Following Christ's example

Q: What does the Bible say about following Christ's example?

The Bible teaches that Christ left us an example to follow, emphasizing His sinless life and actions. The Apostle Peter emphasizes in 1 Peter 2:21-25 that Christ is our ultimate example because He suffered for us, leaving us a pattern to imitate. He is described as sinless, doing no sin and having no guile in His mouth. As believers, we are called to reflect on His actions, particularly how He dealt with reviling and suffering without retaliation. This call to follow Christ’s example is pivotal in our walk of faith as it provides both guidance and a standard for how we should conduct ourselves in a world that often stands in opposition to God's ways.

Q: How do we know that Christ is our example?

Christ is our example because He is described in Scripture as sinless and selfless in His actions. In 1 Peter 2:22, we see that Christ is uniquely qualified as our model because He committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth. Unlike any other human, He remained completely pure and sinless in thought, word, and deed. This unparalleled perfection underscores why believers are called to follow Him. His life serves not only as a blueprint for moral conduct but also a source of strength, demonstrating how to respond to injustice and wrongdoing. Therefore, our understanding of Christ as the perfect example is grounded in His divine nature and sinless humanity, affirming our call to emulate His ways.

Q: Why is following Christ's example important for Christians?

Following Christ’s example is crucial for spiritual growth and obedience in a world that opposes God's ways. Following Christ's example as set forth in 1 Peter 2:21-25 is vital for Christians because it shapes our identity and actions. Christ's life exemplifies how to endure suffering, respond to hostility, and relate to others with love and grace. In a world filled with adversity and sin, adhering to the example of the sinless Savior enables believers to navigate trials with resilience and humility. Furthermore, this pursuit of Christ-likeness is foundational to our sanctification, encouraging us to live in a manner that reflects our new identity in Him. As we strive to imitate His example, we embody the character of Christ, which serves as a testimony to the world around us.

Seeking for the help of the Lord, I direct your prayer for attention to 1 Peter chapter 2, and reading for our text from verse 21 through to the end. For even hereunto were ye called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye 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, who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness, by whose stripes ye were healed. For ye were as sheep going astray, but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls. 1 Peter chapter 2 verses 21 to 25. Two weeks ago in this series on the epistles of Peter, we looked at the verses 13 to 20, a Christian submission to authority.

This evening, in our 13th in this series, we look at these verses as an example that Christ has left us. Our text flows on from what we considered last time, the word begins for even here unto we called it flows forth from those things set before us a submission to authority in the previous verses but i want to confine the lord's help our thoughts to the verses before us and to look at them under three headings firstly christ person the one that we are to follow, to consider him first as he is set forth in these verses. And then secondly, Christ's actions, those things that he has done, that are set before us here, that we then are to follow. And then thirdly, Christ's people, they are set forth before us here. in these verses as well. We have the example of Christ, we have Christ himself, and we have the people of God. May we see something of our own character there, and that we have the Lord to go before us.

This is a passage, these verses, that is so contrary, so opposite to nature. It's not our nature to bow when we're reviled or if we're threatened to not return. We are very liable to take up our own cause and fight our own corner and to resist and in looking at this I feel very mindful of the need of grace day by day and sometimes It is just in our spirit. We can perhaps read things in the newspaper and we find the vengeance or indignation rise up or we shall hear things that have happened and they're not anything to do with us. But we feel that anger stirring up within us and sometimes it can make us quite frightened. How would we react if we were pushed to the limit? if we were put in situations and not given Christ's Spirit and cause to walk as He'd have us to go. And we need Him to not only call us but to work in us and day by day so that we have His Spirit.

So on to look then first at Christ's person. 22 we have the description of him who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. Now surely if we are to follow anyone's example then we are to think what kind of person is this that we are following. If it was someone that was a very angry person, the Word of God says that with an angry person, a furious person, thou shalt not go. So in that there's an assessment what kind of person is it that we are actually following to think of them. The Apostle Paul, he says, be ye followers of me as I also am. of Christ, and we are to follow a person as far as they follow Christ. But here, Peter is not directing to follow himself, but directly to follow Christ.

And so he gives us to consider that which marks out our Lord really from every other man, woman, child, everyone. that has been born into this world, and that is that He is sinless. He is spotless, that He is pure, that nothing that He said, nothing that He did, nothing that He thought had any sin in it whatsoever. A higher standard one could never attain to and never point to. the marvel and wonder of God manifest in the flesh. Sometimes we may perhaps forget what a wonder this is, that through all of the 4,000 years of the history of the world to this point, there is not one that could ever be said who did no sin. And from that time, there is none that could be said that they did no sin. But our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh, truly God and truly man, did no sin. In this He is absolutely unique. In a way He is what we will be when the soul is reunited with a body that is not a body of death, but is also a perfect body.

There's some that struggle with the idea that if God gives his spirit to a people and that spirit is pure and holy and works then good works in that person, how can it be that there could be sin with those works are not those works sinless and spotless.

The Apostle Paul is very clear that the influence of the old nature does affect the work of the Spirit. The work of the Spirit is pure and holy and there is no blemish, no sin in that which comes from God. in being put into practice, in being walked out in this world, it is using a body of death. And as far as we walk in the Spirit, we shall walk in the light. But how often it is that there is the old nature mixed. We are told there is no man that doeth good and sinneth not. Even under the influence of the Spirit, we still have this body of death that the Apostle groaned under, and that shall be so different in the resurrection.

There shall be no opposition, no weakening or no defiling of that which is pure. we might get some pure water, and we seek out a vessel to put it in, and we put it in a vessel that is not pure, and that water then is defiled. There's nothing wrong with the water, it was pure that was put in, but the vessel has had an effect upon it. But the Lord Jesus Christ unlike what we shall be in heaven where there is no sin round about us, he was here upon this earth with a spotless, a pure body with no sin and no liability to sin, and in his soul, a holy soul, and his divinity so pure in every aspect of his being, no sin, no guile in his mouth, and so standing so separate from sinners and yet being in the midst of a sinful world and yet not tainted by it, not fallen by it.

Adam was tempted in Eden when he was not in sin, that he fell. And our Lord endured those forty days of temptation in the wilderness and did not fall. But more than that, through all of his life, not one sinful anger, wrong thought, wrong way, nothing, who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.

No wonder He is set forth as the spotless Lamb. No wonder right through the Old Testament, whenever they looked out a sacrifice and the Lamb, it had to be without spot and without blemish, perfect at the time of offering. Well, our Lord had all that time on earth before His offering and was still a spotless, pure, holy Lamb of God.

Often think of the ram that was caught by its horns in the thicket when Abraham was offering up his son. If it had been caught by its fleas, it would have been torn. It would not have been spotless and pure. It would have been unfit for sacrifice, but it was caught by its horns and so was kept pure.

And all of those types and all those shadows they point to our Lord Jesus Christ who is our example here, who we are to follow. There is no danger, you might say, in following the Lord, that we shall be led into sin or anything wrong, anything offensive to God, not like men, even the best of men. can lead us into things that are not good and not right, but not the Lord.

And then we have another description of him which just fits exactly with following him as an example in verse 25. We have him described as the shepherd, the shepherd of our souls and bishop of our souls. The bishop is an overseer. And a shepherd is one that cares for and leads and watches over his flock. Our Lord in John 10 sets himself forth as the good shepherd. When the good shepherd put forth his sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep they follow him. Another, they will not follow, they know not the voice of strangers, my sheep they hear my voice."

And it's a beautiful illustration then of our Lord, in conjunction with the idea of following his example, we're following him as a shepherd, which is also pointing that the Lord is going before us. There is and are many on earth that would bypass the Lord's sufferings, enduring the wrath of God in the place of His people, and that which He does to work in them, and just say that He came to be an example. Just no different than any other man might be an example to us. What our Lord is, an example is set forth in our text, and He is a shepherd to go before. But He's much more than that, because He has a relationship with His sheep, and with those He's going before, those He's bringing examples before.

And I'd like to think of it like this, the Lord knows what is before you and I, He knows the path that we are walking through this world, and He is pleased to not physically go before like He was on earth, so you see Him and you follow Him, but in His Word, like these portions here, that the Lord brings before us in the ministry and in His Word, so that at the time we need them, then we are reminded of how He walks, and what He said, and how He acted. And it is in that way, the Lord Jesus, who is the incarnate Word and written Word, they're both the same, that goes before us as a lamp. Thy Word is a light unto my path, a lamp unto my feet, and causing us to know the way wherein we should go. And the Lord doing it here, as an example.

If someone teaches us what to do, that is just in word. But if someone gives us an example, then there's actually actions that we follow. There's something that we can see that someone has done. And that is so much more powerful than just a word. So the Lord is the Word and He is also the example. He leads the way. He has shown in His life how that we are to walk ourselves.

To this then is, in these verses, what is set before us concerning the person of our Lord Jesus Christ and His relationship to His people and to how he goes before them and brings that example to be a living and a real example before us in this gospel day, in the day in which we live. We often must think of this, how do these truths and how do these teachings apply to our day, how do we put them into real practice and walk in them. And it is as set forth in the word here and right through the scriptures, the record of our Lord's life, what he went through, what he did, how he acted, what he said, that in this first point to consider his person through all these things, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. I want to look then secondly at Christ's actions.

Those things that He did. He told in verse 21 that He suffered for us. For even here unto where ye call, because Christ also suffered for us. our Lord's actions? We might say, did He suffer in His life and how that He endured the contradiction of sinners against Himself? How that He was reviled? How that He suffered? Was that just to fulfil the law of God? Was it just because he was spotless?

But our text says that he suffered for us later on. It speaks very specifically of bearing our sins in his own body. But in the path that he walked, put it this way, he suffered to leave us an example. He suffered so that we could see how that we are to walk. And we might say, well, He was spotless and sinless and we are not.

How does that change things? It really changes it in that it makes His sufferings even more. The more pure, the more holy a person is, the more that they would feel sin in any measure, against them, or to be amongst sinners, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you?

He endured the contradiction of sinners against himself, and we are told in connection with that, that we are to consider it, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. So put in the ways of our text, he endured that, for us so that we're not wearied and faint in our minds.

We read in verse 24 that it was through his stripes we were healed. Sufferings that were foretold in Psalm 129, the flowers plowed upon my back, Pilate ordered him to be scourged. Those stripes that he endured, we are told here that we are healed. Right through Isaiah 53, all the time there's a direct relation between Christ's sufferings and benefits and blessings to us. And there is here, by whose stripes you were healed. Healed in what way?

Our Lord says, his name shall be called Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins. And in the example that he has set, in the way that we are to go, it is through this that we are healed, we are brought in a way so that instead of being wayward, worldly, carnal, like the world, the spirit of the world, there is that manner of healing of our spirits to be like the Lord Jesus Christ.

We think of it how the Lord deals with his people in chastening. The hymn writer says, the lash is steeped, he only lays yet softened in his blood. In other words, the Lord chastens his people, but his people realize that he hasn't dealt with them as their sins deserved, and they're led from their chastening, their pain, to his stripes and what he has borne. We do but taste the cup he alone has fully drunk it up, and he endured those stripes. Then we have in verse 24, who his own self bear our sins in his own body, on the tree. In Isaiah 53, we are told he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed. The example still is with the shepherd here. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. The Lord had laid on him the iniquity of us all. So our Lord here so willingly took upon himself our sins. The garden of Gethsemane brought them to the judgment. And then to on the tree, and Peter puts it in this way, on the tree. Cursed is everyone that hangeth upon a tree. The Lord made a curse for us who knew no sin.

And this was that which our Lord did. But then it comes to those things that can be directly imitated or followed by us. We cannot put away our sin, we cannot put away another sin, that which the Lord did for us upon Calvary and submitted to, bound to, endured. We see that we have it set before us as what is our hope of heaven and what we are never to forget as an incentive that we also are to follow in his steps.

To them we have three things that we may refer to again in our third point, but in verse 23, when he was reviled, reviled not again. Those contrawise blessings, you think of how they cast at him on the tree, he saved others, himself he cannot save. And Pilate saying, hear what they say against thee, answer us thou, nothing. Those taunts that were against him, our natural spirit is to rise up and have an answer and to reply.

But our Lord did not do that. And then when he suffered, When he suffered in pain, when he suffered these things by men, he didn't turn around and threaten. When Peter tried to take up the sword and defend his master, our Lord said to him, put up thy sword within its sheath. The cup that my father hath given me to drink, must I not drink it?

Thinkest thou not? that I could pray, my father, you presently give me 12 legion, or six, 12 legion of angels, there's 6,000 in the legion, 72,000 angels, but how then could the scriptures be fulfilled? But he doesn't, you don't hear him say to Pilate, do you know, if you don't let me go, if you do these things to me, I can send twelve legions of angels against you." He had all power and all ability to threaten, to call down vengeance on them, but chose not to do it.

No, meekness is not weakness, meekness is choosing not to exert the authority and power that one actually rightfully has. choosing not to do it, but just to be quiet and submissive under those strokes and providences and words and threatenings and revilings. And then we have in verse 23 as well, how that he committed himself to him that judgeth righteously, that is to his heavenly Father, to God, committing himself to Him. I believe that is a very important example to follow. We are not in our own strength, and the outcome of things is not governed by us.

But to commit it unto the Lord, really those three Hebrew children standing before Nebuchadnezzar, refusing to bow down to the image. They spoke to him most respectfully, most firmly, and they said that God was able to deliver them out of his hand and that he would deliver them out of his hand. He was able to deliver them from the burning fiery furnace and he would deliver them out of his hand. And they were committing themselves to God. that God would decide whether he delivered them from the burning furnace or whether he delivered them from Nebuchadnezzar through being killed in the furnace and being taken up to glory. And they left it with the Lord.

And this is where our Lord also committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. The Lord knows the truth of a matter The Lord knows reality and is a very important part of suffering and of that contrawise blessing, being what the Lord would have us to be. So we have set before us then Christ's actions, the path that he walked. On to look then at Christ's people. What about us? What is set before us in these verses of the Lord's people, those who are to follow his example?

We have in verse 25, a people that were like sheep, and they were going astray. What a picture of all the people of God. We've all gone astray. We have all gone our own way, and he hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all. It's a reminder of that, isn't it? When we're coming across people that are walking contrary to the Word, hating the Word, hating the Lord, hating the people of God, Lord said, I've given them thy word, and the world hath hated them. And we're to think that what were we?

We also were going astray. We also were doing these things. Many times, you know, sometimes I've risen up in anger hearing about what some of the youth are doing in the town and things they're doing. And my mind then suddenly goes back to my youth. I think I did the same things. or similar things. I caused damage. I did things that would have been a grief to others. And it's a sobering thing. Sometimes we forget what we once were. We forget how foolish and wayward that we were. But Peter would remind his hearers here, ye were. Not now, are she, but ye were, as she going astray, but are now returned."

What a picture of what God does in grace. What a picture of real repentance, a returning, the prodigal son going out from his father's house, spending his substance, riotous living, but then when he comes to himself, and he's brought to return. Returning to the Lord, returning to his Father, that is the path that the Lord has brought his people. And may we bless the Lord if he has brought us in that way. It's said of Israel, in returning and in rest shall ye be saved. And with Israel then, it was said of them, but ye would not. Ye would not. But a blessed thing it is if it can be said of this verse, are now returned.

The people of God don't return to anything, they return unto the Lord. Unto their shepherd, unto their keeper and overseer of their souls. That's where there is returning. It's not enough just to return to chapel, not enough just to return to the Bible or return to the people of God. is returning to the Lord. Our eyes are upon the Lord. He is the object of our first desire. The Lord says that no man can come unto me except the Father which sent me draw him. And it is a coming unto the Lord Jesus Christ.

And this is the picture then of Christ's people So then it is in verse 21, a people that are called to follow. For even here unto were ye called, were ye called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps and join together his calling and following, following the Lord in the way. that he would have us to go.

The two things are joined together. Paul, when he writes to the Thessalonians, he says of them in the first chapter, when they were called, when the word was blessed to them, gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power. and in the Holy Ghost in much assurance, as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake, and ye became followers of us and of the Lord, there is the calling, having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost. And then, as they were followers of the Lord and of them, ye became ensembles or examples So all that belief in Macedonia and Achaia. And so the effect of calling is a following. We could take the example in the book of Ruth with Ruth and Nehemiah.

Thy people shall be my people, thy God my God. Ruth was following the Lord's people and following the Lord and going to be with them and is joined together with the calling of God's people, that they are called to him and to his people and to be a follower.

That is what a disciple is. The Lord says to those in John 8 that believed on him, he said to them, if you continue in my word, then you shall be my disciples indeed. He shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. So one thing to be a disciple, another thing to be a disciple indeed, a real follower of the Lord.

By nature we like to follow what we want to follow and not follow what we don't want to follow. And we pick and choose. But if we are truly called, then we want to follow the Lord. As he said of the Lamb of God, I follow him wheresoever he goeth. But then it is to follow Christ in how he has acted.

And this going back to our second main point, when he was reviled, to follow him in that that we revile not again, and when we suffer that we do not threaten again, and also following in committing ourselves unto the Lord. Those three things are joined together there in verse 23, where we see that grace and help to follow the Lord in those particulars. I want to think in this, the difference between us and the Lord. Our Lord was sinless, and He could walk in that way. He didn't need to ask His Father grace and help, but you and I do. We're not to think, well, here's how we go. We don't need any outside help.

You know, Paul with his thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan, at first he wanted that removed. He wasn't submissive under it. He wanted to be free of that. He didn't want to. But when the Lord says, my grace is sufficient for thee, my strength is made perfect in weakness, then he'd rather glory in his infirmities that the strength of God might be shown in him.

And so we had a very different picture of it. But it was a dependence upon grace. It was not independent from the Lord. So this is not just following in our own strength. It's following independence upon the Lord for grace to be as He did and to walk as He walked.

And I believe there will be times The Lord will leave us and we'll realize that this is our spirit and this is our need of grace and that he'll give that grace to help in time of need to act as the Lord acts. And I do want to emphasize that. We're to act as he acted. We need the grace of God to be able to do so and to pray for that grace and pray for that spirit. and that the Lord won't leave us to our own spirit and our own way.

Then we have a people that are to be dead to sins. There's two sides of this in verse 24. That we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness. Now the apostle when he writes to the Romans, Romans chapter 6, he speaks of this in verse 11. He says in verse 10, For in that he died, he died unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

And it is a Reckoning. Sin still works in us. There's no such thing as perfection, sinless perfection, this side of the grave. But if we are buried with Christ, if we are dead with Christ, if we believe that Christ has paid the debt due to our sins. Remember, our sins, the sentence is, the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. And Christ is dying.

So the law has no more demands upon a believer. He can't demand another penalty. So a believer is to, as he believes that Christ has borne their sins on Calvary's tree, died to sin, endured the wrath of God and paid that debt, they are to reckon they are no longer a slave to sin. They are no longer under the power of sin, their sins are put away, and they can't be condemned, they can't be overrun by their sins.

And it is a reckoning then on the belief of what Christ has done. And it's not only one way, it's dead to sin, so that the child of God, as it were, seeks that they listen not to their old nature. I say, what have I to do with thee? Those sins my Lord suffered for, he bore on the calvary's tree.

And you see again, Paul says in Romans 8, if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, and all the time it is the The contest between the two, but the spirit, the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, is that which the child of God is to pursue after, rather than the sin that does so easily beset us. To be spiritually minded is life and peace. To be calmly minded is death. If you walk after the spirit, you shall live. If you walk after the flesh, you shall die.

And that's why Paul and Peter here sets forth these two things that we should read as dead to sin but alive unto righteousness. And of course there's a beautiful ordinance of God that sets this forth. Baptism sets it forth, buried with him by baptism into death. and risen again in newness of life. If the candidate is left under the water, they die, but they arise again and they're to live. It symbolizes the death of the old life, the death to sin and alive unto God. There's the very same teaching here and the same as what Paul is setting forth.

We are still sinners, but how we view sin Now we view it as born by Lord Jesus Christ. It makes it to be a different thing with us, because Christ has risen again, and as what is set before us here, the example shows us how we are to live in this world, not under sin, but under righteousness, seeking after Him, following Him, not following Satan, or following the world, or following our old nature. There is a constant battle, a constant warfare in this.

But as Peter writes here, to strengthen the people of God, it's not strengthening them in sin or in sin that sin might, grace might abound, but strengthening them in the new nature, in following after Christ as going before his people, The people that were going astray, and now they're walking in the right way, after the shepherd, following his example, and suffering as he did because of sin. No, God's people suffer because of sin. In our unregeneracy, no sleepless nights because of our sin, no conscience troubling us because of our sin, no trouble because of sin. But when called by grace, then we have trouble because of sin.

And our attention is drawn to our Lord, that all his sufferings and his death and his troubles and all he went through is because of sin, not his own, but our own. These are to strengthen us in that warfare. In here below, considering the Lord, walking after Him, enduring these things and having the same spirit, seeking the same spirit as our Lord Jesus Christ had. May the Lord bless this to us and may we see Him going before, see Him oft in the Word of God and desire to be by His grace conformed to His image and be more and more like our Master. like our shepherd. Amen.

Following Christ's example

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about following Christ's example?

How do we know that Christ is our example?

Why is following Christ's example important for Christians?

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About Rowland Wheatley

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Following Christ's example

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about following Christ's example?

How do we know that Christ is our example?

Why is following Christ's example important for Christians?

Sermon Transcript

About Rowland Wheatley

Comments

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