Read with Me
1 Peter 2:23-25 (HCSB)
when He was reviled,
He did not revile in return;
when He was suffering,
He did not threaten
but entrusted Himself to the One who judges justly.
He Himself bore our sins
in His body on the tree,
so that, having died to sins,
we might live for righteousness;
you have been healed by His wounds.
For you were like sheep going astray,
but you have now returned
to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.
Listen with Me
Peter segues seamlessly from speaking of slaves serving their masters diligently and faithfully, to holding up Jesus as the perfect example of submission and obedience. Though Jesus was and is the King of the universe, the Creator God in the flesh (John 1:1-3), He voluntarily humbled Himself to become a real human being (Philippians 2:5–11), completely submissive to the will of the Father moment by moment His entire life.
Jesus’ submission went so far as to refuse to retaliate against those who not only insulted Him, but who beat and killed Him. He could have retaliated, not only delivering Himself from His attackers (Matthew 26:53-54), but also destroying them completely (Psalm 2:12). But instead, He fully entrusted Himself to God and to His plan. He knew that God was with him completely, and that with His every obedient step, the plan that He had formulated with the Father before the world began was being accomplished.
Peter goes on to point out that because Jesus suffered and died on the cross, taking God’s curse on Himself and bearing our sins in His body, it is now possible for us as God’s people to die to sin and to live for righteousness through faith in Him. Many take the final phrase of verse 24, “you have been healed by His wounds”, in a purely physical sense. And it is true that God’s people can find physical healing because of Jesus’ work on the cross. But Peter’s context here is more about spiritual healing, freedom from captivity to the world, the flesh, and the devil, so that, as spiritual beings restored to spiritual wholeness through faith in Jesus’ suffering and death, we can overcome sin and live as Jesus did, moment by moment, day by day, in complete submission and obedience to God’s will.
Peter well knew that the people to whom he was writing had spent many years of their lives in slavery to false gods, wandering spiritually like sheep without a shepherd. But now that they had turned to Jesus, they had submitted to God’s ownership and leadership in their lives, becoming God’s bond servants, so that they could now serve righteousness rather than sin, and so that they could live in full obedience to Him, rather than in rebellion.
Pray with Me
Father, so many Christians seem to have quite low expectations of what You are capable of doing in our lives and hearts. We accept the life experience of the lowest common denominator of those who claim to know Jesus as the norm and elevate those who rise above that low level as “saints”, unusual, outliers. But those who truly live like Jesus are not supposed to be the outliers in Your kingdom, but the norm. And, as Peter points out very clearly here, that higher norm is what Jesus’ suffering and death made possible for every one of us. Help us, Lord, to truly live out all that is possible for us in Jesus, so that Your kingdom can grow powerfully as You work freely in and through us. Amen.