David B. Curtis
David B. Curtis
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Good morning, Bereans. We're continuing our study of 1 Peter this morning. Last week we looked at verses 21-23 of chapter 2 which deal with Christ as our example of unjust suffering. This morning, we are looking at verses 24 and 25 of chapter 2 which deal with Christ as our Substitute.
We saw last week that in these verses, 21-25, there is a series of references to the "Suffering Servant" passages in the Book of Isaiah. Isaiah 53 is the message of the substitutionary death of Yeshua the Christ, of Yahweh laying our sins on Him, and of then crushing Him in an atoning death on our behalf. The good news of the Gospel is rooted in the story of redemption—the work of Yeshua on the cross.
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 1 Peter 2:24 ESV
This verse speaks of Christ as our substitute. It speaks of Christ as the one who took our place under the wrath of Yahweh. The Bible teaches that all have sinned, and it also teaches that the wages of sin is death. All men are guilty before God but for those who trust Christ he bore the wrath of God for us, he died for us. Every cult or false teaching in some way diminishes the work of Christ on the cross and magnifies human ability. But the gospel is all a… what Christ has done for us. He died as our substitute.
The Jews of all people should have understood this powerful picture of a Substitute Who would bear our sins, for it is clearly foreshadowed in the Law and then clearly portrayed in the prophets. So, on the Day of Atonement, we read in Leviticus:
And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins. And he shall put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness. The goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself to a remote area, and he shall let the goat go free in the wilderness. Leviticus 16:21-22 ESV
Here we see that "the goat shall bear their iniquities" Substitution We looked last week at And then the indisputably clear portrayal by the prophet Isaiah who wrote three times that the Suffering Servant would bear their sins.
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. Isaiah 53:4 ESV
Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors. Isaiah 53:11-12 ESV
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 1 Peter 2:24 ESV
"He himself bore our sins"— "He Himself" is emphatic, and it means to emphasize that this is God in human flesh bearing our sins, not because somebody outside the Trinity pushed it on Him, but because He chose it Himself. He Himself bore our sins. He did it alone. The emphatic personal pronoun indicates He did it alone, and it also indicates He did it voluntarily.
This alludes to Isaiah's two prophecies Isaiah 53:4 ("He has born") and Isaiah 53:12 ("He bore.") Yeshua the Great High Priest like the high priest of old, brought the sacrifice to the altar, the Old Covenant altar foreshadowing the New Covenant Cross, on which the offering was placed. And amazingly in this great story the Great High Priest was Himself the blemish-free, sinless sacrificial offering!
Christ's body was the "offering" to God. Paul writes,
and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, "This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." 1 Corinthians 11:24 ESV
The "for" is the preposition huper which here means "in your place" it is a substitutionary sacrifice for you. The essence of the Christian gospel is that Yeshua has done something for us. Most specifically, He died for us. The very name Yeshua indicated that He would "save His people from their sins."
She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Yeshua, for he will save his people from their sins." Matthew 1:21 ESV
"He himself bore our sins"— the word "bore" is from the Greek word anaphero which literally means to carry, bring or bear up and so to cause to move from a lower position to a higher position. It serves as a technical term for offering sacrifices as in offer up to an altar. We see this in the LXX of:
Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. Genesis 8:20 ESV
The word "offered" here is anaphero the verb the translators of the LXX usually used to picture the offering of a sacrifice. Figuratively (as used here by Peter) anaphero means to take up and bear sins by imputation as typified by the ancient sacrifices.
The writer of Hebrews utilizes anaphero with a meaning similar to Peter i.e., to refer to Christ's propitiatory or satisfactory sacrifice.
Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Hebrews 13:15 ESV
The word offer here is anaphero. James uses it this way also.
Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? James 2:21 ESV
Anaphero is used 25 times in the Septuagint translation of Leviticus regarding offerings! For example, Moses records that,
Then Aaron's sons shall burn it on the altar on top of the burnt offering, which is on the wood on the fire; it is a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the LORD. Leviticus 3:5 ESV
"Shall burn" here is anaphero. So, anaphero serves as a technical term for offering sacrifices as in offer up to an altar. Yeshua, as our Great High Priest, offered up the sacrifice of Himself by bringing His body up to the Cross. But anaphero is also used as punishment. To bear sin is to be punished for sin. Look at Numbers 14.
And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness. According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, a year for each day, you shall bear your iniquity forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.' Numbers 14:33-34 ESV
Suffer here is anaphero. What does it mean then to bear iniquity? It means to be punished. That's what it means. For every day in the land, you will bear your iniquities one year in the desert. In other words, you will suffer the punishment of your sin.
Sins— is the Greek word hamartia which means "missing God's mark," of falling to do His will and selfishly seeking to do our will!
Bearing iniquity anaphero means to suffer punishment.
Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Isaiah 53:11 ESV
"He shall bear (anaphero) their iniquities." To bear iniquity means to be punished. So, to bear sin meant to endure the penalty of sin, and that's a very important biblical distinction to make in order to clearly understand what Yeshua did on the cross. He bore punishment. The wrath of God against sin was put on Him instead of us.
So, when he said, "He bore our sins," it means that He took on the punishment. He endured the penalty, and it wasn't just physical death. It was spiritual death.
And at the ninth hour Yeshua cried with a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Mark 15:34 ESV
"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" That is the cry of spiritual death. This is the only time throughout His entire life when Yeshua speaks directly to the Father but addresses Him impersonally as "God." Here was God the Son, the Word made Flesh. He was One with God. There had never been a time in all of history, there had never been one instant, not one billionth of a second when the Father and the Son had ever been separated. From before the foundation of the world, Yeshua had enjoyed perfect and unbroken communion with His Father. But now, because He had taken our place on the cross, and had borne in His body the sin of all mankind, the Father, too holy to look upon sin, had turned the countenance of His glory away from His Son. Yeshua experienced spiritual death; He was separated from the Father. Yeshua died physically and spiritually for us:
And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Isaiah 53:9 ESV
Here Isaiah uses the intensive plural of "deaths." We have spiritual life because Yeshua endured a spiritual death, a separation from the Father as the sins of the human race were poured out upon Him.
Spurgeon explains it this way, "In one word the great fact on which the Christian's hope rests is substitution. The vicarious sacrifice of Christ for the sinner, Christ being made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him, Christ offering up a true and proper substitutionary sacrifice in the place of as many as the Father gave Him, who are recognized by their trusting in Him. This is the cardinal fact of the gospel."
Leon Morris writes, "Redemption is substitutionary, for it means that Christ paid that price that we could not pay, paid it in our stead and we go free. Justification interprets our salvation judicially. As the New Testament sees it, Christ took our legal liability, took it in our stead. Reconciliation means the making of people to be at one by the taking away of the cause of hostility. In this case, the cause is sin and Christ removed that cause for us. We could not deal with sin, He could and did, and did it in such a way that it is reckoned to us. Propitiation points us to the removal of the divine wrath and Christ has done this by bearing the wrath for us. It was our sin which drew it down. It was He who bore it. Was there a price to be paid, He paid it. Was there a victory to be won, He won it. Was there a penalty to be borne, He bore it. Was there a jt to be faced, He faced it."
Let me give you an illustration of substitution. During the Napoleonic Wars, men were conscripted into the French army by a lottery system. If your name was drawn, you had to go off to battle. But in the rare case that you could get someone else to take your place, you were exempt. On one occasion the authorities came to a certain man and told him that his name had been drawn. But he refused to go, saying, "I was killed two years ago." At first they questioned his sanity, but he insisted that this was in fact the case. He claimed that the records would show that he had been conscripted two years previously and that he had been killed in action. "How can that be?" they questioned. "You are alive now." He explained that when his name came up, a close friend said to him, "You have a large family, but I'm not married and nobody is dependent on me. I'll take your name and address and go in your place." The records upheld the man's claim. The case was referred to Napoleon himself, who decided that the country had no legal claim on that man. He was free because another man had died in his place.
What we have been talking a… this morning is the biblical doctrine of penal substitution which holds that Yeshua's sacrifice on the cross takes the place of the punishment we ought to suffer for our sins. As a result, God's justice is satisfied, and those who believe in Christ can be forgiven and reconciled to God.
Penal substitution is a biblical doctrine that states that Yeshua's sacrifice on the cross took the place of the punishment humans deserve for their sins. The word "penal" means "related to punishment for offenses," and "substitution" means "the act of a person taking the place of another"
This doctrine like every other Christian doctrine is under attack today. There are preterists who deny this doctrine, they contend that Christ did not die for us, in our place.
These people wrongly assert that penal substitution is a form of "cosmic child abuse." This conjures up a wretched picture of a vengeful Father taking his wrath out on his Son, who had no choice in the matter. This comes from a lack of understanding of the Triune God of the Bible.
It is important to understand that the Christian faith has always understood Yeshua to be God. God did not inflict pain on someone else. Rather, on the cross he absorbed the pain, violence, and evil of the world into himself. While speaking to his close followers right before his death, Yeshua said:
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. John 10:11 ESV
For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father." John 10:17-18 ESV
While speaking to the multitudes, Yeshua declared:
So Yeshua said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. John 5:19 ESV
On another occasion, Yeshua said:
"Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name." Then a voice came from heaven: "I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again." John 12:27-28 ESV
The clear picture that emerges from Scripture is that Yeshua was not the unfortunate victim of the angry Father. Rather, the Father and the Son were working in concert through the cross to pay for human sin. There is no division of will between the Father and the Son.
We see penal substitution in the earliest book of the Bible, Job. The ending of Job talks a… penal substitution. At the end of the story God deals with Job's friends, who have not spoken accurately of God:
After the LORD had spoken these words to Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite: "My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. Job 42:7 ESV
God was angry with them for insisting that Job was being punished for sins he committed. To atone for their wrongdoing, God instructed Job's friends to bring their sacrifices to Job.
Now therefore take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has." Job 42:8 ESV
Here God instructed Job's friends to offer an animal sacrifice as a way to alleviate God's anger towards them. The implication is obvious: God's anger is satisfied by a sacrificial death.
Back to our text.
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 1 Peter 2:24 ESV
"In his body on the tree"— this is powerful affirmation of the true humanity and physical death of Yeshua of Nazareth. Paul put it this way.
he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, Colossians 1:22 ESV
Paul emphasized that it was the physical body of Yeshua Christ that was nailed to the cross, because the false teachers denied the incarnation and taught that Yeshu did not have a real human body. Their philosophy that all matter was evil made it necessary for them to draw this false conclusion. But the New Testament makes it clear that Yeshua did have a fully human body, and that He bore our sins on that body on the cross.
The word "tree" here is from the Greek xulon which is literally wood and refers to anything made of wood, including a tree or other wooden article or substance. Xulon is commonly used in classic literature for wood or timber, as a building material, fuel, and material from which utensils and cultic objects are made.
Peter uses this same phrase twice in the book of Acts.
The God of our fathers raised Yeshua, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. Acts 5:30 ESV
And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, Acts 10:39 ESV
By Yeshua's day the rabbis had interpreted xulon as including Roman crucifixion. Moses talks a… death on a tree in:
"And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance. Deuteronomy 21:22-23 ESV
Yeshua was accused of blasphemy which, according to the Mosaic Law, demanded stoning. Why then did the Jewish leaders want Him crucified, which required Roman approval and ceremonial defilement for them before the Passover? Some have said they did this because the Jews did not have the authority under Roman law to put someone to death, but what a… Stephen in Acts 7?
I think they wanted Yeshua crucified to suggest that this messianic pretender was cursed by God! But this is exactly what happened. Yeshua became the curse for us
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree"— Galatians 3:13 ESV
Yeshua bore the curse for us so that we might be redeemed.
Peter goes on to say, "that we might die to sin and live to righteousness"— Peter reminds us that when Yeshua died on the cross, we also died to sins. Our life is permanently changed by our identification with Yeshua on the cross. Being dead to sin is an accomplished fact that takes place the instant I am united with Christ at conversion. Most Christians don't know a… it at the time, but it is still true positionally. The moment you trusted in Christ as Savior, you were identified with Him in His death on the cross, so that all the benefits of His death became yours. As Paul puts it:
We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. Romans 6:6 ESV
"Was crucified with Him"—the word "crucified" is a compound verb meaning: "was crucified with"—Christ. The aorist verb tells us that this is not a repeatable event, but a final, completed event. The passive voice shows us that this crucifixion is not something that we have done, but something done to us in Christ. That man that was joined to Adam was crucified together with Christ.
Because of our union with Christ in His crucifixion, we are dead to sin, we have been set free from its power. We are no longer slaves of sin. Every saint is fully and forever POSITIONALLY righteous before God. But it is one thing to be righteous in our position but quite another for us to be righteous in our practice!
Spurgeon writes, "He who bore my sins in his own body on the tree, took all my debts and paid them for me, and now I am dead to those debts; they have no power over me. I am dead to my sins; Christ suffered instead of me. I have nothing to do with them. They are gone as much as if they had never been committed." (Spurgeon)
"By his wounds you have been healed"—this is from,
But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. Isaiah 53:5 ESV
The word "wounds" here is molops which is literally "battle face" and means a welt, a "black eye", a mark of fighting, a blow or wound made in war, also a scar, or the mark left on the body by the stripe of the whip, a stripe left by a lash. Molops refer to bruised, bloody welts as might result from sharp blows.
This is a metaphor for the forgiveness of sin, not a promise that if believers have enough faith God will heal every physical problem of every believer. In the Tanak sin was characterized as physical illness.
Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and raw wounds; they are not pressed out or bound up or softened with oil. Isaiah 1:5-6 ESV
If there was physical healing in the redemption, no Christian would ever be sick or die. Look at what James told the sick to do.
Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. James 5:14-15 ESV
James doesn't tell them your physical healing is in your redemption just trust God for it. He tells them to pray. Look what Paul tells Timothy to do.
(No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.) 1 Timothy 5:23 ESV
The wine is medicinal.
For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. 1 Peter 2:25 ESV
In verse 25 Peter now shifts his imagery to the "shepherd and sheep" metaphors from Isaiah 53:5-6.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:6 ESV
"For you were straying like sheep"—"straying" is the Greek word planao, which originally meant someone that had geographically gone astray from a particular road or path. Then it came to take more ethical connotations. They had gone astray from truth. Peter uses it here of straying from spiritual truth and as such frequently describes the condition of an unsaved individual, which is Peter's intent in this verse.
"But have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls"—the word "returned" here is epistrepho which means, to turn a…, to turn around, to turn toward, to return and figuratively to convert. The idea is a definite turn to God. This is an aorist passive indicative which implies a decisive return by the agency of God, Christ, or the Spirit. The returning does not refer to Christians who have fallen away from Yeshua but refers instead to the fundamental conversion Peter spoke of in 1 Peter 1:14-16, 22 and 23.
"Shepherd and Overseer of your souls"—who is the Shepherd? This title is used of Yahweh.
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. Psalms 23:1 ESV
Yahweh frequently compared His relationship with Israel to that of a Shepherd and His sheep. Psalm 77:20 says, "You lead Your people like a flock." Psalm 79:13 says, "We Your people and the sheep of Your pastures will give thanks to You." Psalm 80:1 says, "Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, You who lead Joseph like a flock." Psalm 95 says, "He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand."
Ezekiel described Israel as God's flock and the rulers as the shepherds. Rather than feeding the sheep, the rulers alternately ignore the flock and actually prey upon them instead of protecting them. As a result the flock is scattered and devoured by the wild animals. The false shepherds will be removed from their position of leadership, and God will again be the shepherd of His people. He will gather them and lead them to good pasture. He will appoint a shepherd over them from David's line and bring peace to the flock.
Ezekiel 34 is a clear description of the way Yahweh portrayed Himself as the good shepherd. In verses 11-16 Yahweh makes three promises to His people. In verse 11 Yahweh promises that He will take care of His sheep:
"For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. Ezekiel 34:11-12 ESV
In verse 13 He promises to bring them back from where they have been scattered:
And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord GOD. Ezekiel 34:13-15 ESV
In verse 16 He promises to be a true shepherd to His people:
I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice. Ezekiel 34:16 ESV
Does this verse sound familiar to you? Yeshua quotes this in His comments to Zacchaeus in Luke 19:
And Yeshua said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." Luke 19:9-10 ESV
So, Yahweh says in Ezekiel 34, "I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them" and "I will seek the lost" then Yeshua comes along and says, "the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost." By using this phrase, knowing the people knew the Scripture, Yeshua was saying to them, "I am the Yahweh in the flesh, Israel's shepherd savior."
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. John 10:11 ESV
This is another strong declaration of Christ's deity, but you won't get it if you don't know the text He's quoting. So, what Peter is saying is Yeshua is the Lord. Yeshua is God. This is an affirmation of His deity.
"Overseer"— is from the Greek word episkopos. It means guardian or overseer. The term "Shepherd" is His title. The term "Overseer" is His function. What is the function of a shepherd? To oversee the flock, to guard them and care for them.
Overseer is used 5 times in the New Testament, once of Christ (1 Peter 2:25), and four other times to refer to church leaders. The word shepherd is poimen, which is the word "pastor" and the word "guardian" is the episkopos, which is the word "bishop" or "overseer." Both of them are applied to elders. Peter uses them both to refer to elders in the local church.
So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. 1 Peter 5:1-4 ESV
Peter says that the elders are to shepherd the flock. Paul says this same thing in:
Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. Acts 20:28 ESV
Paul tells these elders that their task is to "care for the church of God." Care for is from the Greek word "poimaino," which means: "to shepherd." This flock that these elders are to feed is "The Church of God"—this flock belongs to the Lord God. And then, he says, "Which He purchased with His own blood." The word "purchased" here is not the common word for "to buy" in the sense of buying a slave out of the slave market. This is the Greek word peripoieomaia, which means: "to get for one's own." The force of this word is, "I have made these things my own."
This flock was purchased with "the blood of His own One." These sheep were so valuable to God that He purchased them with the precious blood of His own Son.
So, let me say that I think that shepherding can be boiled down to "feed and lead." Teach the Word of God and live out a godly example. The Puritans sparked renewal in large part through their commitment to preaching as the pastor's primary task. J. I. Packer states, "To the Puritan, faithful preaching was the basic ingredient in faithful pastoring." He then cites from John Owen, who wrote, "The first and principal duty of a pastor is to feed the flock by diligent preaching of the Word. This feeding is of the essence of the office of a pastor." (A Quest for Godliness, Crossway Books, p. 2830).
As we close this morning, please remember that Peter is writing to believers who were suffering. Peter t
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