MONDAY September 11th
1 Peter 2:21–24
‘For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.’
The previous verse to this says ‘But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God’ Peter is continuing on with the theme saying that it is better to suffer as a Christian in the workplace for doing good than for us to enjoin in any wrongdoing, and he points to Christ as being our example. What he is saying is that when society was against him, he acted in such a way that we can learn from it. Re-read the verses above, and in our workplace setting sometimes it is better to remain silent, remembering there is one who sees all and will one day judge justly.
But leaving the workplace setting behind and looking at these verses they are a great reminder to each one of us that Christ suffered for each one of us. It was you and I who deserved to suffer, but Christ took our place.
The following verse reads ‘He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness’ (v24).
Take a moment today to meditate upon this. Jesus bore your sin, he bore my sin, if we began to write our sins out on a piece of paper, we would need sheet after sheet, but Jesus bore that sin upon himself as if it were his own, and suffered for that sin as if it were his own so that we sinners could receive the righteousness of God. The more we consider this the more we should fall on our knees and worship, that Christ loved us and gave himself for us.
But there is another challenge, Christ bore our sin so that we might die to sin! How sad that it would seem to be that some desire to keep dipping into the old ways rather than to be clothed in his righteousness. Oh how we should long to be free and to remain free, living lives that are separate, holy for God, lives that in every way and in all we do bring honour and glory to God our Saviour.
I suggested earlier that if we began to write our sins out on a piece of paper, we would need sheet after sheet, but the wonderful news in regard to being made righteous because Christ bore our sin or suffered for our sin on our behalf is that God has taken every sin we would have written on the paper and blotted it out! More than that he will never remember it anymore, so why should we. BUT, and it is a big BUT, we should be endeavouring in every way possible with the help of the Holy Spirit to ensure that we do not start compiling a new list by living in sinful ways since our new birth, for we have become new creations. We, yes, I speak to myself as well need to keep coming to the place of renewal, knowing that if we do sin we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous and as we confess our sin he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.