Our scripture for this morning is found in
1 Peter, chapter 2, and verses 18 through
25.
Servant, be subject to your masters with all
fear, not only to the good and gentle,
but also to the frail.
For this is thankworthy, if a man pour
conscience toward God, and do a grief, suffering
wrongfully.
For what glory is it, if when ye
be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take
it patiently?
But if when ye do well, and suffer
for it, if ye take it patiently, this
is acceptable with God.
For even here unto where ye called, ye
called 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 judges 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 you were as sheep going astray, but
are now returned unto the shepherd and bishop
of your souls.
Natural man by nature is lawless, and his
lawlessness manifests itself by rebellion against the law
of God, and the law of the state,
the law of the home.
In any sphere where God constitutes authority, man
may be a rebel.
All law that was imposed by God, and
all authority that has been established by God,
has been established to put curbs and restraints
upon the lawlessness of the human heart.
And while law told man that he should
not be lawless, while penalty for broken law
gave a lesson on the peril of lawlessness,
man had never seen one who was law
-abiding.
The law of Moses commanded obedience and subjection
to the authority of the law, and condemned
lawlessness, but the law of Moses could provide
no examples of one who was law-abiding.
For even Moses, the lawgiver, became lawless, and
before the whole nation disobeyed God and brought
down judgment upon him.
The priests and the prophets of the Old
Testament condemned lawlessness, and the priests offered sacrifices
on behalf of lawless men.
The prophets warned of judgment upon lawlessness, but
the priests and the prophets were themselves lawless.
Those to whom they ministered saw no examples
of a man who abided by law.
The Pharisees of our Lord's day multiplied traditions
in order to impress upon the nation Israel
the necessity of obedience to the law, but
the Pharisees were themselves lawless men, and those
who lived in our Lord's day saw no
examples or evidences of a life that was
subject to the authority of God lived before
them.
The people did not need more teachers to
tell them to be lawful.
They needed an example of submission to authority
so that they could see what it was
to live a life of submission to the
authority of God.
But that example was not provided by Moses,
nor by the priests, nor by the prophets,
nor by the Pharisees.
It was not until the Lord Jesus Christ
changed and lived among men and walked before
men that men for the first time in
the history of lawlessness had an example of
submission of obedience to authority, of meekness, of
humility, lived before them.
The Apostle Peter, in this portion of the
epistle in which we find ourselves, is emphasizing
God's requirement and subjection to constituted authority.
Authority in the home, authority in the state,
authority in the religious realm, authority in the
business world.
And right in the middle of Peter's teaching
on submission to duly constituted authority, he tells
us in verse 21 that Christ left us
an example.
That to which Peter points is not the
example of Christ's godly life.
It is not the example of Christ's sacrificial
death.
The example that Peter has in mind is
the example of Christ's patient submission to suffering
for righteousness' sake.
This verse has been lifted out of its
context, and has been used to say that
we ought to try to emulate the life
of Christ, and the false doctrine of salvation
by doing good is based to a large
degree on this one verse.
As though it taught that Christ lived a
good life, and we ought to follow his
steps, and if we live a good life
as he lived a good life, we will
obtain eternal salvation and the forgiveness of sin.
Others have used this verse to show that
Christ faced death quietly, confidently, assuredly, in the
hope of the resurrection from the dead, and
that Christ showed man how they ought to
die.
But such are foreign to Peter's thinking, for
back in verse 20 he has asked the
question, What glory is it if, when ye
be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take
it patiently?
But if, when ye do well and suffer
for it, ye take it patiently, this is
acceptable with God.
That which was acceptable with God was the
attitude and the characterization of patient endurance under
the testing that come because one is subject
to the authority of God.
And then he moves right on to tell
us, For even hereunto, or unto such patient
endurance in the face of testing, ye were
called.
Because Christ, for the first time in the
history of man, gave us an example of
perfect submission to the authority of God in
the face of testings that come for righteousness'
sake.
Christ left us an example of such patient
endurance that ye should follow in his steps.
The entire life of Christ, from the manger
to the cross, was a sinless life.
But Peter is not asking us to emulate
the sinlessness of Christ.
Such is utterly impossible, for we were born
as sinners, and no one born as a
sinner can live a sinless life.
And so, Peter is concentrating on that one
aspect of the sufferings of Christ, the sufferings
that came because he was subject to the
authority of God, and consequently subject to the
authority of the state, to the authority of
constituted religious leaders as an evidence of his
submission to God.
Now, when Peter reminds us that we were
called to submission, and that Christ has given
us God's example of submission to authority, in
verse 22 and 23, he points out what
characterized the sinlessness of Christ when he was
subject to sufferings for righteousness' sake.
Christ 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 judges righteously.
Peter was a witness to the trials of
Christ.
You will recall that the trial of Christ
was divided into two parts.
First, our Lord was put on trial before
the religious authority as Christ, after his arrest
in Gethsemane, was led away to the house
of Caiaphas, where in the presence of the
Sanhedrin, the duly constituted religious authority of our
Lord's day, Christ was examined concerning his influence,
his doctrine, and his disciples.
When I turn back to the 26th chapter
of the Gospel of Matthew, I read in
verse 59, the chief priests and elders in
all the council, those represented the constituted religious
authorities of our Lord's day, sought false witness
against Jesus to put him to death, but
found none.
Yea, though many false witnesses came, yet found
they none.
At the last came two false witnesses, and
said, this fellow said, I am able to
destroy the temple of God and to build
it in three days.
The high priest arose and said unto him,
answerest thou nothing?
What is it that these witness against thee?
But Jesus held his peace.
Here was one who was charged with a
crime punishable by death, and should a sentence
of guilty be pronounced upon him because of
this accusation, a death sentence must ensue.
Yet in the face of this accusation, our
Lord stood before this assembled group of religious
leaders and before his accusers, and opened not
his mouth, he held his peace.
And after sentence had been pronounced upon Christ
for the crime of blasphemy, Christ was transferred
to the authority of the Roman court, and
he was brought before Pilate, the Roman governor.
And I read in Matthew chapter 27 and
verse 11, Jesus stood before the governor, and
the governor asked him, saying, Art thou the
king of the Jews?
And Jesus said unto him, Thou sayest.
And when he was accused of the chief
priests and elders, he answered nothing.
Then said Pilate unto him, Hearest thou not
how many things they witness against thee?
And he answered him to never a word,
insomuch that the governor marveled greatly.
Once again surrounded by accusers in the presence
of the one who had the authority of
Rome behind him to condemn Christ to a
cross death, our Lord stood with his lips
sealed.
It is that which Peter witnessed, to which
he bears testimony now in his epistle as
he refers to the example of Christ, 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.
When our Lord was threatened with death by
the Sanhedrin, no word of reply came from
his lips in self-defense.
He did not call judgment of God up
down upon those godless men who were sitting
in judgment upon the godly one.
No word of warning proceeded as to the
judgment that would come upon them if they
persisted in their lawlessness.
Our Lord did not assert his rights as
the Creator, as the Savior, as the Judge
of all men who one day would sit
in judgment upon their souls to threaten them
with judgment unless they released him.
He was silent before his accusers.
It was this that was so singular in
the prophet's portrayal of the Messiah who would
come.
For when Isaiah pictures to us the Savior,
an outstanding characteristic of that Savior which in
truth would become an identifying sign to the
nation Israel that he was God's Savior, was
that he was oppressed and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth.
He is brought as a lamb to the
slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers
is done, so he openedeth not his mouth.
And out of all the identifying signs that
the prophet Isaiah might have recorded to give
to the nation Israel, signs which they might
identify Messiah, he chose this one sign.
He will be silent before his accusers.
Isaiah did not say to the nation Israel,
you will recognize your Messiah when he comes
to work miracles.
You will not recognize your Messiah when he
turns water into wine, when he turns stones
into bread, when he heals the blind and
the lame and the dumb.
He did not even say, you will recognize
your Messiah when he raises men from the
dead.
The outstanding evidence that Jesus was the Messiah
was that he could receive false accusation against
himself, and receive it with sealed lips.
As a lamb before her shearers is done,
so he opened not his mouth.
Multitudes of Messiahs came to offer themselves to
Israel, but there was only one Messiah who,
when he stood before accusers who condemned him
to death, stood with no word of self
-defense, stood with no judgment, no oath, no
curse, no warning of divine judgment upon them.
He stood done.
Now, Peter wants to remind his readers, and
to remind us that Christ stood with sealed
lips, verse 23, because he had committed himself
to him that judgeth righteously.
Now, you will remember that Peter has reminded
his readers in the previous portion of this
chapter that submission to any duly constituted authority
is itself submission to God.
He said in verse 13, submit yourself to
every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake.
Verse 15, so is the will of God,
and Peter's whole thesis is that we submit
to constituted authority, whether in the political, the
religious, the social realm, because God has ordained
that authority, and submission to that authority is
submission to God.
And Jesus Christ could not open his lips
in self-defense, nor could he open his
lips to call down judgment upon his accusers
as he well might have done, because he
is subject to the authority of God, and
God's authority put a seal on his lips
so that he endured patiently the wrong heaped
upon him.
When men bared his back, and with a
Roman scourge lacerated his flesh, no cry of
rebellion came from his lips.
When they tangled their fingers in his beard
and plucked the beard from his face, no
cry came from the lips of the Lord
Jesus.
When they pressed a crown of thorns upon
his brow, and mocked him and scoffed him,
no word came from him.
When they robed him in purple, and pressed
a reed into his hand to bow in
mockery before him, and to cry, Hail King
of the Jews, they could bring no word
from him.
And try as they may, they could not
cause the Lord Jesus to sin with his
lips.
Why?
Because he was totally subject to the authority
of God, and to this kind of submission
to God you and I are called.
For even unto this were ye called, that
we should follow the example of Jesus Christ
in perfect and absolute submission to the authority
of God.
Now, what was the result of Christ's submission?
What did Christ's submission entail?
In verse 24, Peter tells us, "...who his
own self bare our sins in his own
body on the tree, that we, being dead
to sin, should live unto righteousness.
Thy whose stripes we were his."
The will of God for Jesus Christ.
It entails Christ's physical death on the cross,
and Christ's separation from the Father in spiritual
death.
Physical death is the separation of the soul
from the body.
Spiritual death is the separation of the soul
from God.
Jesus Christ on the cross, lifted up his
voice to the Father and said, "...my God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
With that cry, he testified that he had
entered into spiritual death, the separation of the
soul from God.
And when Christ, by an act of his
will, dismissed his soul from his body, he
entered into the experience of physical death.
Christ died for our sins physically, spiritually, and
Christ well knew when he subjected himself to
the authority of God, that the will of
God for him included physical and spiritual death.
Christ told the disciples repeatedly that he must
go to Jerusalem to die.
He was not ignorant to what submission to
God entailed.
When he came into the Garden of Gethsemane
and bowed in prayer before God, he knew
what submission to God entailed, for he cried,
"...Father, if it be possible, let this cup
pass through me.
Nevertheless, not what I will, but what thou
wilt."
When Christ turned aside Peter's sword, when Peter
sought to defend Christ from arrest, he said
to Peter, "...the cup that the Father hath
given me, shall I not drink it?
Put away your sword.
I could have called for legions of angels,
and they would have delivered me."
He was subject to the authority of God.
Jesus Christ went to the cross not because
he was overpowered by Roman legions who pinned
him to a cross until nails could hold
him there.
Jesus Christ went to the cross because he
was obedient, subject to the authority of God.
The physical sufferings of Christ were only a
small portion of that which he endured in
obedience to the will of God, for when
Jesus Christ went to the cross, he went
as a lamb, he went as a substitute,
he went as a sacrifice, and God placed
on Jesus Christ your sins and mine.
All we like sheep had gone astray, we
had turned everyone to his own way, and
the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity
of us all.
God hath made him to be sin for
us, he who will no sin, that we
might be made the righteousness of God in
him.
The holy, sinless, undefiled Son of God bore
the full weight of our sins upon himself
when he went to the cross, yet he
went silently, he went obediently, because he was
subject to the will of God.
It is this to which Peter calls our
attention in verse 24 when he says, his
own self bear our sins in his own
body on the tree.
The word bear means to carry as a
substitute for another, just as in the old
testament on the day of atonement, the high
priest put his hands on the head of
the scapegoat and confessed the sins of the
nation Israel, and then the nation watched as
that scapegoat were led away into the wilderness.
So, Jesus Christ had placed upon him the
sins of the world, and as the sins
in Israel were borne away by the scapegoat,
so your sins and mine were borne by
one who took our place, who died in
our stead, who became our substitute.
He bore our sins with no word of
recrimination or rebellion against God who had put
him the holy one in the place of
sinners.
Silently, he accepted our sins upon himself, and
bore them in order that through his death
he might offer a sacrifice to God.
Submission to the authority of God entailed Jesus
Christ's death as a substitutionary last.
What does the death of Christ and the
submission of Christ to the authority of God
mean for us?
Verse 25, We were a sheep going astray,
but are now returned unto the shepherd and
bishop of your soul.
Once again, Peter is going back into that
prophetic portion of the word, Isaiah 53, where
sinners were pictured as sheep without a shepherd
going astray.
Uncontrolled, undisciplined, lawless, rebels against authority, but Jesus
Christ, as a faithful and obedient shepherd, reaches
out to the straying sheep.
He brings them to himself.
That's what salvation is.
Salvation is God's work by which, through the
death of Jesus Christ, he brings straying rebels
to himself.
The sheep who have followed their own path
are brought back and put under the shepherd's
care.
How is this possible?
Because Christ bore our sins in his own
body on the tree.
Would you know what God demands of you
as his child?
Then will you look to the example of
Jesus Christ?
God demands absolute submission to the authority of
Jesus Christ, and submission to Christ's authority no
matter in what realm that authority is exercised,
whether by governors in the civil realm, whether
by elders in the religious realm, whether by
parents or husbands in the realm of the
hall, whether by employers in the realm of
business.
God asks and demands submission on the part
of his children.
But as we look at these words this
morning, as we approach the table of our
Lord, we are reminded again, because Jesus Christ
said to the Father, not my will be
done.
Because Jesus Christ silently offered himself to physical
death and spiritual death.
Because Jesus Christ became the Lamb that was
our substitute.
Because Jesus Christ took our sins upon himself,
bore them away.
Because Jesus Christ offered his blood as the
covering for our uncleanness, we have salvation.
We have eternal life.
We become God's sheep who were wandering and
straying, but have been returned to the shepherd
bishop of ourselves.
We come to fellowship with the one who
said to the Father, not my will but
thine be done.
Have you ever personally received the Lord Jesus
Christ as your Savior?
He is a Savior.
He is the Savior, but he is not
your Savior until you personally accept him and
trust him for salvation.
If you have never done this, we invite
you to do this right now.
Pray, our Father, that the Spirit of God
may direct us to the truth of the
Word of God, that Jesus Christ, demonstrated by
his perfect obedience and submission, without his act
of us thy children, may the Spirit of
God curb and control our lawlessness, that we
might be obedient sheep to our shepherd.
May that one who has never received Christ
personally, in the quietness of this moment, trust
him and entrust themselves to him for eternal
salvation.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.