Communion Meditation – 1 Peter 2:24

Introduction: The Context of Christ's Suffering as an Example

0:05 This sermon was preached on Sunday evening, August 2, 1981, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now will you turn, please, in your Bibles to the first letter of Peter, 1 Peter, chapter 2,

0:28 and follow as I read, beginning with verse 18, and conclude the reading with verse 25. 1 Peter, chapter 2, beginning with verse 18.

0:46 In the midst of a string of exhortations to various segments of the Christian community, Peter now addresses slaves, and he says, Slaves, be in subjection to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward. For this is a...

1:10 It 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 for it, you shall take it patiently? But if when you do well and suffer for it, ye shall take it patiently. This is acceptable with God.

1:33 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 bear our sins in his body upon the tree, that we, having died unto sins, might live unto righteousness, by whom...

2:10 Who stripes you were healed, for you were going astray like sheep, but are now returned unto the shepherd and overseer of your souls. Now, the text which will form the basis of our communion meditation this evening is verse 24.

2:33 Who his own self bear our sins in his body upon the tree, that we, having... Who his own self bear our sins in his body upon the tree, that we, having died unto sins, might live unto righteousness.

2:48 But before seeking to unpack, albeit but briefly, some of the leading lines of thought in the text, let me say just a word about the setting in which this wonderful text concerning the death of Christ is given to us. As I've already suggested, Peter is exhorting, particularly in this paragraph, slaves, with respect to their reaction to their masters, particularly masters who treat them unreasonably and unjustly. What is a slave to do if, when he fulfills all that his master requires, he is then punished for his good service? Well, Peter says he is to take this...

3:42 patiently, he is not to revile, he is not to stand upon his rights for the simple reason that as a Christian slave he is called upon to follow the example of his own Lord and Master Jesus Christ. And so he says, if when you do well and suffer for it and take it patiently, this is pleasing to God because in so doing you are following the pattern of your Savior, who, when he was reviled, did not revile again. When he suffered, he did not threaten. And so the whole subject of the suffering of Christ is introduced in the context of regulating the practical, ethical behavior of slaves. But as is so often true in the Bible, the most practical duties are but, by the most profound doctrines, and the most profound doctrines form the basis of exhortation to the most practical duties. In this very setting of setting forth the death of Christ and the suffering of Christ as exemplary for believers, Peter makes one of the most profound statements about the death of Christ

The Exclusively Personal Work of Christ

5:07 in a dimension which is not exemplary, but in a dimension which is exclusively propitiatory, exclusively the death of Christ on behalf of others. And those very basic questions with respect to the death of Christ, such as, what precisely did Christ do upon the cross? That question is answered in explicit language in verse 24. What exactly transpired when Jesus Christ died upon the cross?

5:48 What is the relationship to what transpired when He died upon the cross and our personal salvation? What is the practical fruition of what He did when He died upon the cross in terms of our own practical experience? Well, I say these very fundamental questions. The very fundamental questions concerning which no man or woman, boy or girl, ought to be ignorant are the questions which are answered in our text.

6:21 And for the next 25 minutes, and I'm making a covenant with you on the basis of empathy with respect to the closeness of the weather and the fact that we still have time to meet together about the table of the Lord, I do not want to weary you so that you cannot come with freshness. To the Lord's table, so approximately for the next 25 minutes, will you follow with me with your Bibles open as we seek to unpack four very profound and fundamental aspects of the death of Christ opened up in this passage. And the first thing that verse 24 tells us is that the work of Christ upon the cross was exclusively personal. Look at the language of verse 24. Who His own self bare our sins in His own body upon the tree. And the wording in the original underscores with tremendous emphasis that the work that Christ accomplished upon the cross was an exclusively personal work.

7:38 Now we read in the Gospel of Luke, that in the midst of the agony of Gethsemane, God sent an angel to strengthen Christ in the garden. But you see, the angel came to strengthen Christ, to perform the work which only He could do. The angel did not come to be a co-worker with Him in that work of redemption. So whatever the heart of the message of the cross is, it is a work which points to something utterly unique, something in which Christ personally and exclusively engaged Himself for the salvation of sinners. And it is not without reason that when we come to the Lord's table, we come in obedience to His own command, His own command, this do in remembrance of one person, me. He did not say this do in remembrance of me and my mother Mary. He did not say this do in remembrance of me and my apostles, me and my saints, me and my priests, me and my ministers.

9:03 No, no. He said this do in remembrance, of me and of me alone. And He did that because the work that He accomplished in procuring our salvation is a work in which He worked alone. And coming to the Lord's table tonight, we must fix all of the attention of our minds, all of the devotion of our hearts upon the One who is God.

9:38 His own self alone accomplished something for us men and our salvation. So that's the first thing Peter tells us about the work of Christ upon the cross. It was exclusively personal. But then a second thing is given to us in the text, and it is this.

The Strictly Sacrificial Nature of Christ's Death

10:00 The work of Christ upon the cross was not only exclusively personal, but it was strictly personal. It was strictly sacrificial. Look at the language. Who His own self bear our sins in His body.

10:20 And the word used translated here, bear our sins, is the word used for the sacrificial ritual again and again in the book of Hebrews. For instance, in Hebrews 7 and verse 27, we have, we have this word used, Hebrews 7 and verse 27.

10:46 We should back up to verse 26. For such a high priest became us, holy, guileless, unbefiled, separated from sinners and made higher than the heavens, who needed not daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people. For this He did, once for all, when He offered up Himself. This is sacrificial language.

11:17 It's used concerning the offering up of Isaac by Abraham in James 2 and verse 21. And this is why Peter says, Who His own self bear our sins in His body. Now it does not mean His body, apart from His soul. For you'll remember again, in Gethsemane He said, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.

11:50 But the emphasis is placed upon the body because of the sacrificial imagery that is here in the text. For you remember in the Old Testament, when the blood had been drained from the sacrificial victim, then the victim himself was placed upon the altar and the body, was consumed in the fire upon that altar. And just as we are exhorted to offer ourselves living sacrifices with reference to our bodies, Romans 12, 1, I beseech you by the mercies of God that you present your bodies, that is, the entirety of your persons in the concreteness of all that you are. So the text says that our Lord's death was strictly sacrificed in the concreteness of all that He was as a true man, with a true soul and a real body. He bore our sins in His body. And again, you see, it is not without significance that when we come to the Lord's table, what is one of the activities of that table? The Scripture tells us that the Lord Jesus, the night in which He was betrayed, took bread.

13:09 And when, when He had blessed it, He broke it and said, this is my body which is for you. In other words, there was to be a true, a real sacrifice. His going to the cross was not a matter of religious notions. It was not a matter of a mere adjustment of some ideas and some abstractions.

13:32 No, no. He could say, a body thou hast prepared me. And in that body He lived the life we should have lived but did not. And in that body He died the death that we should have died.

13:49 And He was both offerer, high priest, and offering the true sacrifice. And He was that sacrifice in the giving up of His body to death upon the cross. And so, this is the second fundamental element in the death of Christ that is underscored in our text. It was exclusively personal who His own self, it was strictly sacrificial, bore our sins in His body.

The Genuinely Penal Aspect of Christ's Sacrifice

14:21 But then thirdly, it was genuinely penal, P-E-N-A-L, and every intelligent Christian ought to have that word as part of His working vocabulary. He bore our sins in His body upon or up to the tree or literally to the wood. Now why does Peter emphasize that He bore our sins in His body upon the wood or upon the tree? Well, to underscore that His death was a genuine penal sacrifice.

15:02 That is, God was meeting out upon His Son the punishment upon His Son. upon His Son. upon His Son. The punishment due to our sins.

15:11 And it was His bearing of our sins upon the tree that underscored as nothing else could underscore that He was dying a penal death. He was being punished of God. Turn please to Deuteronomy chapter 21, which is the pivotal text underscoring this principle. Deuteronomy chapter 21.

15:37 Deuteronomy chapter 21. Deuteronomy chapter 21. Here couched in the directives of God through Moses to His old covenant people. God says in verse 22, And if a man hath committed a sin worthy of death, and he be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt surely bury him the same day for his body.

16:09 He that is hanged, not hanged anyway, but he that is hanged in the context, hanged upon a tree, upon wood. He that is hanged is accursed of God. And to be hung up to public display after execution was the ultimate expression that this person was executed under the anathema of God. And to be hung up to public display was the ultimate expression of God.

16:44 And when people would pass by and see a corpse strapped to a stump, they would know immediately that man died for whatever crime under the curse, under the maldiction, under the frown, under the anger of the Almighty. When we turn to the New Testament we see that the language of Deuteronomy is picked up and underscored and emphasized by the apostle in Galatians chapter 3 and I just want to say that I direct your attention to that passage, Galatians chapter 3 and verse 13. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, and here we have a direct quote from Deuteronomy 21-23, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. So when Peter tells us that he his own self bare our sins in his body upon the tree, Peter is underscoring that it was a genuinely penal sacrifice for sin. The committing of sin was the act of the creature. The guilt of sin was the liability of the creature.

18:09 But the punishment for sin became the experience of the sin-bearer himself. And as we think of the cross of Christ, we will never begin to understand the ABCs of its message until we see beyond the angry mob, beyond the taunting soldiers, beyond the blasphemous jeers of the scribes and the Pharisees, see beyond the tragedy of the cowardice of disciples who flee hither and yon in the hour of our Lord's deepest need. We will never understand the ABCs of the cross until we see that the cross is supremely this. It is God the Father bringing upon God the Son, the accursedness which you are your sins and my sins deserved. In the language of Isaiah 53, which was obviously in Peter's mind as you follow through the latter verses of this second chapter of his letter, it was Jehovah heaping upon His Son the iniquity of us all. It was the Lord who was bruising Him.

19:34 It was Jehovah who was putting the servant of Jehovah to grieve and I say we do not begin to understand the cross until we come to grips with that reality. And has God the Holy Spirit through the Word ever made that truth a burning reality to your heart and mind? Have you seen beyond the external circumstances of the cross? Have you seen beyond that scene which just is filled literally with fear and anguish and anguish and anguish and anguish and anguish and anguish those elements which touch our sympathies and move us on the one hand to pity and to anger and to disgust? Have you come to the place where you have seen this that is the heart of its message. He bore our sins in His body upon the tree. And when the guilt of our sin was imputed to Jesus Christ the sinbearer He took nothing less than our accursedolleness.

20:41 He experienced nothing less than the anger of the Almighty. He took nothing less than that forsakenness which sin deserves and which the judgment of God inevitably brings. It is this reality that caused our hymn writer to say in words that express this far more profoundly than I can express it. A hymn we've often sung as we've come to the Lord's table.

21:14 Tell me, you who hear Him groaning, was there ever grief like His? Friends through fear His cause disowning, foes insulting His distress, many hands were raised to wound Him, none would interpose to save, but the deepest stroke that...

21:38 pierced Him was the stroke that justice gave. You who think of sin but lightly, nor suppose its evil great, here may view its nature rightly, here its guilt may estimate. Mark the sacrifice appointed. See who bears the awful load.

22:06 Tis the word, the Lord's anointing. The anointed Son of man and Son of God. My friend, do you think of sin lightly? Then take the words of Peter.

22:19 He bore our sins in His body to the tree. God does not take sin lightly. He engineers the death of His Son under the Roman government that He shall appear for all time as the one who was accursed of God. Amen.

22:38 Your lies, dear children, your bad words, your disobedience to mommy and daddy, your thievery, your pride, your anger, your lust, your selfishness, your covetousness, your intemperance, and all the other catalogs of sins given in the Bible. What do they look like in the estimation of God? See the sin bearer. They are cursed of God upon a tree so that it is evident to all who look that He does not die simply as one who in the pursuit of a noble cause was unappreciated and therefore discarded by society. No, He was discarded by God the Father.

23:35 It is the Father who cast Him off. It is the Father who bruises Him. It is the Father who makes Him a curse. And Peter is very careful to underscore that by saying, who His own self bear our sins in His own body upon the tree.

The Radically Effectual Purpose of Christ's Death

24:01 But then there is a fourth thing that Peter tells us about the death of Christ that needs desperately to be underscored. He has told us that that death was exclusively personal. Who His own self, strictly sacrificial, bore our sins in His own body, genuinely penal upon the tree. But it was radically effectual.

24:28 Look at the language of the text. Why did He do all of this? In order that we, having died unto sins, might live unto righteousness. Now that's a strange stroke of the pen on the surface of things.

24:49 We might think that Peter would have written, who His own self bore our sins in His own body upon the tree, that we, having full forgiveness, might have joy unspeakable and full of glory. And that would be a true statement. But that isn't what he says. Nor does he say, who His own self bore our sins in His own body upon the tree, that we, being delivered from the death of Christ, by the just penalty of hell, might rejoice in the hope of heaven.

25:18 Now that's true. But that isn't what Peter says. You see what Peter says? Look at the language.

25:24 The whole end that Christ had in view, and the language in the original, does not suggest that there is any tentativeness in the securing of that end. As certainly as He died, the end will be secured. It is a radically effectual end, secured by His death. And what is it?

25:47 Look at the language. In order that we, having died, or more literally translated, having ceased to exist for the sins, might live unto or for righteousness. In other words, the radically effectual end of the death of Christ is to bring every person who believingly embraces the provisions of that death to this place where He has this total transformation of attitude and of pattern of life with regard to sin. And it's expressed in this language that we, having ceased to exist for the sins, might live unto righteousness. In other words, Jesus did not undergo the accursedness of the cross simply to release men from the just penalty of their sins while leaving them wedded to their sins to go on sinning with impunity. No, He did not do that. He died so that when there is a believing embrace of the significance of His death and of the one who died, there will inevitably occur

The Way to Holiness and the Test of True Pardon

27:15 in every person who embraces Christ a ceasing to live for sin and a commitment to a life of righteousness. Now that teaches us two very simple but fundamental principles. The first is this. There is no way to a life of holiness but the way of full and free pardon based on the death of Christ.

27:45 How do people become holy? Not by saying, if I undergo this discipline and that discipline and fix myself up here and fix myself up there, then eventually I'll become a holy man. No, no. You see, that was Martin Luther's painful experience for years.

28:02 He tried to become a holy man by working his way up to the cross. God says no. There's only one way that men and women cease to exist. To live unto sins and begin to live unto righteousness.

28:18 And that's when they see the full and free pardon of sin extended to them in the death of Jesus Christ. When they come to grips with this glorious fact, He, His own self, bore our sins in His body upon the tree. He was accursed of God. He tread the winepress alone.

28:42 He died that I might not die. And He offers me without money and without price the gift of pardon and life. And there is only one way to break the dominion of sin in the heart of a sinner, and that is by the Spirit and the Word to bring that sinner to the place where He embraces a free pardon. And when He embraces the free pardon, sin's dominion is broken and He begins to live to righteousness.

29:14 There is no way to promote holiness but by the preaching of the cross. There is no way to advance godliness but by the proclamation of a free pardon to sinners sealed in the blood of Jesus. But then there is a parallel truth. And the parallel truth is this.

A Call to Radical Holiness and Self-Examination for Communicants

29:36 There is no true acceptance of pardon and forgiveness. There is no true acceptance of forgiveness based on the death of Christ if the radical change from a life unto sin to a life unto righteousness is not your experience. And frankly this is what pains my heart with not a few of you who seem to show some intellectual understanding of the truths that I've expounded tonight. Elementary ABC truths of the Word of God that Christ exclusively accomplished the work of salvation.

30:17 He did it as a sacrifice. He did it as a penal substitute for sinners. You understand those truths and you say that you've embraced Christ and the benefits of His death. But my friend, listen to me.

30:34 Do these words describe you? That you should die unto sins and live unto righteousness. Is that a description of your life? A description of a life far from perfect, yes.

30:54 A life in which there are ups and downs, yes. But a life in which this fundamental issue is non-negotiable. I have from sin the power of Jesus Christ and I shall pursue holiness. I say concerning not a few of you, my heart breaks and my tears when I pray through the membership list because I don't run to righteousness at any cost. You're on your godless friends, godless movies and entertainment. When I hear of some of the movies that some of the members of this church attend, I pretend I want to blush and dig a hole and hide. I read the reviews in magazines

32:15 that is no friend of grace. Reviewers say about those films. And then I think that Trinity members take the emblems of the broken body and the poured out Savior and put them in their mouths when they're on the seductive scenes of the latest James Bond movie. And I believe I have grounds to blush. He returned from His death. I would say the sins that crucified my Savior to the cross of mortal mortification at any cost. And if you're not prepared for that, show your colors.

33:29 Don't take His name upon your lips and disgrace the end for which He poured out His blood. You say, that's fanatical. You show me that I've misinterpreted that verse. Live unto righteousness.

33:51 That means God's standard of holiness. In terms of the movies you watch. In terms of what you do on your dates, young people. In terms of who you date.

34:01 And I'm going after this thing until there's some changes. How in God's name can you spend four and five hours with an unconverted fellow or girl and even feel that that's a good time? What in God's name do you have in common with an unconverted person that you can enjoy four or five hours of social intercourse with? Ah, you're old fashioned.

34:32 You show me where I'm unbiblical. Live unto righteousness. That means God's righteous demands of self-denial touch your checkbook. Your income.

34:47 You're not free to do with your money what you would like to, what your flesh would dictate. It touches every area. Whether you eat, drink, whatever we do. Oh, dear people.

35:01 God have mercy on this assembly. Here for the beautiful new building. We have a fashionable Christianity that has no cutting edge of radical holiness. You hear me?

35:14 God have mercy if we have a fashionable building but a Christianity that has no cutting edge of radical holiness. And if you don't want radical holiness, my friend, you better find another church because as long as some of us have breath that's the only kind we're going to preach. There are all kinds of churches where you can be comfortable believing enough about Jesus and you feel all is well and you'll go to heaven when you die. But not experiencing enough of this radical transforming power of the cross to make you a barb in the conscience of this generation.

35:52 And every single one of us ought to be a barb in the conscience of this generation. We ought so to live that men will know that the radical power of the death of Christ has invaded us. And we are no longer living unto the sins that put him to death but we're living unto the righteousness that he himself is. That he himself has patterned by his own life.

Communion and Prayer: Embracing the Purpose of Christ's Death

36:19 And in the context you'll see it touches even how we react to those who wrong us. So the death of Christ according to Peter is not only personal, sacrificial and penal but it is radically effectual. And what a wonderful thing it is to come to the Lord's table with no reservations and say when we take the broken bread and we take the cup, Lord Jesus with all my heart I want your death to effect in me more and more what you purposed when you died. There's a sense in which if we could, if it were not improper in terms of the physical surroundings, every one of us as a true Christian would gladly come up, individually and prostrate ourselves on the floor in front of the table of the Lord and say Lord Jesus, your death for me has brought me to that place where I gladly say here Lord I give myself away. It is all that I can do. Would you gladly do that if it were proper to do so? Would you have any reservations?

37:43 Oh my friend if you have any reservations then you've never seen a crucified Savior with the saving eye of faith. And if you haven't may God the Holy Ghost help you to behold him tonight and embrace him as your own. Let us pray. Our Father we marvel that your only begotten Son would count our salvation worth taking upon himself all of the responsibilities entailed in purchasing a salvation for the likes of us. We're ashamed at our carnality. Lord I confess as an under shepherd in this assembly my embarrassment at the meager measure of my own walk in holiness. I confess Lord the sins of my people. Oh give us

38:57 such a sight of the dying love of our Savior that we shall with renewed vigor and strength and power and in the joy of the knowledge of full forgiveness more and more die unto sin and more and more live unto righteousness. Seal the word to our hearts and oh may we walk in its light. We pray for those who have never known the power of the cross severing their ties to the world and to sin. Oh may that power be operative tonight Lord Jesus show yourself show yourself through the word to the hearts of some who prior to this night have seen no beauty in yourself and in your death for sinners. Seal the word may it work in us new measures of love and faith and as we come to the table of our Lord Jesus draw out our hearts in new dimensions of love to him we ask these mercies in his name Amen.