All right, we'll stay right there
in 1 Peter 3. What I want to do is I'm going
to mainly focus on a phrase from verse 18. The title for this
message, the just for the unjust. Talking about Christ suffered,
the just for the unjust. When you hear that term, the
just for the unjust, does that sound right to you? We think
about that. Somebody who is just, who is
right, suffering on the behalf of someone or people who are
not right, who are unjust. And that's what Christ did for
his people. But I thought about this, one
of the things that we need to understand, this right here,
in that one phrase and what Peter says about it, and what we read
about in other passages of scriptures, what we're talking about is the
very heart and soul of the gospel message. The very heart and soul
of it. If you can understand by the
revelation of God, how this can happen in a just way. A just person suffering for unjust
persons. If you can see and understand
by revelation of God how this can happen and be right, you
know the gospel. Because when we look at things
like this, we can go back in history and we can see where
there were people, men or women, who lauded by the world as being
moral and sincere and dedicated, even what the world calls saints,
giving their lives, even for bad people, is what the world
would say. And we'll call them noble, We can look at situations
in our human courts where someone who is guilty is given a reprieve
by a judge. Maybe they say, well, this is
your first offense, or the court decides to have mercy on you.
And we might like that, especially if it's one of our children or
somebody like, But ask yourself this question, in those cases
has justice been served? And the answer is no. The answer
is no. And yet what we see from the
Bible concerning the Lord God of heaven is that he must always,
at all times, act in strict, undiluted, uncorrupted justice. You say, but He's merciful, He's
gracious, He's loving. Yes, He is. But He's not merciful,
loving, and gracious apart from justice. In fact, if you read
the Bible, you'll find that justice is His main attribute in that
sense. How many times you read in the
Old Testament, judgment and justice are the habitation of His throne. You know what that means? That
means justice and judgment That's how God lives. That's where he
lives. He cannot act apart from strict justice, even when he
acts in love and mercy and grace. And here it is said that Christ
also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust. Now, how can that be? Well, let
me go back and start here back in verse 13. Now verse 12 I preached
on last week. The eyes of the Lord are over
the righteous. He hears our prayers. His ears
are open in our prayers. The face of the Lord is against
them that do evil. So we've already dealt with that.
But let me ask you this question to start off with. How do you
feel, how do I feel, when people treat us unjustly? Unfairly? That's not right. When we get
accused of something that we're not guilty of. Well, I know we're
all sinners and I've heard people say, well, if they accuse me
of something I'm not guilty of, I'm enough of a sinner that I
can take it. Well, now, I understand that. We're all sinners. And
we need salvation by the grace of God. And if God were to hold
our sins against us, we'd be damned forever. Thou, Lord, shouldest
mark a nail. I know that. But just be honest. How do you feel when somebody
accuses you of something you're not guilty of? You feel bad,
don't you? You don't feel good. In fact,
if you're like me, you might even have a little revenge in
mind. We want to see people get their
just desserts in this life. Whether you're in school or on
the job, in your families, all of that. And we ought to be fighters
for justice. You know, today, with the atmosphere
the way it is, and with the policemen being accused of all different
things, we all want to see justice done in any matter, don't we? Whatever it is, we want justice
to be done. And we realize this, justice
may not be served immediately or even soon, But you know what,
according to God's word, it will come. Maybe in the end. David asked, why do the heathen
prosper? Why aren't they getting what
they deserve right now? God said, you just be patient.
Vengeance is mine. Consider their end. Today may
be comfortable for them, but consider eternity. That's right. But our attitude in all these
matters ought to be faith in the Lord God. God watches over
the righteous. Who are the righteous? Sinners
saved by grace. Sinners who don't deserve and
haven't earned any of his blessings and benefits. He, his ears are
open unto our prayer. He hears our prayers. We pray
for one thing, we may not get it, or we may not get it till
later. may not be right for us, but his ears are open in our
prayers. We pray to him through Christ, the merits of Christ,
and his face, his glory, his presence is against them that
do evil. But what does the Lord say when
we're accused falsely, when we as believers, especially in the
matter of righteousness, that's what Peter's talking about. Verse
14, if you suffer for righteousness sake, listen to what he says
in verse 13. He says, and who is he that will harm you if you
be followers of that which is good? If you be followers of
Christ. You remember the sermon on the
mount? Matthew chapter 5 verse 9, blessed
are the peacemakers, they'll be called the children of God.
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake. If anybody's
persecuted for righteousness sake, now what does that mean?
That means persecuted for following Christ. For witnessing Christ. That's what that means. Telling
the world what righteousness is. It's the perfection of the
law that can be only found in Christ. That's what righteousness
is. That's the only thing God will
accept. He won't accept your good works as the ground of your
salvation. He won't accept your sincerity.
You can only come to God through Christ, and if you come to God
any other way, you're damned forever and your deeds are evil.
And if you get persecuted for that, is that unjust persecution? Yes, it is. That's not right. But the Lord says you're blessed. Now the only way that I can believe
that is because God says it. That's the only way. I don't
feel it. I don't like it. Don't enjoy it. But God says,
blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven. Kingdom of heaven belongs to
them. Verse 11 says, blessed are you when men shall revile
you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you
falsely for my sake. I've been accused falsely. You've been accused falsely.
Verse 12 says this, rejoice and be exceeding glad For great is
your reward in heaven, our reward's not here on earth. For so persecuted
they the prophets which were before you. And that's essentially
what Peter's saying here in verse 13. He's saying, he's encouraging
believers to be faithful and patient in suffering for righteousness
sake, for the gospel, that message of light that the world hates
because it exposes their false refuge, as it exposes their deeds
for being evil. In verse 13, he said, and who
is he that will harm you? Who is he? Think about this. We know that sinful men and women
can harm us They can harm our reputations, they can harm our
physical bodies. As many saints have been imprisoned
in the past, they've been tortured, they've been martyred. But who
are these people really? That's what he's saying, who
is he? They cannot harm our souls. They cannot separate us from
God. Nothing shall separate us from
the love of God in Christ. They may condemn us in their
law courts, but they can't condemn us in the court of God's justice.
We have a righteousness that answers the demands of God's
law. We're safe with our Lord and Savior. God will not harm
us. He watches over us. Christ is
our great shepherd who watches over us as his sheep keeps his
sheep. Satan cannot harm us. He's been
defeated. His accusations fall. Short,
our sins cannot harm us. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justify. Trials
cannot separate us from the love of God in Christ. Nothing can.
And then look at verse 14. He says, and if you suffer for
righteousness sake, the gospel. He's not talking about suffering
just for morality. Should we be moral people? Yes. Is it possible that we could
suffer because of standing for the moral precepts of the Bible?
Yes. But he's talking about the gospel
here. He says, if you suffer for righteousness sake, happy
are ye, and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled.
And here's the point, look at verse 15. But sanctify the Lord
God in your hearts. What does that mean? That means
set God apart. Recognize His glory, His wisdom,
His providence, His grace, His goodness, what He really is. Sanctify Him in your hearts,
in your mind, your affection, your will, your conscience. Think
about who God is, what God has done and what He will do. And
be ready always to give an answer. To every man that asketh you
a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness, that's
submission, and fear, that's reverence. What makes you think
that you're righteous and that another person isn't?
What makes you think you're saved and another person, what's your
reason for that? Now you know where you ought
to go to that when they ask you that, if anybody ever does. The
hope that you have, the certain expectation of being right with
God, of being forgiven of your sins, that God will not charge
you, impute sin to your account, that he's imputed righteousness,
Christ's righteousness to you. What is the reason for that hope?
Where should you go? Human logic? No. Human reasoning? No. Talk about your godly life? No. Talk about what all you've
accomplished and where you've been and how you got there? No. Where should you go? The word
of God. And that's why God's word tells us to study, to show
ourselves approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to
be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Go to the
word of God. Sanctify the Lord God, worship
God, respect God, even more so than all the nobles and princes
of this world. You revere and you respect, you
worship, you serve God. And now I meant now, it takes
the grace of God to enable us to stand firm in the face of
opposition. Look at verse 16, having a good
conscience. Next week, I'm gonna talk about
the conscience. That just the conscience is the
seed of judgment in the mind, the heart. That whereas they
speak evil of you as of evil doers, they may be ashamed that
falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. In other words, we're
to strive this way as believers, that if we are accused, we're
accused falsely. Now there may be times we get
accused, we're not accused falsely. But Peter's saying this, verse
17, for it's better if the will of God be so that you suffer
for well-doing than for evil-doing. Don't suffer for doing evil,
breaking the law. Be good citizens. That's what
he's talking about. And here's the greatest encouragement
for our outlook on these things and for our conduct. Look at
verse 18, here it is. For Christ also hath once suffered
for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God,
being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.
There's the greatest encouragement of all. Christ. Christ also hath once suffered
for our sins. Now consider this question, for
whose sins did Christ suffer? He suffered for our sins, he
says. How many times does the Bible
say that? I heard a man preaching on this one time, and he said,
Christ didn't suffer for my sins, he suffered for his sins. The
point he was trying to make in a bad, bad way was that my sins
became Christ. Now there's a sense in which
that's true. But my friend, the Bible says, I've got scripture
upon scripture here I could read to you. First Corinthians 15
three, for I delivered unto you first of all, which I received,
how that Christ died for our sins. The scripture says that,
according to the scripture. he was buried, he arose again
the third day according to the scriptures. Listen, Galatians
1 3, grace be to you and peace from God the Father from our
Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 4, who gave himself for
our sins. Now what the Bible says, that
he might deliver us from this present evil world according
to the will of God and our Father. Hebrews 1.3, Christ being the
brightness of God's glory and the express image of his person
upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by
himself purged our sins. Sat down on the right hand of
the majesty on high. Over in first Peter here, right
here in our text, close to our text, first Peter 2.24, look
at it. Christ who his own self bear
our sins. in his own body, in his human
body, on the tree, that we being dead to sins should live under
righteousness by whose stripes you were healed. Our sins. 1 John 2.2, he's the propitiation
for our sins. 1 John 3.5, you know that he
was manifested to take away our sins. Whose sins did he die for? Our sins. We could go on and
on. His name shall be called Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. That's our sins. All of that. And he did it, it
says, he suffered the just for the unjust, that he might bring
us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened in
the spirit. Who is the hour? Well, that's his people, that's
his sheep. The good shepherd gave his life for the sheep.
That's God's elect. That's those who will be quickened
by the Spirit and come to be brought by God to faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ and repentance of dead works. He said in John
6, 37, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me and him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. This is the will of
him that has sent me that of all which he hath given me I
should lose nothing but raise it up again at the last day.
That's our. That's the our. See, Christ hath
suffered for sins, the just for the unjust. And that's our sins. And it says,
look back at 1 Peter 3, 18. For Christ also hath once suffered
for sins, the just for the unjust. His one death for the sins of
his people put away all their sins and establish righteousness
for them. For by one offering he hath perfected,
completed, finished forever. Forever, He hath perfected forever
them that are sanctified. That's the hour, them that are
sanctified. Sanctified by the Father in election
before the foundation of the world. Sanctified by the Son
on the cross as He suffered and bled and died for our sins. Was
buried and arose again the third day. Sanctified by the Spirit
in the new birth when He gave us life from the dead. Gave us
a new heart and brought us to faith in Christ. But now listen. He's identified here as the just. The word just means righteous.
Think about it this way. For Christ also has suffered
for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous. You could say it
that way. Righteous and just, they mean the same thing. Here's
the second question. How could the just, the righteous,
suffer for the unjust, the unrighteous? Now from man's point of view,
listen to me very carefully here. From man's point, from our point
of view, his suffering was a sinful, unjust thing to do because the
Bible says we can find no fault in him. Holy, harmless, undefiled. The incorruptible Christ, the
impeccable Christ. No fault in Him. Did He ever
sin? No, He knew no sin. Was there ever a moment in His
life that He was in unbelief? No. Did He ever have a sinful
motive, goal, or thought? No. From man's point of view,
it was an unjust matter. But here's the key. What about
God's point of view? From God's point of view, it
was the right thing to do. It was a just thing to do. The
Father viewed Him, the Son of God incarnate, as accountable
for the sins of His people, imputed, charged, reckoned to Him. Listen to the words of the Apostle
Peter as he preached at Pentecost. Acts chapter two and verse 22.
You men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man
approved of God. Now what do you have to be to
be approved of God? You gotta be righteous. You gotta
be just. a man approved of God among you
by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst
of you, as you also know, him being delivered by the determinant
counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken and by wicked
hands have crucified and slain. What you did was wicked. That's
what he's telling them. It's kind of like what Joseph
said to his brothers. When they took him and they dropped
him down a well, drug him back out and sold him into slavery.
Did you know that every bit of that was the sovereign work and
providence of God? Think about it. What did Joseph
say to his brethren when he revealed himself to them? He says, you
meant it for evil. It was an evil thing that you
did. God meant it for good. Doesn't that boggle your mind?
It does mine. But it's so. Think about it. Christ submitted himself to the
evil intentions of sinful man. And man committed the greatest
act of sin and evil that has ever been committed on this earth.
by crucifying the Son of God. That's right. The only man who
didn't deserve any punishment from man was taken and crucified. That
was the greatest act of evil man has ever committed. But Christ
submitted himself to his holy and just Father who perform the
greatest act of justice and righteousness ever accomplished on earth. Look back over at 1 Peter 2 and
verse 21. For even here into were you called
because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example
that you should follow his steps who did no sin, Neither was Gile
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."
Justly. That's right. Now, how could it have been just
for a holy and just and righteous God to punish his holy and just
and righteous son? My friend, here's the mystery
of the gospel answered. Here's the way that man could
never figure out. Christ was made our surety before
the foundation of the world, making himself voluntarily and
willingly accountable for the sins that he didn't commit. The
sins of God's people given to him. They were imputed to him. They were accounted to him. They
were charged to him. He, listen, he was made sin. How? Not by becoming a sinner,
not by some mysterious transference of sin into his person, but by
the imputation of our sins to himself. And it was just for
him to do so because he willingly was made our surety. And God
was just in punishing him for our sins because in that way
the law was satisfied, justice was served. Somebody said, well didn't our
sins become his sins? Yes, but only by imputation.
Our debt became his debt. That's what the scripture teaches.
He was made sin, Christ who knew no sin, that we might be made
or become the righteousness of God in Him. Our sins imputed to Him, His
righteousness imputed to us. That's why when you go to passages
like, for example, Proverbs 17, 15 that says, he that justifieth
the wicked and he that can't condemn the just, both are an
abomination to God. This is how God condemned his
son, the just one, and justified the wicked and was not an abomination
to himself. This is the miracle of God's
grace and wisdom that reigns through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. It's that great legal exchange. The just, Christ who was just
within himself, was made sin by the father who
imputed our sins to him. And that's the only way he was
made sin. He was not made sin in any other way. Now he had
to suffer, look back at our text, for Christ, verse 18, for Christ
also hath once suffered for sin. Somebody told me, said, well,
I don't believe that 2 Corinthians 5.21 just means imputation because
he had to do more. My friend, that's no indictment
against 2 Corinthians 5.21. He was made sin by imputation.
Because of that imputation of our sins to Him, He had to suffer. He had to pay the debt. He had
to pay the price. Christ also hath once suffered
for sins, the just, just within Himself, for the unjust, for
His people. It says here, He was put to death
in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. His death was in
His humanity, and He was raised again by the Spirit. Now, some
say that the Spirit there refers to the Holy Spirit. In your King
James Version, it's probably capitalized. And the Holy Spirit,
the third person of the Trinity, was instrumental in raising Christ
from the dead. Others say that the Spirit shouldn't
be capitalized. It's referring to His divine
Spirit. And that could be, it doesn't
matter. He raised from the dead. Why was He raised from the dead?
Because He, by His death, for the sins of His people, imputed
to Him. brought forth an everlasting
righteousness, which God had imputed to them. And so we who
are in Christ stand before God justified. In ourselves we're
unjust, but in Christ we're justified. In ourselves we're unrighteous,
but in Christ we're righteous. You see that? He is the Lord
our righteousness. So he suffered. God poured His
wrath down upon His Son, His holy, harmless, just Son. And yet He was just in doing
so. How is that possible? Man couldn't
figure that out. Do you know there's absolutely
no religion of man that has ever even dealt with that issue, let
alone figure out the answer. That's the gospel, the mystery
of God. The mystery, the ministry of
reconciliation. God was in Christ, reconciling
the world, the hours, the elect unto himself, not imputing their
trespasses unto them. What did he do with those sins?
Who did he charge him to? Had to charge him to someone
because he's a just God. He had to deal with those sins
in somebody. The psalmist said in Psalm 103,
the Lord has not dealt with us after our iniquities. Well, how
did he deal with them? He dealt with them in Christ
as they were charged, accounted to him. And Christ died justly
under the wrath of his father, willingly under the wrath of
his father for the sins of his people, the just for the unjust. And out of that came the righteousness
which God has imputed to all of his people so that we might
stand right before God. Isn't that amazing? That's the
righteousness of God revealed in the gospel, right there. That's
how God can be just and justify the ungodly. Well, I'll pick
up there next week and we'll be talking about a good conscience
toward God.