1Pe 2:22 | KingComments | STEP | . With reference to the example that the Lord Jesus has left us to follow, Peter points at what the Lord did not do and what He did do. What He did not do is related to Himself and to the people around Him. What He did do is related to His Father. As it is said in the previous section, you see the example of the Lord in an outstanding way in the Gospels. These Gospels were not available or were only recently in circulation in the days of Peter. What his readers knew, were the scriptures of the Old Testament. To show to them the example of the Lord, Peter quotes from Isaiah 53 ( ). In that magnificent chapter Isaiah prophetically writes comprehensively and impressively about the Lord Jesus. Just read that chapter (again) yourself. Isaiah takes you by the hand and tells you about the birth, the life, the death, the resurrection and the glory of the Lord Jesus in a way that makes you forget everything around you and see only Him. The first quotation from the book of Isaiah is related to what the Lord Jesus has not done. He “committed no sin”. He did not commit any sinful deed. Whatever was seen of Him, it was without sin. Sin is lawlessness ( ). This indicates the essence of sin and that is that there is no regard for any authority. This concerns both the authority of people above us and the authority of God. With the Lord Jesus there was the full recognition of God’s authority and also of the governments, given by God. He came to do the will of God and fully submitted to that will ( ). Therein He is an example for you. He committed no sin because He fully submitted to the will of God. Likewise, you will not sin if you submit fully to God’s will. That is possible, for the Lord Jesus is your life. The best proof that He did not commit sin appears from the next quotation, wherein you read that He never spoke any deceitful word: “Nor was any deceit found in His mouth.” His enemies often tried to catch Him on a wrong word. They were searching for that, as the word “found”, used by Peter, makes think of. Their attempts appeared to be fruitless because He never said anything that was untrue. He only spoke what the Father told Him to speak ( ). How about you? Can that be said of you too, that no deceit was ever found in you? I know a believer who honestly acknowledges how difficult it is for him not to lie. He says that lying had become a second nature to him. He has confessed his sins and really wants to live with the Lord, but he still sometimes suffers the consequences of that and has to admit that he has fallen back in his old pattern of lying. The Lord wants also to be an Example for him. When he looks on Him and learns from Him, he is able to follow His footsteps in this too. . The way His enemies approached Him did not stir up anything in the Lord that can be related to sin. He always replied to His adversaries in a perfectly calm and persuasive way. As a response to that they took their refuge in reviling Him. He did not revile in return. When they ultimately overpowered Him because it was God’s time for that, and they made Him suffer in the most horrible way, “He uttered no threats”. Instead of reviling and uttering threats in return, the Lord prayed: “Father, forgive them” ( ). He entrusted everything to the hands of His Father, Whom He knew as the righteous God. He was fully aware that God was going to judge everything righteously. When you have that awareness, you will surely be able to endure suffering. You can entrust everything, including the unbelievers who mock you, the intolerance you’re facing, the injustice done to you, to God Who judges righteously. You may lay yourself in God’s hand. In His time He will reveal the truth about everything you have done for His sake and for which you have suffered. Do you believe that? . Your attention is drawn to the unique suffering of the Lord that He endured from God’s side because of your sins. In this He is not an example for you. He is absolutely inimitable in this suffering. Nevertheless this aspect of suffering must be mentioned because the Lord Jesus could have never been an example for you, had He not borne your sins. His death is the result of the wrath of God over your sins, which He took on Himself. He took these sins away, so that you may be free now from your sins and therefore be able to take His life as an example to follow. When you, in contrast to that, still sin and in that way cause yourself much suffering, you disregard the work of the Lord Jesus. The work of Christ, accomplished for sin, is the basis to be able to follow Him. In no way you have to give in to sin. It is also significant to point out that the Lord did not bear your sins during His life on earth. He did that only on the cross, in the three hours of darkness. The idea that during His life He already was under the wrath of God, is a great misconception. It is possible that this misconception comes out from a wrong translation of the verse. In a certain Dutch translation it says that He ‘has brought our sins in His body on the tree.’ Therein lies the suggestion that He already bore the sins during His life and then brought them to the cross. As it is already said, this is not true. During His life the Lord Jesus was fully and perfectly pleasing to God, Who more than once spoke that out too ( ). So it is clear that the Lord Jesus has borne your sins in the three hours of darkness and received God’s judgment on it. There He died in your place and you have died with Him there. You have died to sin. Sin has no power over you anymore, you do not have to give in to it anymore. That is really an awesome truth! God now sees you in Christ and He accounts to you what He did to the Lord Jesus. By the way, you cannot find anywhere in the Scripture that you have to die to sin. You have died, you are dead. If you see yourself as God sees you, sin will in no way get a chance in your life to express itself. Instead of giving sin the opportunity in your life, through the work of Christ you are able to “live to righteousness”. Your life is not focused anymore on deserving righteousness, but on being allowed to show in your life the righteousness that you have received in Christ. You are now able to live in accordance to the right of God. That new life attitude is the result of the “wounds” of the judgment that struck the Lord Jesus by the chastising hand of God. By ‘His wounds’ you therefore must not think of the floggings inflicted on Him by the soldiers of Pilate. It goes without saying that those wounds couldn’t possibly have caused your salvation and redemption. Everything that men have done to the Lord Jesus only made the guilt toward Him and toward God greater. No, only what God has done to the Lord Jesus in the judgment on the sins of everyone who believes, “heals” everyone who believes. Here it concerns the healing of the spiritual life that has been affected and destructed by sin. . That you now have been spiritually healthy, appears from the fact that you “have returned to” the Lord Jesus as “the Shepherd and Guardian” of your soul. Like everyone has gone astray from God and has been lost ( ), you also were. You lost the way and couldn’t find it back. Then the good Shepherd came to give His life, that you may find your way back. The sword of God’s judgment was awakened against the Shepherd ( ), God’s Associate, and it struck Him instead of you. In that way the way to return to the Shepherd had been opened. Now you have returned to Him. You have found the Shepherd back, which means that the ‘Shepherd’ found you. He wants to lead your further life and does not want you to be in lack of anything ( ). He is also the ‘Guardian’ of your soul. He guards over it. If you stay with the Shepherd, following Him, He will keep you as the Guardian of your soul in peace and health. Now read 1 Peter 2:22-25 again. Reflection: What is the difference between the suffering of the Lord Jesus from the side of men and from the side of God?

‏ 1 Peter 2:22

Live for Righteousness

1Pet 2:22. With reference to the example that the Lord Jesus has left us to follow, Peter points at what the Lord did not do and what He did do. What He did not do is related to Himself and to the people around Him. What He did do is related to His Father.

As it is said in the previous section, you see the example of the Lord in an outstanding way in the Gospels. These Gospels were not available or were only recently in circulation in the days of Peter. What his readers knew, were the scriptures of the Old Testament. To show to them the example of the Lord, Peter quotes from Isaiah 53 (Isa 53:9). In that magnificent chapter Isaiah prophetically writes comprehensively and impressively about the Lord Jesus. Just read that chapter (again) yourself. Isaiah takes you by the hand and tells you about the birth, the life, the death, the resurrection and the glory of the Lord Jesus in a way that makes you forget everything around you and see only Him.

The first quotation from the book of Isaiah is related to what the Lord Jesus has not done. He “committed no sin”. He did not commit any sinful deed. Whatever was seen of Him, it was without sin. Sin is lawlessness (1Jn 3:4). This indicates the essence of sin and that is that there is no regard for any authority. This concerns both the authority of people above us and the authority of God. With the Lord Jesus there was the full recognition of God’s authority and also of the governments, given by God. He came to do the will of God and fully submitted to that will (Heb 10:7).

Therein He is an example for you. He committed no sin because He fully submitted to the will of God. Likewise, you will not sin if you submit fully to God’s will. That is possible, for the Lord Jesus is your life.

The best proof that He did not commit sin appears from the next quotation, wherein you read that He never spoke any deceitful word: “Nor was any deceit found in His mouth.” His enemies often tried to catch Him on a wrong word. They were searching for that, as the word “found”, used by Peter, makes think of. Their attempts appeared to be fruitless because He never said anything that was untrue. He only spoke what the Father told Him to speak (Jn 12:50).

How about you? Can that be said of you too, that no deceit was ever found in you? I know a believer who honestly acknowledges how difficult it is for him not to lie. He says that lying had become a second nature to him. He has confessed his sins and really wants to live with the Lord, but he still sometimes suffers the consequences of that and has to admit that he has fallen back in his old pattern of lying. The Lord wants also to be an Example for him. When he looks on Him and learns from Him, he is able to follow His footsteps in this too.

1Pet 2:23. The way His enemies approached Him did not stir up anything in the Lord that can be related to sin. He always replied to His adversaries in a perfectly calm and persuasive way. As a response to that they took their refuge in reviling Him. He did not revile in return. When they ultimately overpowered Him because it was God’s time for that, and they made Him suffer in the most horrible way, “He uttered no threats”. Instead of reviling and uttering threats in return, the Lord prayed: “Father, forgive them” (Lk 23:34).

He entrusted everything to the hands of His Father, Whom He knew as the righteous God. He was fully aware that God was going to judge everything righteously. When you have that awareness, you will surely be able to endure suffering. You can entrust everything, including the unbelievers who mock you, the intolerance you’re facing, the injustice done to you, to God Who judges righteously. You may lay yourself in God’s hand. In His time He will reveal the truth about everything you have done for His sake and for which you have suffered. Do you believe that?

1Pet 2:24. Your attention is drawn to the unique suffering of the Lord that He endured from God’s side because of your sins. In this He is not an example for you. He is absolutely inimitable in this suffering. Nevertheless this aspect of suffering must be mentioned because the Lord Jesus could have never been an example for you, had He not borne your sins.

His death is the result of the wrath of God over your sins, which He took on Himself. He took these sins away, so that you may be free now from your sins and therefore be able to take His life as an example to follow. When you, in contrast to that, still sin and in that way cause yourself much suffering, you disregard the work of the Lord Jesus. The work of Christ, accomplished for sin, is the basis to be able to follow Him. In no way you have to give in to sin.

It is also significant to point out that the Lord did not bear your sins during His life on earth. He did that only on the cross, in the three hours of darkness. The idea that during His life He already was under the wrath of God, is a great misconception. It is possible that this misconception comes out from a wrong translation of the verse. In a certain Dutch translation it says that He ‘has brought our sins in His body on the tree.’ Therein lies the suggestion that He already bore the sins during His life and then brought them to the cross. As it is already said, this is not true. During His life the Lord Jesus was fully and perfectly pleasing to God, Who more than once spoke that out too (Mt 3:17 ; Mt 17:5).

So it is clear that the Lord Jesus has borne your sins in the three hours of darkness and received God’s judgment on it. There He died in your place and you have died with Him there. You have died to sin. Sin has no power over you anymore, you do not have to give in to it anymore. That is really an awesome truth! God now sees you in Christ and He accounts to you what He did to the Lord Jesus. By the way, you cannot find anywhere in the Scripture that you have to die to sin. You have died, you are dead. If you see yourself as God sees you, sin will in no way get a chance in your life to express itself.

Instead of giving sin the opportunity in your life, through the work of Christ you are able to “live to righteousness”. Your life is not focused anymore on deserving righteousness, but on being allowed to show in your life the righteousness that you have received in Christ. You are now able to live in accordance to the right of God. That new life attitude is the result of the “wounds” of the judgment that struck the Lord Jesus by the chastising hand of God.

By ‘His wounds’ you therefore must not think of the floggings inflicted on Him by the soldiers of Pilate. It goes without saying that those wounds couldn’t possibly have caused your salvation and redemption. Everything that men have done to the Lord Jesus only made the guilt toward Him and toward God greater. No, only what God has done to the Lord Jesus in the judgment on the sins of everyone who believes, “heals” everyone who believes. Here it concerns the healing of the spiritual life that has been affected and destructed by sin.

1Pet 2:25. That you now have been spiritually healthy, appears from the fact that you “have returned to” the Lord Jesus as “the Shepherd and Guardian” of your soul. Like everyone has gone astray from God and has been lost (Psa 119:176), you also were. You lost the way and couldn’t find it back. Then the good Shepherd came to give His life, that you may find your way back. The sword of God’s judgment was awakened against the Shepherd (Zec 13:7), God’s Associate, and it struck Him instead of you. In that way the way to return to the Shepherd had been opened. Now you have returned to Him.

You have found the Shepherd back, which means that the ‘Shepherd’ found you. He wants to lead your further life and does not want you to be in lack of anything (Psa 23:1). He is also the ‘Guardian’ of your soul. He guards over it. If you stay with the Shepherd, following Him, He will keep you as the Guardian of your soul in peace and health.

Now read 1 Peter 2:22-25 again.

Reflection: What is the difference between the suffering of the Lord Jesus from the side of men and from the side of God?