Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. Welcome to our program. I'm glad
you could join us today. And I hope and pray that the
Lord will bless you through the reading and the preaching of
the Word of God. And I'll be preaching today from
the book of 1 Peter, chapter 2. 1 Peter, chapter 2. The main text is verse 24. I'll
be preaching using the verses leading up to that. But the title
of the message is in 1 Peter 2, 24, the title of the message
is living unto righteousness. Living unto righteousness. What
does it mean to live unto righteousness? Well, the Bible teaches us here
that righteousness is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
not our work. Our righteousnesses, the Bible
says in Isaiah 64 6, are as filthy rags. especially when compared
to the work, the righteousness of Christ. We do not measure
up in anything that we think, say, or do. We always fall short.
We're sinners. And if we're saved sinners, we
are righteous in God's sight. But that righteousness is not
something we worked unto. It's not something that we accomplished
or achieved by our works and even by our believing. Now the
Bible says, with the heart man believeth unto righteousness,
but that is in the same vein as in here where he says, Christ,
in verse 24, he says, Christ, who his own self, that is by
himself, bear or bore our sins, and that's the sins of his sheep
now. If you're going to apply this to yourself, then you have
to be confident from the biblical record that you are a believer. Because this is what this is
for. This is who Peter's writing to. He's writing to children
of God. He's not writing to unbelievers
and just saying this is a blanket assurance that anybody can take
if they'll do their part. Over in 1 Peter 1 and verse 2,
he talks about the ones he's writing to and he calls them
elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification
of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus Christ. Grace and peace be multiplied
unto them. He's speaking here to believers
in the Lord Jesus Christ, those for whom Christ bore their sins
in His own body. Christ was God and man in one
person. That's who He is. And in that
human body, as God-man, He bore the sins of God's elect. He bore the sins of the people
of God. Now what does it mean that He
bore them? Well, over in Isaiah chapter
53, it speaks of that in prophecy, talking about how the Lord hath
laid on him the iniquity of us all. And the all there again
is the Israel of God, which means God's elect, all who come to
faith in Christ. That's who that applies to. And
how did Christ bear those sins in his own body on the tree? The tree there is the cross. And how did he do it? Well, he
did it in two ways. And the first way shows us, reveals
to us, the ground of salvation. And that's by God imputing, here's
this word imputation, imputing the sins of his people to the
account of Christ. He bore them by a legal act of
imputation. God the Father, imputed, charged,
accounted, reckoned, the scripture says sometimes, reckoned the
debt, the sin debt, you know, the wages of sin is death, we're
sinners, somebody's got to pay for those sins. And because God
is a just God and He must punish sin, He must punish sinners to
whom He imputes sin. Well, before the foundation of
the world, God, in the covenant of grace, God the Father, God
the Son, God the Holy Spirit, devised a way, and I'm using
human language here, time language doesn't apply to God, but that's
the only language we have, we're limited. But God devised a way that he
would put away sins by charging them to the account of his son
Christ, the second person of the Trinity, and Christ before
the foundation of the world, willingly, now he did this willingly,
for the honor of his father and the love of his people, the ones
whom God gave to him before the foundation of the world, Christ
willingly agreed to become the surety of his people. And what
does a surety do? Well, a surety, you know, if
you sign a note with somebody at a bank for a loan, they take
out a loan and you sign the note with them, you'd be a cosigner.
What you're saying is if they can't pay the debt, you'll pay
it for them. In other words, if they default
on the debt, then the debt is charged to you. It's imputed
to you. And you're responsible to pay
it if you cosign. Well now, the people to whom
God gave Christ were never able to pay the debt. There's never
been a time when the elect of God who fell in Adam into sin
and death, who were born dead in trespasses and sins, who had
gone astray, there's never been a time that it could be said,
well, God's waiting to see if you can pay the debt. You can't
pay the debt. That's why the penalty of sin
is eternal damnation. It's a debt that's never paid.
But Christ, who is God in human flesh in His own body, He could
pay for that debt. So the first thing you've got
to understand, how did he bear the sins of his people, the sins
of his sheep? That's what he called them in
John 10. He said, the good shepherd gives
his life for the sheep. Well, he bore them by a legal
act of imputation. The Lord hath laid on him the
iniquity of us all. He took my debt. Now how else
did he bear those sins in his own body? Well, he had to actually
become my substitute, take my place under the law, The Bible
says he was made of a woman, made under the law. Made of a
woman refers to his humanity. This is Galatians 4.4. In the
fullness of the time, God sent forth his son, made of a woman.
Galatians 4.4 and 5. Made of a woman, made under the
law. That is, as God-man, he was made
of a woman. That's his sinless humanity.
And as God-man, he was made under the law, which means that he
became accountable Because of my sin imputed him to keep the
law and to satisfy its justice. And he did that to redeem them
that were under the law. Now, how did he redeem them?
Well, redemption means the payment of a price. He had to pay the
price of the debt. And so to do that, what did it
take? It took his death on the cross. he had to suffer unto
death. He bore my sins first by a legal
act of imputation. He became guilty, he became cursed,
and as my substitute, he went under the law and became responsible
for my sin debt, to pay that debt. The Bible says he became
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. And in his
death, he satisfied the justice of God for the sins of his people,
who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree,
on that cross. That's what he was doing. When
he, in John 19 30, he made this statement. He says, it is finished. Well, what was finished? Well,
do you remember, if you recall back in Matthew chapter 3, when
the Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, first came on the
scene in his public ministry, he was about 30 years old at
that time, and that's when his public ministry in the world
began. The God-man. And he came to John
the Baptist and he said, John, baptize me. You remember John
the Baptist said, well, I'm not worthy to baptize you. You should
be baptizing me. And Christ's answer to him was
this. He says, suffer it to be so for us, and I believe the
us there is talking about the Trinity, the Father, the Son,
and the Spirit, the Godhead, to fulfill all righteousness. Now what was he doing? His baptism
was a picture. It was an object lesson. He wasn't
baptized the way I was baptized. See, I was baptized to confess
my sins and my faith in Christ. But his baptism was a picture
of what he would do in order to fulfill all righteousness.
And what would he do? He would die. and be buried,
he went down into the water, and he came out of the water,
he would be raised again the third day. And what he was saying
there in that symbol, in that picture was, this is what I've
come to do, to fulfill all righteousness. Well, and you can read all about
his life, his sinlessly perfect life, but he went to the cross
and died justly for the sins of his people on that cross,
based on their sins imputed, charged, accounted to him, and
he satisfied justice, he fulfilled all righteousness. And so Peter
writes here, who his own self, bear our sins in his own body,
on the tree, that's the fulfillment of righteousness, that's the
ground of salvation. The imputed righteousness of
Christ. The sins of his people imputed
to him, and the righteousness that he finished, that he accomplished,
that he established is imputed, charged to them. So you understand
what I'm saying there? It's a great exchange. It's written,
Paul wrote of it in 2 Corinthians 5.21. when He said, for He, that is
God the Father, made Him, that's Christ, God the Son incarnate,
the God-man, made Him to be sin. How was Christ made to be sin?
By imputation. The sins of His people imputed
to Him, charged to Him. Christ who knew no sin, 2 Corinthians
5, 21, He knew no sin. He didn't do any sin. He didn't
think any sin. He was the perfect God-man. He
never sinned, never had a thought of sin. While he was hanging
on that cross as guilty, based on sin imputed, he never committed
a sin. He was never corrupted or contaminated
with my sin. But my sin was his, because God
charged it, laid it to his account. The Lord hath laid on him the
iniquity of us all. He bore our sins in his own body. He was guilty, he was cursed,
justly so. His death under the judgment
of God was a just death based on sin imputed. Now, 2 Corinthians
5.21 says that Christ who knew no sin, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him. In other words, the sins of his
people, who are they now? This is believers. The only ones
who can claim this are believers, true believers who believe the
record. Jesus Christ as he's identified in this book. My sins imputed to him and his
righteousness imputed to me. So before holy God, I who am
a sinner in myself can stand before God righteous. And you know how I got that way?
by God imputing it to me, a legal act of imputation. He charged,
reckoned the merits of Christ to my account. And that's my
ground of salvation. He is my righteousness. Jeremiah
in Jeremiah 23, five and six called him the Lord our righteousness. In Psalm 22, when it talks about
his death in prophecy, it comes to that conclusion, and it talks
about how the people of God who are born, born again by the Spirit,
they'll say their righteousness is of Christ. I don't have any
of myself. My best works have to be presented
before God. based upon the blood of Christ. And when we talk about the blood,
that's another thing you need to understand in the Bible. When
we talk about the blood of Christ, that's what we're talking about,
the righteousness that God has imputed to us, the sin that God
imputed to him and he paid for it, the righteousness that God
imputed to his people. How do you know who his people
are? For whom Christ died. They believe in Him and rest
in Him as their only righteousness before God. Romans 10.4 says
it this way, for Christ is the end, the finishing, perfection,
completion of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. And
that's when it says down in Romans 10.10, with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness. With the mouth confession is
made. With the mind, the affections, and the will, the new heart,
man believes under righteousness when he believes in Christ. The
gospel is the power of God unto salvation because therein is
the righteousness of God revealed. That's Christ. Now that's the
ground of it. But now here's the fruit of it.
You see, kind of look at it like a tree. The Bible talks about
the tree of life. Well, that's Christ. And out
of that tree comes fruit. And what is the fruit? Well,
look at 1 Peter 2, 24 again. It said, who his own self bear
our sins in his own body on the tree that or in order that we
being dead to sins should live unto righteousness by whose stripes
you were healed. There's a quotation from Isaiah
53, with his stripes we are healed. Now that's not talking about
physical healing. That's talking about spiritual
healing. And it's talking about this,
that Christ bearing the sins of his sheep on that tree, which
resulted in righteousness, evidenced by the fact that he didn't stay
dead. You see, sin demands death, but righteousness demands life. And that's why Christ didn't
stay dead. He had to be raised again because
in His death, He satisfied the justice of God and brought forth
an everlasting righteousness of infinite value whereby God
could be just and declare His people, sinners saved by grace,
righteous in His sight. Really righteous, not fake, not
pretend. See, my justification before
God is not that God looks at me as righteous when I'm really
not. No, I am really righteous in
His sight, but only based upon Christ's righteousness laid to
my charge. One day I will be righteous in
myself, but that's when I'll leave this body and go to be
with the Lord. I'll have a perfect body. But
anyway, when Christ died on that cross, He established that. And
so that fruit comes forth. Christ is sometimes called the
first fruits of his people. And so what that's talking about
is his resurrection from the dead. Romans 5.21 says this,
that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign
through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. So if righteous, see, the death
of an unbeliever does not satisfy the justice of God, and that's
why it's an eternal death, eternal damnation. But the death of Christ,
the God-man, he established righteousness, that demanded first his resurrection
from the dead. Then also it demands the resurrection,
what we would call the new birth, it demands the final resurrection
in the end, but at first it demands the new birth, the regeneration
and conversion of all his people. They'll be born again. Christ
said it in John 12, he said, if I be lifted up on the cross,
I'll draw all unto me, all for whom he died will be drawn unto
him. How will he draw them? Under the preaching of the gospel,
the Holy Spirit gives them spiritual life. You must be born again. Well, how can I be born again?
There's no life in me, naturally. The Bible says that we're born
dead, spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. So literally, the new
birth, we have to be raised from the dead in a spiritual way.
How is that possible? Through the righteousness of
Christ. So that we might live unto righteousness. Now, listen to the language here
of this one verse again. Talking about Christ, who his
own self, bear our sins in his own body on the tree, his death
on the cross, that we've been dead to sins. Now, how are we
dead to sins if we're believers now? Again, I'm not making this
blanket promise to everybody without exception. The Bible
doesn't do that. But it's to all who come to faith
in Christ, the true Christ, not a counterfeit now. There's a
lot of counterfeit Christ out there today, different denominations
and stuff. But how were God's people in
Christ made dead indeed unto sin? Christ paid the debt in
full and they cannot be condemned by their sins. Sin cannot be
charged to them. I'm still a sinner. But I'm a
sinner saved by grace and grace reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. So I'm still a sinner. I'm not dead to sin in that I'm
not still a sinner. I'm still subject and I have
to fight. I'm in a warfare against sin,
the sins of my thoughts, the sins of my motives, the corruption
of sin. Paul described it in Romans 7,
14 through 25. Oh, wretched man that I am. Galatians 5, the warfare of the
spirit. The spirit indwells God's people
and wars against the flesh, which is the corruption of sin. I'm
not dead to sin in that way, I'm still a sinner, and will
be till I die. But the sin cannot be charged
to me, and counted to me, and reckoned to me, and it cannot
condemn me. How do you know? Well, Romans
8.1, there's therefore now no condemnation to them which are
in Christ, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit,
who believe in Christ. Romans 8.33, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Verse
34, who can condemn us? It's Christ that died, yea rather
is risen again and seated at the right hand of the Father,
ever living to make intercession for us. And so, we're dead to
sin by the body of Christ, the scripture says in Romans 7. Now,
why did all that take place? So that we can just go out here
and live unto ourselves, live selfishly, recklessly, make way
for sin? You know, back over here, Peter
talks about we're free in Christ, but we're not to use our liberty
as a cloak of sin, a cloak of maliciousness. No, that we might
live unto righteousness. Live unto the glory of God in
Christ. That's what that means. Believe
in Christ. Live by the power of His grace. Not trying to work my way into
God's favor. Not trying to earn my way. but living as a sinner who is
totally dependent upon God in Christ for His grace, who is
totally, totally dependent upon His power, seeking to honor Him,
to glorify Him, to live in a way that would show forth His glory. Somebody said, well, if our works
have nothing to do with salvation, then why our work? Well, because
the Spirit of God has given His people from Christ, who is our
righteousness, life, spiritual life, which evidences itself
in desires to be like Him and to follow Him, to glorify Him,
not in order to be saved, but because we already are. and establishes
within the hearts of God's people the motives of grace and love
and gratitude. Paul said this in 2 Corinthians
5, he said, the love of Christ constrains me. What motivates
you? Are you motivated by legal fears
of punishment? Are you a legalist? Are you motivated
by mercenary promises of earned reward? Are you a mercenary?
Are you a forced slave of Christ? Or are you a willing, loving
bondservant whose debt has already been paid in full and who serves
his master simply out of love for him? That's the difference. Living unto righteousness is
not a sinner who is seeking to make himself righteous before
God in order to attain or maintain salvation. We want to be like
Christ. We want to honor Him. We want
to honor our Father. Be ye holy. Be separate, that's
what that means. In other words, don't be conformed
to the world. We want to show forth the glory
and the power and the honor of Christ. Not trying to say I'd
rather men see a sermon than hear one. No, that's not what
it's about at all. but I certainly don't want an
ungodly attitude and character and conduct to get in the way
of my witness for Christ. Over in verse 25 of 1 Peter 2,
he says, for you were a sheep going astray, but are now returned
unto the shepherd and bishop of your souls. You know, a lost
sheep does not know his master. A lost sheep cannot find his
way back home. And that's why Christ is called
the good shepherd who gave his life for the sheep. He's called
the great shepherd who was raised from the dead for his sheep.
And here he's called the shepherd and the bishop, which means the
overseer, the superintendent of my soul. He's in charge. And I want you to know He's in
charge. I'm not in charge. I'm not on my own. What I do
for His honor and glory, I don't do it by my own power. It's not
by my own goodness. And it's not to draw attention
to myself. I don't want you to look at me
or look to me. I want you to look to Christ
for salvation. I love that passage in, I believe
it's in John chapter three, where it talks about how the disciples
of John heard John the Baptist preach and they followed Jesus. That right there. I believe is
the desire of every true preacher of the gospel. You hear me, but
I don't want you to follow me. I want you to follow Christ as
I point you to Christ. I'm just a signpost. And that's
what living unto righteousness is. Living in the glory and the
power and the awesome wonder of the righteousness of Christ.
that He accomplished for me through His blood on the cross, bearing
my sins in His own body on the tree. I'm dead to sin, sin cannot
condemn me, but I want to live under righteousness. I hope you'll
join us next week for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1102 Eager Drive. Albany, Georgia, 31707. Contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
or email us through our website at www.TheLetterRofGrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.