Peter Barnes | 1 Peter 2:24-25
SERMON NOTES
CHRIST OUR SUBSTITUTE
1 Peter 2:24-25
– Christ is our example and our substitute – 1 John 1:7; 2:6 is like 1 Peter 2:21-23, 24-25. Behind all this is Isaiah 53.
1. Christ died for sinners.
– 2:24. As Paul Gerhardt: ‘Mine, mine was the transgression,/ But Thine the deadly pain’. 1 Peter 3:18a.
– sin is a burden for us to carry – Ps.38:4. Sin brought about the terrible suffering and death of the Son of God.
2. The sad human condition.
– God says that we must die to sin and live to righteousness (2:24). We need healing, and Christ’s wounds are our healing.
– like the prodigal son – 2:25 (cf. Luke 15). Robert Leighton wrote: ‘But our evils are hid from us, and we perish miserably in a dream of happiness.’
3. Christ as our Shepherd and Overseer.
– 2:25. Psalm 23:1-4; Isa.40:10-11; Ezek.34:11-13, then John 10:27-28. Christ died for His sheep, but here He governs the lives of His sheep.
– It is all there: free grace and discipleship, Christ as example, Christ as Substitute, and Christ as ruling Shepherd. We are to respond to Christ in two ways: ‘to trust in His redeeming blood,/ And try His works to do.’ Resting upon Christ as the one who suffered for sinners, we are to be like Him in how we face unjust suffering – 2:21-25.