In 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse
18 through verse 25, and the subject again, Jesus on the tree. Servants, be subject to your
masters with all fear, not only to the good and the gentle, but
also to the froward. For this is thankworthy, if a
man for conscience' sake toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it if when
you are buffeted for your faults you shall take it patiently? But if when you do well and suffer
for it, you take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For even here unto where you
call, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example
that we 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, he threatened
not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously."
Watch. who his own self bear our sins
in his own body on the tree that we, being dead to sin, should
live under righteousness by whose stripes we were healed." Isaiah
53. for ye were as sheep going astray,
and are now returned unto the shepherd and bishop of your soul. Verse 24, who his own self bear
our sin in his own body on the tree that we, being dead to sin,
might live unto righteousness by whose stripes ye are healed. Now, the diligent reader of the
scripture, whether Old or New Testament, will notice something
very wonderful and peculiar. And that is that there is frequent
mention made of the death of our Lord and of the atonement
that he was to make and of the blood of sacrifice that he was
to give. First of all, it is mentioned
in the Old Testament in prophecy, in type, and in shadows, and
such like. And then, in the New Testament,
we find in the Gospel that the Lord himself, in all four of
those Gospels, makes frequent references unto the fact that
he had come into the world that he might die. And he speaks to
them often of his coming death, that he would shed his blood,
and that that blood would be a remission for the sin of his
people. Then we go to Acts and find it
is also mentioned in the book of Acts, the atonement and death
of our Lord. Then we come to the Pauline epistle
And there we find that he mentions them frequently, having received
a direct revelation from Christ himself and it is found in what
we call the church epistle and also in the pastoral epistle
there is mention of the atonement and of course in the book of
Hebrews high among all of the rest. It is in the epistles of
Peter and of John. I wanted to know so I counted
and I found 15 books, not counting the four Gospels, that emphasize
the atonement of our Lord. So it is a leading subject of
the Scripture, Old and New Testament. Now our present text is found
in the first epistle of Peter and we read it and it is clearly
a substitutionary death of the Lord that is mentioned in this
play. He dies as a sin bearer. He does not die for his own sin
or fault or guile, but he dies as a sin bearer. He is bearing our sin in his
own body. And that death has produced the
proper result that God has intended, making us dead to sin that we
might live unto righteousness. Now, before we consider the text
proper, let us look and say, if we might, a few things about
the man that wrote it, the apostle Peter and his place in the development
of the early or the New Testament church as having been appointed
and commissioned by the Lord Jesus Christ. There were two
men that played a very vital role in the early development
of Christianity and the raising up and the establishment of the
Christian Church. Number one would be the Apostle
Peter, who primarily worked out of Jerusalem and with a Jew. And the second man, of course,
is the Apostle Paul, who went far and wide preaching the gospel,
not to Jew only, but also under the Gentile. Now this man, Simon,
or Peter, or Cephas as he is known in the Bible, his name
meaning a stone in John chapter 1 and verse 42, did personally
company with the Lord Jesus Christ. He had that advantage and that
privilege of being in the company and being a pupil of the Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ while he were in the flesh. He had
a high privilege of being there on the Mount of Transfiguration
and seeing our Lord transfigured. He ran and he saw the empty tomb,
the door opened and the Lord gone. He saw the resurrected
Lord as he came and met with them and he stood there and saw
the ascension of the Lord in Acts chapter 1 as he went back
to the right hand of the Father. Something amazing about Peter,
and that is in Matthew chapter 16, he is wondrously anointed
and appointed by the Lord to the great work of the church. Verse 19, I will give unto thee
the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And that refers, of course, to
the gospel thing that we're just ahead of which he would have
a great part. It was also on that occasion
in Matthew chapter 16 when Peter made his great confession of
Christ, which is actually the confession of every Christian. You are the Christ. You are the
anointed. You are the Messiah. You are
the Son of the Living God, and which the Lord endorsed as being
a revelation, not of flesh and blood, but of the Father unto
Him. An internal revelation from the
Father to know this, that Christ is indeed the Son of God. And remember, Peter was there,
the day of Pentecost that under the Spirit's direction he might
guide the church and declare to them the meaning and show
how it fulfilled one scripture after another. That's in Acts
chapter 2. Again, It was this Apostle Peter
who was sent under the Gentile in Acts 10 at the house of Carnelius
when the Spirit first came upon the Gentile. And the Gentile
Pentecost in the 10th chapter of the book of Acts was in accordance
with the preaching of Peter. At the same time, let us carefully,
while we remember this man's place in the work of the Lord,
let us remember and let us guard against that dogma of Rome that
Peter was a pope. He was not made a pope by the
Lord Jesus Christ. He was one of the original apostles
And scripture knows nothing of the office of a pope in the church
of God. Now, coming to the first epistle
of Peter and the two things that we notice about our text. All the mentions of the death,
of the saving work of Christ in this epistle, and there are
at least five of them found in 1 Peter. By the way, there are
the sermons of the apostle Peter recorded in the book of Acts. where he connects the only remission
of sin with the death of Christ. Then secondly, there is our special
text for this morning. Now let me give you the other
four mentions of the atonement in this first epistle of Peter. The first one is in chapter 1
and verse 1 and 2 and the opening exhortation of the epistle addressed
to the dispersion or the scattered or and referring to them as being
elect according to the foreknowledge of God. And he mentions the sprinkling
of the blood of Jesus Christ. Not only were they chosen in
Christ, before the foundation of the world, but they were called
out of the world and sanctified by the Spirit of the Lord and
sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ, a saying that the Jews
knew all too well. Not with the blood of beasts
and of goats and of heifers and such like, but with the saving
blood of Jesus Christ. Hebrews 10 and verse 22. For under the old economy, sprinkling
signified legal purification. And that's as far as it could
go. And whether with water or with
blood, The people were sprinkled by the servant of God. It was
a type of the cleansing by the blood of Christ and by the cleansing
word of the Lord. Now the second passage, mentioning
the atonement in 1 Peter, is in chapter 1 again, but verse
18 and verse 19, where he declares the blood of Christ to be the
price of redemption and the means of ransoming out of the slavery
unto sin. Now, in comparison to those things
used as redemption under the old economy, Silver and gold
were often the price of redemption. Now they had the greatest value
in the worldly system, in the worldly monetary system. The
price of redemption, however, to the elect out of the bondage
of sin is not silver and it is not gold. It is the precious
blood of Christ who died without spot and without blemish. And in verse 20 of 1 Peter chapter
1, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the
world, but is manifest in these new times for you, yea, in the
fullness of time, Galatians 4 and verse 4, was he made of a woman,
made under the law for the purpose of redeeming them out from under
the law. Thus, as George Hutcheson wrote
in his good book, On the Atonement, his blood was sacrificially shed
unquote his blood is the price of redemption it was sacrificial
blood now the third one skipping our text for the time being is
is the passage in 1 Peter 3 and verse 18. It says, Christ has
once suffered for sin, the unjust, that he might bring us unto God,
the righteous or the unrighteous. He was made sin for us. that we might be made the righteousness
of God. He was made sin, but he was not
made sinful. And now, a short mention in 1
Peter chapter 4 and verse 1 rounds out the mentions of the Atonement. Christ has suffered for us in
the flesh, not on his behalf, but for us that our Lord suffered. Then, coming to our text today,
Christ bearing our sin, bearing our sin in his own body, bearing
our sin in his own body, where? Up on the tree. So, let's see
the lead-in, if we might, to this blessed text. At verse 18,
where we began reading, it follows an exhortation to those that
were slaves in that day and time who had become children of God,
had become Christian, had been called into the grace of God
to be in subjection unto their master. And even to those masters
who were evil and wicked and perverse. patiently enduring
it, for the suffering under that situation was well-pleasing in
the sight of God. Then 2, verse 21, because it
follows the example Christ no righteous one was ever more unjustly
treated than the Lord of which the Apostle mentions a few in
verse 22 and verse 23 he did no sin he had no guile in his
mouth and yet he He was called a blasphemer. They described
him as a madman out of his mind. They called him a winebibber
and a gluttonous man. He was reviled, yet he reviled
not again. He was threatened, but he did
not retaliate against those that threatened. Instead, it said
that he committed himself to the righteous judge who does
all things well. So in the end, verse 21 of our
text, because Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example
that we should follow in his footstep. And this is perhaps
the hardest part of Christianity. So here is the essence of it. Number one, Christ suffered.
Number two, he suffered unjustly in his case. Number three, He
retaliated not against those. Number four, he suffered as our
example. And number five, he suffered
for our eternal good and benefit. But in this example, let us be
careful to handle it well. For though Christ left us, example
and the word example so say those who are knowledgeable in the
Greek this exact word is only used here in the New Testament
1st Peter 2 21 and it has the meaning of an underwriting that
he made a copy that is to be traced out an outline is how
the word might be described I am told, some writing, an outline
that is to be copied and is easily copied. However, though Christ's
suffering were an example unto those that should follow, yet
they went beyond being mere example to be imitated. For the apostle
speaks of them as being substitutionary. He speaks of them as being expiatory
sufferings that our Lord endured, and reconciling suffering, and
ransoming or redeeming suffering that our Lord suffered and shed
his blood. So in verse 21, Christ also suffered
for us. our behalf as our substitute
now verse 24 who is own self bear our sin in his own body
on the tree expiatory they that take away from sin before the
face of God look at verse 25 again You were as sheep going
astray, but now are you returned to the shepherd, the bishop,
or the overseer of our soul, reconciling, bringing us back
again unto God. So let's dig into the last two
verses of this chapter. There can be no doubt that the
first word in verse 24, who, refers back unto Christ. And looking back to verse 22
and 23, the same opening word is used, who did no sin, in verse
22, who, when he was reviled. And all three who's, refer to
Christ mentioned back in verse 21. So in each of them, the thought
is Christ who, that is, He, Him, Christ, the Lord. None other
than than the Lord, the very Son of God." And then the next
words, his own self. He immediately and himself. Robertson, in his word studies
in the New Testament, called this an intensive pronoun with
the relative who being a reference to Christ Jesus, the Lord. Now
perhaps the emphasis is he who himself, we don't want to miss
that, not another, not an animal, not a beastly sacrifice, but
he himself, the very one who did this necessary thing, he
himself. For Aaron the high priest did
not offer himself ever during the course of his priesthood,
he being the very one who did the necessary thing that God
had commanded. But his offering was always an
animal of some sort. His sacrifices and his blood
was always the blood of an animal. Remember the picture of Isaac
bound yonder upon that sacrificial altar and Abraham's hand stretched
out with a knife. at the point to slay him. But
he was raised up, for he was but a type, and Christ was the
real one. Hebrews 737 said, he offered
up himself. He is the sacrifice. He not only
made the sacrifice, but he is the sacrifice. And then we see
the words, he bear our sin in his own body on the tree. Now the word to bear here the
scripture means to carry that is he carried our sin he carried
up our sin in his own body to the tree you have the same word
back in verse 5 of this chapter to offer up our And that is to
carry or to bear up. You have it some 10 times all
together in the New Testament, this word bore or bear our sin. James 2.21 of Abraham offering
up Isaac. He bore him up or carried him
up four times. In Hebrews, this word is used. In Matthew 17, 1 and Mark 9 and
verse 2, it is the word that is used of the Lord bringing
the disciples up to the mount. He carried them up to the mount. Also, it is that word used of
the ascension of the Lord in Luke 24, Verse 51 he was carried
up into heaven. He was born up into heaven So
he bear our sin Next we ask what did he bear? What was laid upon
him our sin? He bore our sin who can deny
that the Apostle Peter has the great prophecy of Isaiah chapter
53 in his mind he writes for in Isaiah chapter 53 in verse
4 he bore our griefs and carried our sorrows he also quotes from
verse 5 of Isaiah 53 and verse 6 in first Peter chapter 2 and
verse 25 quoting Isaiah by whose stripes ye were healed. All we
like sheep had gone astray, and the Lord had laid upon Him the
iniquity of us all. Yes, He made Him to be sin for
us who knew no sin. It's not us that knew no sin,
but it's Him. He made Him who knew no sin to
be sin for us. Because you see, Every sin to
be forgiven, every sin that will be forgiven and put away and
remembered no more must have a just recompense of reward. And so they were all laid upon
our great sin-bearer and he did not sloth them off but he gave
satisfaction unto God for them for without the shedding of blood
there is no remission of sin. Now to get our minds around this. Let me offer up a point made
by George Smeaton that I refer to in his book on the Atonement,
that in this passage we have a three-fold view of the suffering
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have the patient sufferer
who being reviled, revile not again. My, think what they did
and said when our Lord was upon the cross. What did he say? Forgive them for they know not
what they do. B, we have an innocent sufferer
in our Lord Jesus Christ. He had no sin, no transgressions
against God, no sacrifice needed for himself, for his sin, for
he had none. And then C, he was the vicarious
sufferer who bore our sin in his own body upon the tree or
the cross, we understand. Now, let's catch another likeness
from our passage as we saw in verse 24, his own self. And also in verse 24, in his
own body. Now, both in regard to sin and
speaking of Christ being made an atonement for sin. And let me emphasize it again.
Number one, in his own self. Number two, in his own body. His Soma, the noun, not to the
mystical body of the church, not to the collection of the
people of God. On the cross, the Lord did suffer. both in body and in soul. And there was a specific sort
of suffering for each one of the human aspects of Christ. Soul and body both endured their
proper suffering. For the Lord not only had a true
body, but he had a true human soul. He did not bring with him
from heaven, but was in the incarnation. So, he breathed his last breath. and dismissed his spirit. He
gave up the ghost. Mark 15 and 37, Luke 23 and verse
46. He was dead in the body when
he was taken down off of the cross, having borne our sin to
the satisfaction of God in his own body on the tree. Now, the
same truth. emphasized in the Hebrew epistle
and especially in Hebrews chapter 10 verse 5 through 6. We'll turn there in a bit. It
is a quotation from Psalm chapter 40 and verse 6 through 8. John Owen wrote, the apostle
here in Hebrews chapter 10 is stating the provision that God
had supplied that he might expiate sin which the legal sacrifices
could not do. So God had no pleasure in them
and brought in that great sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
requires another all-sufficient and everlasting sacrifice. So, what did God do? Body he
prepared the son. Here's what it said in Psalm
40 quoted in Hebrews 10 a body has thou Prepared me Hebrews
10 and verse 5 is Psalm 14 verse 6 mine ears have you open or
the margin said has digged or dug or pierced now a little reading
from the passage in Hebrews chapter 10 and if you want to flip back
there. To work to the conclusion, in
the tenth verse, of chapter 10. We read the flow, or the development
of thought, as we observe the contrasts that are built in here
in Hebrews chapter 10. Look at verse 5. Wherefore, when
he cometh into the world, he saith, sacrifice an offering
thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me. Now, verse
6 and 7. In burnt offerings and sacrifices
for sin, thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come! In the volume of the book it
is written of me to do thy will, O God. And now, verse 8 and verse
9. above when he said, Sacrifice
and offering, and burnt offering for sin, and offering for sin
thou wouldest not, neither had pleasure therein which are offered
by the law. Then said he, Lo, I come to do
thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that
he may establish the second. Putting it all together, look
at verse 9 and 10. By the witch will, we're sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for
all. So the incarnation was the preparation
of the body, the human body of our Lord in which He might bear
our sin on the cross. And in verse 10 again, No doubt,
the thought is that God had so prepared and fitted the Son to
have a nature and a body completely impeccable and free of sin and
capable of being the perfect sin offering, suited for the
work that it was ordained and designed for the purpose of bearing
away the sin of the elect, to justify from sin, to being a
body close enough and like enough unto ours to be our kinsmen,
to become our goel, so that that body was close enough to our
nature to become our kinmen, but not so close as to be tainted
by any mean or measure of depravity. Now, final point from Hebrews
10 and 10, twice before in earlier verses, the will of God as executed
in Christ. Verse 7, I come, says Christ,
to do thy will, O God. And then verse 9, I come to do
thy will, O God. So in verse 10, by the witch
will, we're sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once and for all. And this opens the meaning of
the passage from Psalm chapter 40. It had reference unto Messiah. That the will of God was to bring
the many Levitical sacrifices unto an end, for they could not
take away sin, and they could not perfect the worshiper. By
thee which will. we read or as Owen wrote in the
original it reads in which will unquote adding that the will
of God here referred to is none other than that eternal purpose
to save a people by means of the incarnate son who would take
on, assume humanity, which was by the free, the sovereign, eternal
purpose and will of God. It was devised by divine wisdom
so that it was perfect and therefore accomplished everything. In other
words, this is the will of God that his son take on a body and
die on the tree as the all-sufficient sacrifice for sin. And die one time, and one time
only. Now, we've read a lot about the
body of our Lord as bearing our sin. And I agree that it includes
a contrast from the bodies of those beasts that were used as
sacrifices under the Levitical system or the Mosaic system,
used as sacrifices there. Hebrews 13 and 11, their bodies
were killed, sacrificed, and burned as typical sin offering,
typical of Christ, and they painted an outline or a picture of Him. But while the suffering of beasts
was confined to the body and only the body, the sufferings
of Christ were not confined to the body only. Listen, his soul
felt the heavy weight of his being made sin. And he became
exceedingly sorrowful even unto death." Matthew 26, 38, Mark
14, 34. His prayer there in the garden. Isaiah chapter 53 and verse 10. In the King James Version of
the scripture said, Thou shalt make His soul an offering for
sin, And the margin has it like this. His soul shall make an
offering for sin. And in verse 11, it speaks of
the travail of his soul. Not his body, but of his soul. And verse 12 of Isaiah 53, of
his soul being poured out unto death. Poured out like water. those sacrifices under the Old
Testament. Now, let's go again to our text
and look at the word tree. The word tree is used by the
Apostle Peter to designate the cross. Let me just give you some
other verses where it is called tree instead of the cross. They are found in Acts 5 verse
30, 10 and 39. 13 and 29, and in Galatians chapter
3 and verse 13, quoting from Deuteronomy, cursed is everyone
that hangs on a tree. You remember Deuteronomy chapter
21? I believe it is. When someone
had committed a crime worthy of death, then they were put
to death by stoning. And then, in a posthumous degradation,
their bodies were hanged on a tree by the wayside so that all that
passed by knew what that stood for. Cursed is everyone that
hangs on a tree, that this one is guilty of some transgression
of the law. But the body was to be taken
down before the evening or the night, and not remain there all
night? And was it so with our Lord that
His body was taken down on the same evening that He was crucified? Often they were left at Golgotha
for days, hanging on the cross, first to complete their dying,
and then for the beast and such like to come unto them. Now,
the effect of his death upon those that he died for, in verse
24, making us dead under sin to live under God. Compare, but
don't read now, Romans 7, 1 through 4, how we became dead under sin
by the body of Christ to be married unto another. And the law releases
none without a just recompense of reward. And of course, none
can live under righteousness until they are dead under sin. It's impossible. They must be
dead to sin before they can live unto righteousness. Not dead
to sinning, but dead under the power, the dominion, and the
condemnation of sin. but free from that condemnation.
And the law cannot condemn us for Christ bore our sin. He bore its curse. He answered
its charges. Sin cannot because Christ was
made sin for us. He bore our sin so that by his
stripes we are healed. By his saving death, the wandering
sheep are found and are gathered and returned again into the heavenly
shepherd's fold. We were as sheep going astray,
but now are found and brought to our great bishop and overseer,
the great Transaction of the cross is that that made all the
difference in our life and our relationship unto God. For He
bore our sin, God made them to light upon Him. God caused them,
the language in Isaiah 53 seems to be like a violent assault
upon our Lord. And remember that scapegoat who
bore them away, typically in the Old Testament day of atonement,
never to return, yet Christ bore our sin, taking them away forever,
never to return in their condemning power, for He bore our sin. God punished them as our sin,
and in our stead, the Lord Jesus Christ and that being imputed
to him righteousness is imputed unto the elect from the death
of Christ. Thank God that he bore our sin
that we might not have to bear them. Not meet them at the judgment
seat for Christ bore them away in his body and the tree. Thank
God for that great transaction and that great sacrifice. And
Hebrews, and I should close, but Hebrews 1 constantly emphasizes
this fact. Christ died once. The Old Testament
sacrifices were many. They were daily. They were yearly. But Christ died once. And his is all sufficient, but
Aaron's was not. And the repetition bespeaks there
insufficiently. Christ died once and will never
die again.