Christ hath suffered, the just for the unjust. THE CIRCUMSTANCES.1. Infinite leagues must necessarily lie between the Creator and the created; but between God and man in Christ Jesus there seems no distance at all, the man Christ Jesus sits at God's right hand. It suffered, and went down into the grave. It must be perfectly obeyed; and in the event of disobedience, the penalty of the broken law — death — must be suffered, either by each man himself, or by another in his room. Crimes were laid to His charge which His righteous soul abhorred. Others think the way of pardon is trying to be as good as they can — saying their prayers, and striving to do what is right. I conclude by mooting the question whether this interpretation of the text after all involves any abnormal teaching; whether, in fact, it is an exception to the general rule of Christian doctrine. If the purpose of the Supreme had been to preserve the lives of those eight, it could have been accomplished by preventing the flood from coming, better than by constructing an ark to float on its surface. A. Nor is the whole Scripture less clear and strong as to the practical value of this virtue in the Christian standard of character. Jesus is gone up to the right hand of God, and sitteth there. O restful Saviour, we labouring, come to Thee and find rest in Thee; we also sit down expecting the time when Thou shalt put down all our enemies, and we shall tread even Satan under our feet.3. Find the way of making an end of sin, and the sting of death is instantly taken away. Chester McCalley . From this interpretation of the text an inference may be drawn. A. II. But, as they remembered it, it would affect their lives, and change the whole character of them. He replied, "Substitution!" O restful Saviour, we labouring, come to Thee and find rest in Thee; we also sit down expecting the time when Thou shalt put down all our enemies, and we shall tread even Satan under our feet.3. Secondly, His sitting at the right hand of God: "Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God." Science may be invoked, and art and artifice may be employed to make sinning physically safe; but all this cannot remove or alter the fact — the goads are there.2. Arnot.It is questionable whether we would have had skill enough to discover that the two facts mentioned in the text contained essentially the same revelation, if the union had not been expressly pointed out to us in Scripture. His sufferings are sufficient.2. Do you have an intimate personal knowledge of your wife? (2) To teach us self-denial and mortification. We see that suffering is not necessarily a mark of sin.2. To preserve His truth, and the earthen vessels that contained it, not from the flood of water, but from the flood of sin. In the days of Noah there were multitudes that disbelieved, and but few that believed, the warning God gave; eight only out of the millions of mankind believed. He adds, "Not the putting away of the filth of the flesh"; external washing cannot save anyone; but it is the "inquiring after God of a good conscience," it is the seeking God with the heart and with the soul — it is this which is the essence of the baptismal profession. 1 Peter 2:11 04-28-96 Sunday Sermon > 1 Peter 1:6-22 05-01-96 Verse by Verse Bible Study > Power Of Sacrifice 1 Peter 2:9 Does it not mean, first, unrivalled honour? Let not the wicked be emboldened by numbers.4. We naturally think, even from our childhood, a good deal of the spiritual world; of beings out of sight, who yet, for aught we know, may often be very near us, and may have great power to do us good, or to hurt us in body and soul. To answer these questions, we must have recourse to the doctrine of the substitution and atonement of Christ, and then to such questions it is easy to give an answer.3. As the stress of the storm strains the ship and shows where the weak parts are, so by our trials God would show us the weak points in our character, that we may strengthen what is weak and supply what is wanting.II. Her face was quite radiant. It was "Christ, the just."1. The providential dispensations and religious rites in which the principles were embodied, accorded with the infant state of the world and the Church. We may talk as Christians, we may belong to a Christian church, we may think ourselves safe; but unless we have climbed into the true Ark by faith, and have been shut in by the hand of God, we have no more possibility of safety than a person could have been saved by walking round the ark which Noah had constructed, or examining with surprise and admiration its massive construction.IV. Their cause; both their meritorious cause and their final cause; first, what in us procured these sufferings unto Christ, and, secondly, what those His sufferings procured unto us. And it is likely that this offer was made to all. J. Bengel.Christ dealt with the living in the body, with the spirits in the spirit.(A. the cold affections, lifeless prayers, halting steps. The law in its precept and penalty must be satisfied. We come to Him through gratitude; and, as we reach Him, we find Him one who is mighty to save, because He could bring us near to God. We cannot too distinctly assert that there is nothing saving in "baptism" itself. The fact that there are spirits in hell to whom the gospel was once preached suggests two very solemn considerations: 1. How can it be made helpful to us in the cultivation of Christian character and in the living of Christian life? And when once we come to get a sight of our sins as against God, we never can rest until we have got His pardon.II. Let us not try to put out of our minds the notion of the bad angels being around us, until we have turned in serious prayer to Him who for our sake holds them in chains. Satan tempted Him; His friends forsook Him; God hid His face from Him.2. If Christ, through all His several stages of existence, was a forerunner and pioneer to His apostles and faithful followers, it may be that as the Personal Head of the Body Mystical did in that unseen world preach the gospel to departed spirits, so some or many of His living members, as they have disappeared one by one behind the veil, have also in their turn, and after His example, preached the same gospel there. (2) The greater honour and dignity our Head hath, the more joy and comfort may we have, who are His members.2. O restful Saviour, we labouring, come to Thee and find rest in Thee; we also sit down expecting the time when Thou shalt put down all our enemies, and we shall tread even Satan under our feet.3. From Him all spiritual influence comes direct, and without union with Him no man has the Spirit of the Lord. In a moment the Duke leaped from his horse's back, plunged into the stream, and with considerable difficulty succeeded in saving the drowning man and bringing him to land. (Essex Remembrancer. The wild flood that destroyed the ancient world, and the gentle waters of baptism in Christian times — these two at first sight seem to have little in common. There then seek Him, There, when you have found Him, with Him dwell. Arnot.It is questionable whether we would have had skill enough to discover that the two facts mentioned in the text contained essentially the same revelation, if the union had not been expressly pointed out to us in Scripture. (2) It implies their having access into the gracious presence of God. But a neglected marriage, a husband who doesn’t work on his marriage continually, leads to the worst there is in this life for a believer. As long as you think merely of Noah being saved from death by drowning, you miss the grand design of God in bringing the flood upon the earth. (3) That He might exercise tender compassion towards us, under our trials and sorrows.2. The danger. Our brother trespasses against us, and, not considering that he is our brother, moulded of just such clay and subject to just such infirmities as ourselves, we cry out for the magistrate and the prison, if not the lash; and sometimes because there is no lash in the jailer's hand, we take one up with our tongue. He has waited till they would destroy themselves. Title Author Series WOTC Reference Date published Scripture reference Bible book ; The Blessed Life: Steve Colin: 1 Peter: GF 60_2_21: 2020-12-06 12:00:00: 1 Peter 3:8-12 It is not the out ward act of washing with water that can save a soul from the dangers that surround us. This, then, is what I want to bring out as the most important thing. Co-extensive with the universe.2. "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me." To get a good conscience within them (vers. The salvation which God works for His own, both in its whole and in its several parts, is a twofold operation. We see that sufferings are not necessarily the sign of a bad cause.3. This is no past matter. H. Spurgeon.I. But we can bring the doctrine home much closer to our personal feeling than this. )"Baptism": helpfulB. "Christ once suffered." Under this second phrase, His human nature and His Divine nature and power are distinguished. Dr. Carey, the great Indian scholar and missionary, tells of his visit to one of the wards in an Indian hospital. It is its duty to animate the flesh, and it shows itself able to do it; and time after time it manifests its ability far above and beyond all the powers of flesh, making that flesh do things for which it has seemed to have no capability. W. Beecher.We accept the life and the death of Christ as an atonement, as a substituted suffering, the just for the unjust; but we do not feel that He was a sufferer only when He was on earth, and that His suffering then was all the suffering that was needful to the salvation of the world. Likewise, husbands. It tells about our offences against God — about our breaking of His holy law — about the evil we have done against our loving Father in heaven. One of our greatest troubles, under the suffering which we feel ourselves or see in the world, is, that it does not seem to come upon the right people. — not necessarily "condemned with the world" — "living" possibly all the time, and to live, according to God the Judge, and in that higher part of the man, which is "spirit." The figure implies —1. They are always in union with Him. He therefore took our flesh, to put it off thus, and to offer it up as a sacrifice, which, to be acceptable, must of necessity be free and voluntary; and, in this sense, He is said to have died even by that same Spirit, which here, in opposition to death, is said to quicken Him; "Through the eternal Spirit, He offered Himself without spot unto God." So that unless we come to Christ as our only hope, we are excluded from that Ark. The authority of His law must be maintained. And after awhile, your wife can even smell your bad motives, your selfishness and your proud heart. (2)In will. Co-extensive with the universe.2. What meaneth it that Christ sits at the right hand of God? God's long suffering waited for them.Applications:1. It is not gratitude alone — that, indeed, moves us as we think of what He did for as — but it is the opening of the source of strength by which He was able to do it. God employed one flood to wipe away another. There are many things that he would not do because it would disgrace his profession. "Who is gone into heaven." As Noah remained safe, shut up within the ark, while it received the surges of the deluge; so we, in Christ our refuge, are unhurt, while He meets and exhausts in our stead the justice due to sin. It is quite noticeable that one of the apostles of our Lord dwells on this grace of patience with peculiar earnestness, returning to it as if it had a special power to his conscience and a special sacredness to his heart; and this is St. Peter, from whom my text is taken. J. Brock, B. A.I. But then we know that our Lord, as man, is gone into a greater nearness to God than ever; "He is gone into heaven," where is the throne of the great King. He has waited till they would destroy themselves. The expression intimates the perfect purity of His nature. (Dean Alford. Satan tempted Him; His friends forsook Him; God hid His face from Him.2. There is a touching story told regarding a body of men who had taken part in a rebellion, and were sentenced to have every tenth man of their number shot to deter others from doing what they had done. Her face was quite radiant. Does not it also signify intense love? He says, "Not the putting away of the filth of the flesh." A. There is no more danger. A philanthropic age needs the Cross, men anxious to alleviate the sufferings of the world need to have their own hearts broken for their sins, and all of us need to cling to these events of the suffering and death of Christ, and to feel that they contain the very power of our lives within them — the power of forgiveness and redemption, the power of happiness, the power of true labour, the power of the life eternal for this world and for the world that is to come. "Put to death." But the great end of His suffering for sins, the just for the unjust, was to bring us unto God.Application;1. he redeemed me!" On the contrary, religion is a walk of fellowship with God; a thing for the daily round of duty; a life of obedience flowing from love and gratitude for redemption; a life unselfish, Christ-like, God-glorifying.(Wm. (John Rogers. THEY WERE ENDURED TO BRING THE UNJUST TO GOD. Spurgeon. THE MERITORIOUS CAUSE OF THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST, and that is sin, "Christ once suffered for sins"; not His own sins, but ours. THEIR HISTORY.1. Not this; but "the answer of a good conscience toward God." The language intimates that Christ suffered once for sins voluntarily. Put to death in the flesh, but quickened by [in] the Spirit, He went and preached unto the spirits in prison, Angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto Him. THEY WERE ENDURED ON BEHALF OF THE UNJUST.1. He was "put to death" as regards the one; He was "made alive" as regards the other. Thomas, D. D.I. H. Wilson, D. D.I. One after another these nations have broken away from their Creator's commandment. His was just one of those impressible, impetuous temperaments, with great faults and great virtues, which lay a heavy tax upon the patience of friends, and yet inspire, beneath all that, a lively interest. hold fast the truth, even if you were much fewer than you are; and never let your opinion be in the least shaken by any allegation of the presumption, the enthusiasm, or the folly of entertaining the opinions which are against those of the great mass of mankind. )Christ's sufferings for usH. What was that preachment? THE RESULTS OF PARDON — that is to say, the consequences of being pardoned through the substitution of another — through the Lord Jesus taking our place.1. It is ascension which makes Him the Omnipresent. A great effort for a noble purpose taxes a man's strength; but it builds up character, confidence, and reputation. Human society prisonDean Vaughan.St atoning sacrifice, Christ 's sufferingsSketches of Four Sermons.I! 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