Psalm 22. That includes Isaiah 53. He showed him how these things had to be fulfilled. Verse 45.

22:50 Then opened he their mind, that they might understand, the scriptures and said unto them, thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sin should be preached in his name unto all the nations beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. Many promises, the coming of the Spirit, many of the promises given in the upper room discourse concerning the Spirit's ministry as the illuminator of the mind, the minds of his people, the testifier of Jesus are now fulfilled so that this Peter who says, I cannot abide a suffering Messiah, now writes to suffering Christians and says, look to your Messiah. Look to the Christ who also suffered. That's the precise identity of the one who suffered and died. But then, more importantly in this setting, look at the precise nature of the sufferings and death he endured.

The Precise Nature of Christ's Sufferings: Penal

24:04 The precise nature of the sufferings and the death he endured. And many commentators have noted that in this text we have one of the richest, most comprehensive statements of the nature of the sufferings and death of Christ to be found anywhere in the New Testament. Every word is pregnant with me. And I want you to note with me four things that are clearly packed into this one verse concerning the nature of the sufferings and death that he endured.

24:37 Things that were utterly exclusive to our Lord, though they had relevance to suffering saints. The first is this. Look at the text. Because Christ also suffered for sins.

24:55 His death was for sins. His death was penal. And I want to encapsulate in each of these phrases of the text one word to pass on the heart of its teaching. Christ suffered for sins.

25:13 His death was penal. Christ suffered with reference to sins. That is, his sufferings have as their reference point, Of those thoughts, those words, those attitudes, those dispositions, those deeds, those relationships, everything that is a deviation from the absolute standard of God's holiness as expressed in His law for His creatures, these things are sins. And we are told in the text that Christ suffered, that is, Christ suffered unto death for sins. His death was penal.

26:05 If we do away with the fact of God as creator and God as lawgiver, man as morally accountable to God, sin as a real offense against God and worthy of punishment by God, then the sufferings of Christ are at best an unanswerable riddle and at worst, and a sadistic joke.

26:41 May I repeat that? Do away with God as creator, God as lawgiver, man as morally accountable to God, and every deviation from the law of God as that which provokes God, wrath and anger, deserves punishment. That's the significance of penal penalty, that which warrants punishment, that which is punitive.

27:11 Take away that reality, and the sufferings and death of Christ at best are indeed an unanswerable riddle, and at worst, a cruel and sadistic joke. Amen. Our text says Christ suffered, Christ died, peri hamartio, in conjunction with, in relationship to, on behalf of sins, plural.

27:47 Now that phrase, peri hamartios, is the technical term used for sin offering in a passage such as Leviticus 5, 5 and 6, in Psalm 40 and verse 6, and some suggest that we ought to read into Peter's use of it, though he used his sin in the plural, and I'm not convinced that the evidence is compelling, but this much is clear. You cannot make sense of Jesus' sufferings if sin is just a notion imposed by preachers to put people on guilt trips. How could we ever work backward from the perverse desire of preachers to send people on guilt trips? Son of a... Son of God's anointed Messiah dying on the cross.

28:42 There's no way, no way the perverse desire of preachers in the 20th century could somehow be worked backward that Almighty God would give His Son up to the cruel suffering of the cross. And I wonder if we contemplate how cruel it actually was. There have been recent studies by responsible...

29:11 biblical scholars who in their examination of the facts emerging from secular historians give us insights as to what a cruel and shameful death crucifixion was. They write it was an exquisitely designed means of bringing total humiliation and shame upon the accused as they slowly made their way toward death. It entailed, and it is the belief of many, a public status degradation, destroying every vestige of a person standing in society before he actually died. The intent of crucifixion was to strip its victim of every last vestige of human dignity and to make him know it before he died. It's crucial to grasp that. There's a lot of talk these days about the man on death row who's gonna be executed by lethal injection. and perhaps you have seen a lot of these things.

30:14 you have seen the very clean sheets on the neatly arranged pallet on which he will be placed in strap. And you've been told that within one minute of the initial injection, he will know nothing. As much human dignity is preserved up to and even into the act of execution. Crucifixion is the exact opposite. Every last vestige of dignity was stripped from the man before he was ever put to death. And in the process of death, that dignity was further stripped, if at all possible. Listen to what he said. The condemned frequently were flogged as a prelude to crucifixion.

30:54 It was true of our Lord. And perhaps blinded to underscore their helplessness, not true of our Lord. They were forced to carry the cross beam upon which they would die, true of our Lord, which added insult to the injury they were about to sustain. Their clothes were parceled out to others, true of our Lord, so that they had to bear the humiliation of being naked in public. And there's no evidence that they made an exception for our Lord. Once nailed, they were exhibited as powerless, true of our Lord. And this provided much public entertainment, true of our Lord. You saved others! Come down from the cross! Hands out of the nails!

31:50 If you can, even in the beginning, the two malefactors crucified with him, it says, they cast the same in his teeth. Mockery from the front as they passed by and looked upon him in shame and nakedness. Mockery from the left and mockery from the right. The victim was ridiculed, true of our Lord.

32:17 And the possibility of vengeance which might have rectified such dishonor was publicly withheld. He had no desire for vengeance. He said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. The humiliating bodily contortions, no evidence he was exempted from them. And excretions, no evidence he was exempted from them, were in public view. And often the bodies were not buried but left on the cross until the birds had done their work. Thank God, not true of our Lord. Crucifixion meant death with great dishonor, with public degradation. And that's what the book of Hebrews has in mind when it says, Christ endured the cross, despising the shame. Christ served for sins. I challenge you this morning, you who would deny the reality of sin, you who would regard it with indifference, you who would face it with denial, would laugh at it and mock at it. Plant yourself six feet in front of the cross if you dare.

33:39 Plant yourself there. And look up at the naked, immolated, blood-soaked, battered body of the Son of God, Messiah. And ask yourself this question. If sin's not a real thing, what in God's name is he doing there? If sin is not an ugly thing, what is he doing there?

34:08 If sin is not a wrath-deserving thing, what is he doing there? Gaze upon him with the blood streaming down from the crown of thorns. Gaze upon him with the blood mingled with the spittle of the raw, coarse soldiers. Gaze upon him with the bruises and contusions from the blows from the hands and rods of which Scripture speaks. But worse than all that horrible physical sight, look upon him. As feeling in his soul the weight of a world's sin, a weight so heavy that as it pressed in upon him in those three mysterious hours when the heavens were shrouded in inky black darkness, he cried out, My God, my God, why, why didst thou forsake me? My friend, if you can look at that,

35:13 throw your hands up and say, God have mercy. You may be beyond mercy. Sufferings were penal, his sufferings were the just venting of God's holy wrath against sins. The wages of sin is death, and the essence of death is separation. And what he experienced was not merely cast out by society and publicly shamed, but I say it reverently, for a period of time, as it were, cast out from heaven itself. My God, my God, why? Did you forsake me? Do you see the relevance of this for suffering saints in Asia Minor?

36:21 In the midst of their sufferings, feeling the pinch of being wrongly accused for doing well, being reviled, eventually, perhaps some of them physically abused, perhaps some of them eventually experiencing martyrdom, what comfort they would derive from these words, Christ also suffered.

36:45 But the fellow sufferer in whose sufferings you have coinonia, Philippians 3, but he suffered for sins, a suffering you will never have to know, because he suffered for sins. None of your sufferings are penal in nature. They are disciplinary. They are paternal. They are calculated by God to accomplish many things. But there is no penal stroke of divine justice. Upon any of the sufferings for righteousness' sake in the lives of his people. And furthermore, how loath they should be to sin and deny their Lord because of some reviling, because of some unjust treatment, because even of martyrdom itself. Why should they sin against one who suffered

The Precise Nature of Christ's Sufferings: Final

37:45 for sins? But then, I must hasten on and note the second thing in the text.

37:52 Not only does it tell us Christ suffered for sins. His death was penal. But Christ suffered for sins once. His death was final.

38:04 His death was final. In the Greek text, the word hapax is placed forward. This comes out in your New King James translation, which reads, For Christ also suffered once for sin. The Greek text says, It's because also Christ once concerning sins suffered.

38:26 So that the once-ness of His suffering is indeed placed forward to underscore Christ suffered for sins once. His death was final. This word once, hapax, means at least at the minimal sense of its meaning, the actual number once preceding twice, excluding Christ. He suffered once.

38:56 Paul says He was stoned once. 2 Corinthians 11.25 It is appointed unto men once to die. Hebrews 9.27 Once and not twice. So that the most limited sense of the use of this word would underscore that His death was final. He suffered once. And there will be no twice.

39:19 We learn from the analogy of Scripture. But this is the very word used in Jude chapter verse 3, where Jude says, Contend earnestly for the faith that was once. And most Bibles translate that use of hapax, once for all. The faith which was once for all, never to be delivered again.

39:42 It is the once for all delivered faith. And this word with a prefix is used in Hebrews 10.10 to speak of the sacrifice of Christ. That is once for all.

39:54 And Romans 6.10 His death that is once for all. And it is once for all because it is final. And it is final because it is fully satisfactory to the ends for which He underwent that death.

40:11 The language of Peter is simply the logical extension of the cry that our Lord uttered as recorded in John 19.30. Knowing that all things, all things were accomplished. The telestai used in verse 28.

40:28 Jesus said, I thirst. And after receiving what was given to Him, it says, He then spoke the words, It is finished. The telestai, again used by John. It is finished.

40:43 And He bowed His head and yielded up His spirit. It is finished. The work is accomplished. So that here, Peter, isn't it interesting?

40:52 Peter, the first so-called Pope, puts a word in his letter to these saints in these provinces of Asia Minor that forever bars the door to the blasphemy of the doctrine of the Mass.

41:12 A doctrine that says that Christ, in a bloodless way, is really and truly offered up upon not a communion table, but what they, they properly call it with their theology, and an altar. Offered up. And if you don't understand official Roman Catholic teaching, you need to understand it. At its heart, there is the teaching that when the priest utters the words of consecration, the wafer and the wine actually become the body and blood of Christ.

41:47 Which body and blood are now offered up in the Mass by the priest as a sacrifice to God? Extending and continuing, not merely remembering the once-for-all sacrifice of our Lord Jesus. Listen to the official Roman Catholic teaching, post-Vatican II. People say, Oh, Vatican II, everything's different.

42:11 No, it's not different. It just may be more subtle in certain areas. But listen to the official Roman Catholic statement. Hence the Mass, the Lord's Supper, is at the same time, and in certain places, separately, a sacrifice in which the sacrifice of the cross is perpetuated.

42:33 For in it, Christ perpetuates in an unbloody manner the sacrifice offered on the cross, offering Himself to the Father for the world's salvation through the ministry of priests. End quote. And then the Council of Trent states, and it's never been rescinded, that all of us who say that the communion service is nothing but a remembrance of a once-for-all, non-extended, non-repeated, non-perpetuated sacrifice, let him be anathema. We will come to the table tonight under the curse of the Church of Rome, under their anathema. Now, you didn't know that? That's true. And why do I speak so passionately about it?

43:26 For the simple reason, dear folks, that though we grieve as we did in our prayer together today over the erosion of common decency and morality on every hand, there are voices that say, at least there are Catholics who are committed to standards of morality and they're against abortion. Let's lock arm in these causes and forget our differences. My friend, listen. We dare not forget that which is central to the faith of Christians.

43:59 Christ died for sins once for all. By one offering he has perfected forever them that are sanctified. And it is in the once-for-allness of his death that we find our life and our salvation. We delight to look back not merely with sentimental glances backward, but with the eye of faith and see him writhing in agony, trying to tell us it stands accomplished, bowing his head and yielding up his spirit, coming out of the grave on that third day to go back to the right hand of the Father, not to be humiliated to death again and again and again on Roman altars. In one of Mother Teresa's meditations she speaks of the loveliness of Christ's humiliation. He is willing to be humiliated to the point where he comes down to the size where a priest can hold him between his two fingers. She believed her theology.

45:14 The priest has Christ in his fingers. Peter says, no, he suffered once for all. His death was final. But thirdly note what Peter says.

The Precise Nature of Christ's Sufferings: Vicarious

45:29 Christ suffered the righteous for the unrighteous. See how every word is pregnant with significance? He suffered the righteous for the unrighteous. His death was vicarious.

45:42 Vicarious simply means something in the place of another thing. Vicar. In the place of. His death was vicarious.

45:52 He suffered the righteous for the unrighteous. In most of our translations there's the article before the righteous and the unrighteous, the just, the unjust, but again in the original text there is no article. There's a purpose for that. When a Greek writer would leave off the article when using words that highlight a certain character trait or quality, leaving off the article highlighted the quality so we could read it this way.

46:24 Peter's readers would have read it this way. Christ suffered or died for sin. A righteous one. Unrighteous ones.

46:36 And the emphasis falls upon the contrast between Christ as a righteous one and we, the beneficiaries of his death as unrighteous ones. It highlights the moral character of the two parties and what Peter is saying using that little preposition that has become the standard of the Bible is that Christ suffered for the unrighteous for the unrighteous for the unrighteous for the unrighteous becomes the standard prominent word to denote substitution in the New Testament. He suffers for sins He suffers for sins a righteous one who pair who pair in the place of in the place of a half of in the room instead of unrighteous one. The same construction is used in those pivotal parallel texts. Deemed us from the curse of the law. Being made a curse.

47:39 Who pair. Being made a curse. For us. 2 Corinthians 5.21 He hath made him to be sin. For us. Who pair. The one who knew no sin.

47:52 1 Corinthians 15.3 This is the gospel Paul said I received and I delivered unto you. Christ died for who pair our sins. It is the word of substitution.

48:05 And liberal theologians have done their best to try to stand the Greek language on its head. But they cannot do it. Peter's simple first century Greek forever establishes that his death was vicarious. It was the death.

48:21 The suffering of the truly righteous one. A fully holy undiluted righteous one. For unrighteous ones. Unrighteous in what sense?

48:34 In the full sense. That you've learned in the adult class in the last two weeks. In all the horrible panoramic view of what we are as joined to Adam. In all of our involvement in his first sin and transgression.

48:53 And all that has flowed from it in terms of the depravity and the pollution of our nature. That's what it means to be the unrighteous one. And Peter is saying Christ suffered a righteous one. For unrighteous ones.

49:16 As old Rabbi Duncan wrote. The death could not be inflicted unless the sin was imputed. Christ could not suffer in the eye unless the sin became truly his by imputation. So the nature of a sacrifice is the death of the innocent for the guilty.

49:34 By the transference of the guilt to the innocent. The guilt is transferred from unrighteous ones to a righteous one. And when it's transferred to him. He is dealt with as though he were the accumulation of the unrighteous ones.

49:57 Father was willing that the iniquity should be charged on him. Though not as the doer of it. Yet as the answerer for it. He was not the doer of our unrighteousness.

50:10 But he became the answerer for our unrighteousness. Christ suffered. Christ died. A righteous one.

The Precise Nature of Christ's Sufferings: Purposeful and Efficacious

50:20 For unrighteous ones. And then fourthly. He not only died and suffered a penal, final, vicarious death. But look at the text.

50:32 Christ suffered for sins. Once a righteous one. For unrighteous ones. In order that.

50:40 He might bring us to God. The only way I know to capture this was in two words. I could not reduce it to one. He suffered for sins.

50:53 That he might bring us to God. His death was purposeful and efficacious.

51:03 Now isn't it a shame that a preacher dares to use purposeful. A three syllable word. And then a four syllable word. E-F-I-C-A-T-I-O-S.

51:13 But friends. I've never, never been intimidated to dumb down the Christian faith to a generation that has no appreciation for words.

51:22 And I scoured my synonym finder and my brain and my dictionary. And I don't know any other two words more simple and yet more accurately capture what Peter is saying here. Christ suffered. That is suffered unto death.

51:38 For sins. Once a righteous one. For unrighteous ones. And it had a distinction.

51:44 It did purpose. This is a purpose clause. In order that. And what was the purpose?

51:50 In order that he might bring us to God. But it was not only purposeful. It was efficacious. The form of the verb suggests that he would actually bring a people to God.

52:03 Not merely have a purpose that some might be brought to God. But that he might actually bring us to God. That which is efficacious. Efficacious affects the purpose for which it is given or done.

52:18 And efficacious medicine affects the cure that you hope it would procure and would affect when you took it. And efficacious death is one that affects the purpose for which Christ died. And that purpose is to bring us to God. Now stop and think for a moment.

52:42 Was his purpose that where there might be a just. Basis of pardon and forgiveness. That we might have our sins forgiven. And might not fear the wrath of God.

52:52 Yes. Was it that we might have our title to heaven. Righteously secured by the dying of another. Yes.

53:02 But none of those things encompasses this broader perspective.

53:08 Jesus Christ died. He suffered. Four sins. A righteous one.

53:15 On behalf of unrighteous ones. That we the sinners might actually be brought to God. This verb. Kosago.

53:25 Means to usher someone into the presence of another. Jesus said bring him to me. In Luke 9.41.

53:33 In Acts 16. It is spoken of those who brought Paul and Silas before the magistrates. They dragged them in. They brought them in.

53:44 He suffered. He died. Once for all. A righteous one for unrighteous ones.

53:50 To what end? That he might actually bring us into fellowship. And communion with God. Here and now.

54:00 And bring us into the immediate presence of God. At the consummation. When the Lord Jesus returns again. And even our bodies are glorified.

54:10 And we in the integrity of a united body and soul. Will be forever. With the Lord. Now it shows us that in Peter's theology we do not by nature as it were grow up in human consciousness in fellowship and communion with God.

54:30 He is assuming the whole biblical doctrine that by nature we are alienated from God. We are at a distance from God. We are without God. And without hope in the world.

54:40 He views us all as a race of prodigals in the far country. And Christ died to make us rich. And make us returning prodigals who like that prodigal in Luke 15. When he is ready to go home he doesn't say now I will arise and go to my father's desk and find his checkbook and begin to live the good life again.

55:03 Nor does he say I will arise and go to my father's cupboard and exchange pig's food for the lavish fare of my father's house. He says no I will arise and go where? To my father's house. I will arise and go to my father's.

55:22 It's my father's face I want to see. It's my father's heart that I want to return to. I will arise and go to my father. And Christ died that when in the virtue of his death we make our approach to God it is that we might return to God himself.

55:44 To embrace him as our God. Turning from our idols. The worship of ourselves and our friends and our toys and our own ambitions and our own notions of life and our own standards for life. No we turn from all of that and we return to God.

56:03 First Thessalonians 1.9. They themselves report of us what manner of entering in we have unto you how that you turn to God from your idols to serve the living and the true God and to wait for his son from heaven. When Paul was commissioned in Acts 26.8.

56:18 God says I'm commissioning you Paul and this is your mission to open their eyes. To turn them from darkness to light from the power of Satan unto God. They might receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those that are sanctified by faith in me. No sinner receives forgiveness who doesn't return to God.

56:44 All kinds of sinners think they snatched at forgiveness who are living in the far country. They are self deluded and here you're deluded my friend. There's no forgiveness without returning to God. You don't believe you look at Acts 26 and verse 18.

57:00 Open their eyes. Turn them from darkness to light from the power of Satan unto God in order that they may receive forgiveness. If you've not been turned from the power of Satan unto God you have no forgiveness in Christ. God does not forgive rebels who simply nod to the cross and say yeah I'd like the benefits of the cross.

57:23 That is forgiveness, the title to eternal life and fire insurance. No the cross is according to Peter the means by which sinners return to God. He suffered. He died.

Conclusion: Doctrine as the Subsoil of Practice

57:38 He died for sins. He died once for all. He died a righteous for unrighteous ones that he might bring us to God. Think what this meant again to these suffering saints there in Asia Minor.

57:55 It would immediately recall. To mind what they were in their unconverted state yes they had no pressure from their friends. He writes about it in chapter 4. They think it's strange that you don't carouse with them as you once did and when you were carousing with them everybody was locking arms and everybody was praising one another and everything was fine and now some of those people are hurling insults into your teeth.

58:20 They're reviling you. They're speaking evil of you but he says remember this. When they were locking arms. When you were sitting at the bar drinking your beer together and when you were telling your dirty jokes together and when you were pursuing your godless career together and when you were whatever you were and whatever you were doing you were without God and without hope.

58:43 They would then reason well whatever I now suffer what is it compared to the misery of living without God in time and the horrible misery and frightening prospect of being without him in outer darkness forever yes the suffering pinches the flesh but it is suffering that draws me closer in communion with my God and with my Christ and I realize more and more in my experience the very end for which he died that I might be brought unto God. Well we come around full circle and close see what Peter's done he's done what the biblical writers often do. In the most practical sections you'll find some of the richest doctrinal statements and in the most rich doctrinal statements you'll find the most practical directives because according to the word of God it is the doctrines of the Christian faith that are the subsoil of all of the practice and all of the practice flows out of the doctrine flows out of the doctrine has its tap roots in the doctrine. You can't separate doctrine and practice. So when Peter is giving enlightenment and comfort and exhortation to suffering saints he gives this marvelous statement of the unique aspects of the sufferings of Christ.

60:11 He also suffered for sins his sufferings were penal once they were final suffered the righteous for the unrighteous they were vicarious that he might bring us to God purposeful and efficacious. Do you know that? Do you know that? Do you know that?

60:30 Do you know that? the benefit of the suffering in your life? If not I urge you to go and lay hold of him as he is so freely offered in the gospel. Let's pray.

60:52 Our Father we thank you for your word thank you for this portion that we've been privileged to meditate upon this morning and we pray that the Holy Spirit would be pleased to write it upon our hearts. We pray especially for those who think of sin lightly. Do not estimate sin lightly. Do not estimate sin lightly.

61:10 its guilt, we pray that you would take them, plant them before an immolated, crucified Savior, and there break their hearts, and bring them in penitence and faith unto yourself. Bless, we pray, your people, that we may cherish as never before the wonder that he, a righteous one, would die for us, unrighteous one. Receive our thanks, and continue with us throughout the hours of this day, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.