2002-01-01
Good Morning Faithful Ones,
In yesterday’s message we looked at the beginning of a passage from 1 PETER 2: 18-21 on Christ’s suffering; we will continue our look at that today from 1 PET 2: 21-25. The first verse of today’s passage is important enough to warrant a repeat citation. “It was to this [enduring suffering] that God called you, for Christ Himself suffered for you and left you an example, so that you would follow in His steps. He committed no sin, and no one ever heard a lie come from His lips. When He was insulted, He did not answer back with an insult; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but placed His hopes in God, the righteous Judge. Christ Himself carried our sins in His body to the cross, so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness. It is by His wounds that you have been healed. You were like sheep that had lost their way, but now you have been brought back to follow the Shepherd and Keeper of your souls.”
I admit to frustration that Jesus Christ could be so remarkably described in IS 53, the OT chapter on the “Suffering Servant,” and yet, my traditional Jewish brothers and sisters still can’t see Who that chapter is discussing. I know that because of the differences between “rabbinical” Judaism and “Biblical” Judaism that many rabbis do whatever they can to de-emphasize that part of the book of Isaiah. Maybe I’m not trusting God as much as I should, because RO 11: 25 reveals that their stiff-necked rejection of Christ as their Messiah is temporary and probably God-driven. This may be a case of my not reaching hard enough toward God’s perspective, which is surely in part to bring as many Gentiles to faith as He can. However, this hits close to home, because my family, with the exception of one brother, has such a hardened attitude about the faith that is at the very core of my life. To this day, I’m grateful to God for allowing me to be able to know Who my personal Savior and Messiah is. Because it has brought such joy and purpose to my life, I want that for the rest of my family. The waiting for them to come to faith is part of the suffering I have been called to endure.
IS 53: 2-3, “It was the will of the Lord that His Servant grow like a plant taking root in dry ground. He had no dignity or beauty to make us take notice of Him. There was nothing attractive about Him, nothing that would draw us to Him. We despised Him and rejected Him; He endured suffering and pain. No one would even look at Him-we ignored Him as if He were nothing.” Note how this citation simply reiterates in different words PS 118: 22 and 1 PET 2: 7, “The Stone which the builders rejected as worthless turned out to be the most important of all.” Let me continue with IS 53: 4-6, so that the parallels between this and what Peter writes above can be seen. “But He endured the suffering that should have been ours, the pain that we should have borne. All the while we thought that His suffering was punishment sent by God. But because of our sins He was wounded, beaten because of the evil we did. We are healed by the punishment He suffered, made whole by the blows He received. All of us were like sheep that were lost, each of us going his own way. But the Lord made the punishment fall on Him, the punishment all of us deserved.” How striking that such an exact description of Christ should come right out of the Old Testament!
When we realize that Isaiah was writing this chapter sometime between 740-692 BC, roughly 300 years before Christ’s birth, the impact of this magnificent truth is even more profound. I simply must go on: IS 53: 7-9, “He was treated harshly, but endured it humbly; He never said a word. Like a lamb about to be slaughtered, like a sheep about to be sheared, He never said a word. He was arrested and sentenced and led off to die and no one cared about His fate. He was put to death for the sins of our people. He was placed in a grave with evil men, He was buried with the rich, even though He had never committed a crime or ever told a lie.”
Was all of this done for nothing? I hardly think so. The key to answering this question comes in RO 8: 29 in which Christ is described as “the first among many brothers.” We find God’s promise of IS 53: 12 applying to all who share in the hope of the resurrection. “And so I will give Him a place of honor, a place among great and powerful men. He willingly gave His life and shared the fate of evil men. He took the place of many sinners and prayed that they might be forgiven.” RO 6: 5 makes all of this clear. “For since we have become one with Him in dying as He did, in the same way we shall be one with Him by being raised to life as He was.” When we are in Christ, we die to sin, die to the law, and die to the foolish legalism that is such a curse to traditional Jews. Instead, His suffering makes it possible for us to live in grace and share in the hope of the resurrection.
I would be remiss if I didn’t end this expose of God’s sovereignty without mentioning our responsibility to respond to it. MT 16: 24-25, “Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone wants to come with Me, he must forget himself, carry his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his own life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.’ “ We are being asked to find out what this means to us in our every day lives. God has extended an invitation to us to join Him in His work and made it possible for us to choose to accept it with the suffering of Christ and His sacrifice on the cross. That doesn’t guarantee that we will accept this invitation or even understand it. That is why He gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit, so we can act on the hunger we have been given for God’s word and have the understanding of it available to us through Him. We must examine our lives today and through prayerful and humble consideration discover exactly what “forgetting self, carrying one’s cross, and following Me” means to us as individuals. With that understanding, we must act on it. I know I am called to pray every day, long and hard that traditional Jews (including my family) and as many other non-believers as possible, can be brought to faith in Christ. That is the only way that His huge and painful suffering and sacrifice on the cross won’t go to waste.
PRAYER: O Lord, we are called to a way of life which we often don’t understand. You have given traditional Jews the gift of knowledge about Christ in the prophecy of IS 53. While it frustrates Jewish believers like myself that this gift is largely ignored by them, we must understand that Your timing is best. By sharing the story of Christ’s suffering and sacrifice for us in so many contexts in the Scriptures, You are helping us to understand the enormity of the blessing that it gives us. We humbly ask for Your guidance in two important areas: 1) in knowing what it means to us personally to forget self, take us our crosses, and follow You, and 2) in finding ways to bring as many now mired in unbelief as possible to faith, including traditional Jews. You are a generous and loving Abba. For so many reasons, we need to make our lives a living sacrifice of service pleasing and acceptable to You. You deserve our trust and obedience as a sign of the love we have for You. We offer You our adoration, worship, praise, honor, glory, and loyalty. In Christ’s name, amen.
Tomorrow, we will look at the first part of a passage on wives and husbands in 1 PET 3: 1-6. It will give us some insight into how to reach those who have not come yet to faith. As with everything else that is good, it must begin in one’s heart and home. That is where God’s love for us began-in His heart in heaven. What a great example God has given us in Jesus Christ. It is my greatest joy to share my faith in Him with you. Peter and I also send you our love.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn