Why did Jesus go to the cross? What would you say if someone asked you that question? See how Peter answers it in this study.
Teaching Notes:
Why Did Jesus Go To The Cross?
1 Peter 2:24-25
Intro: Read 1Pet.2:18-25.
- In this section of 1 Peter we are urged towards submission in various areas of society: submission of citizens to governmental rulers, submission of servants to masters, submission of wives to husbands.
- In Peter’s exhortation to servants he gives: 1) Their Duty: 2:18. Be submissive; don’t retaliate. 2) Their Motive: 2:19-20 This finds favor with God. 3) Their Example: 2:21-23. Christ.
- Peter can’t stop with showing Jesus as our example. For Peter, a discussion of the sufferings of Christ would be fatally incomplete without the truth that they were not only an example – they were redemptive. Jesus is not just our Model – He’s our Mediator. He’s not just our Example – He’s our Expiation.
- Peter is drawing heavily from Is.53. Notice the parallels.
1 Peter 2:21 – “Christ suffered for you” Is. 53:5 “But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities.”
1 Peter 2:22 – “He committed no sin” Is. 53:9 “He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth.”
1 Peter 2:23 – “When He was reviled, He did not revile in return; when He suffered He uttered no threats” Is. 53:7 “He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth.”
1 Peter 2:24 – “By His wounds you were healed.” Is. 53:5 “By His scourging we are healed.”
1 Peter 2:25 – “For you were like sheep continually going astray” Is. 53:6 “All of us like sheep have gone astray; each of us has turned to his own way.”
The first verse of August Toplady’s hymn, Rock of Ages, is
“Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in Thee;
Let the water and the blood, from Thy wounded side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure; save from wrath and make me pure.”
There it is – the double cure of the cross. That is why Jesus went to the cross – to save from wrath and make us pure. In other words, to justify and sanctify us. This is exactly what Peter is telling us in this text. So, let’s look at how Peter answers the question, “Why did Jesus go to the cross?”
1. To Justify Us
A. Bore Our Sins: Is.53:11 “He will bear their iniquities”; Is.53:12 “He Himself bore the sin of many”. The word “bore” denotes a great weight or load; it implies someone is stooping to carry a burden. What burden? The burden of paying the debt our sins deserved. In this way, Jesus was our surety. A surety is someone who voluntarily assumes the legal debts of another. Today we would call it a co-signer on a loan. In the 19th century there were Debtor’s Prisons. If someone borrowed money and squandered it and couldn’t repay their debt, they would be put in prison. (This would be like you borrowing $250,000 from bank to buy a house, and then squandering it in Las Vegas gambling so that you are unable to pay it back). The prisoner could only be released once his debt had been paid. If a rich friend paid his debts, he would be released. In our case, the lender’s son, pays His father the price that we squandered. Jesus voluntarily assumed our legal debts and paid them to His Father!
B. He Himself: This is emphatic in the Greek. He alone. Not humans, angels, the Father or the Spirit. Only Jesus could do this work! Why? It could not be an angel. To represent man, he must be a man. Notice the phrase in this text “in His body”. And it couldn’t be any ordinary man because all men have sinned. All men die as the wages for their own sin. Thus, they are unable to die for another. Even if you could find a perfect man, his death could only atone for 1 other human life. God must find a Substitute who 1) is fully human and is therefore capable of suffering; and 2) is of infinite value (so that His death could count for as many as God designated). In other words, this Substitute must be a God-Man. This is exactly what we celebrate at Christmas! Jesus Christ is the perfect combination of a human and a divine nature in 1 person. We kill spiders, bugs, insects, and mice all the time and don’t think anything about it. If had to choose between killing all insects in the world or killing 1 human being, I would no doubt kill all the insects. Why? Because 1 human being is worth more than all the insects put together. Likewise, Jesus is God, and has greater value than the sum total of all men put together. Thus, His death is sufficient to save every person on the planet.
C. By His Wounds You Were Healed: Some have thought that this text is teaching that physical healing is included in Christ’s atonement. However, a closer look at this text reveals that Peter is not describing physical healing, but spiritual healing. Notice the “for” which begins verse 25. In verse 25 Peter is explaining the healing we have received through Christ’s wounds. It is the healing that comes from returning to the Shepherd and Guardian of our souls after a life of continual straying. In other words, Peter is describing our conversion. Peter doesn’t say “He Himself bore our sicknesses in His body on the cross.” The entire emphasis in this passage is on spiritual healing. Yes, it is true that healing is included in the atonement Ultimately. Because of Christ’s atonement, our bodies will be raised from the dead, and glorified, never to experience sickness again forever. But we have no promise in the Scriptures that our present physical healing was included in Christ’s atonement in the same way that our spiritual healing was.
Sin is pictured here as a disease. This disease is hereditary, pervasive, and fatal. It is hereditary in that we all have inherited our sinful condition from our father, Adam. It is pervasive, in that it has spread through our entire beings, including our minds, emotions, and wills. It is fatal, in that there is no human cure for it and will ultimately end in physical, spiritual, and eternal death. This disease can’t be cured by man. Christ is the only physician who can cure it. His blood is the medicine. Through the sufferings of Christ our souls are healed. All the consequences of sin and depravity are healed through Jesus’ sufferings. We were alienated – now we are reconciled. We were guilty – now we are forgiven. We were enemies – now we are friends. We were condemned – now we are justified.
D. You Have Returned To The Shepherd and Guardian of Your Souls: A straying sheep is defenseless, and an easy prey for wolves. Sheep are stupid animals and can’t find their way back on their own. Left to themselves, they tend to stray to their own self-destruction. We were lost in sin, an easy pray for Satan, and would have destroyed ourselves if Christ had not died for us.
Returned: Conversion is a returning to God. We were His by creation. We were lost by sin. Now we have returned through repentance & faith. Shepherd & Guardian: one who watches over, feeds, leads, guides, protects; watch out for. Comforting to know Christ is my Shepherd & Guardian. I am in His care and keeping. He will guard my soul!
Summary: So how does Jesus’ death justify us? He represented God’s people, paid their debt, bore their sin away, took the suffering, wrath, curse and judgment they deserved. Salvation has nothing to do with what we do and everything to do with what He has done! That’s why it is of grace. Is Jesus your Savior? If He is, you are justified. You have forgiveness, have been declared righteousness, and possess eternal life! Praise Him with all your might.
Listen to the words of the puritan Thomas Brooks: “O blessed Jesus, what manner of love is this?! That Thou shouldst wash away my scarlet sins in Thine own blood! That Thou shouldst die that I may live! That Thou shouldst be cursed that I might be blessed! That Thou shouldst undergo the pains of hell that I might enjoy the joys of heaven! That the face of God should be clouded from Thee, that His everlasting favor might rest upon me! That Thou shouldst be an everlasting screen betwixt the wrath of God and my immortal soul! That Thou shouldst do for me beyond all expectation! And all this according to the covenant of redemption! What shall I say, what can I say to all this, but fall down before Thy grace, and spend my days in wondering at that matchless, bottomless love, that can never be fathomed by angels or men!”
2. To Sanctify Us
A. That We Might Die To Sins and Live to Righteousness: What was our life like before we were converted? We were alive to sins, and dead to righteousness! Eph.2:1-3. What has Christ’s death done for us? It has not only brought forgiveness of sins, but a brand new nature! This new nature compels us to die to sins, and live to righteousness, to love what we once hated, and hate what we once loved! Christ’s death not only justifies us; it also sanctifies us! “That we might die to sins” – that’s mortification. “And live to righteousness” – that’s vivification. These are the 2 sides of sanctification. We need to not only say “No” to sin; we need to say “Yes” to righteousness. Jesus died to enable us to do both!
B. How Does The Cross Sanctify Us? We find the answer to this question in Romans 6:1-7. You see, not only did Jesus bear our sins on the cross, He bore us! Our old self was crucified with Him. At the cross, not only did Jesus die for us, we also died with Him. To understand Romans 6, you need to follow 3 words: know, consider, and present. Romans 6:2-14 are Paul’s answer to his own question in verse 1, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may increase?” His short answer is found in verse 2, “May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” In other words, Paul is saying “how can a person go on continuing in sin just like they did before their conversion if they have died to sin?” Then in verses 3-14, Paul launches into his longer detailed answer to his question in verse 1. His answer can be basically boiled down to this: we can no longer continue in sin because we have been united to Christ. Christ died to sin (6:10); that’s why we have died to sin (6:2). We have been united to Him in His death, burial, and resurrection (6:3-5). That’s why Paul can say that our “old self” was crucified with Him. Our old self is the person we were “in Adam.” That man was crucified with Christ, and is dead. The person we are now is a person “in Christ.” And the result is that we are no longer slaves to sin. Yes, we still sin, but we are not slaves to it. We are not under sin’s dominion like we were when were in Adam. But just to know this truth is not enough. We must consider it (6:11). That is, we must think on this, meditate on it, bring it to our minds when we are tempted to sin. And even that is not enough. We must then go on to present ourselves to God as those alive from the dead (6:13). Paul ends his argument in 6:14 by saying, “For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” If we are in Christ, we are under grace, and if we are under grace, then sin shall not be master over us. That is how the cross sanctifies us. It kills our old self which was under the dominion of sin, and then we are raised to new life with Christ. Know this, Consider this, and then Present yourselves to God!
Conclusion:
Has the cross justified you? If it has, it is also sanctifying you. Your sanctification is so important that it is one of the primary reasons Jesus went to the cross! When you don’t pursue holiness, you are spurning the work of Jesus Christ on the cross! Know your union to Christ, consider it, and then present yourself to God as who you are – dead to sin and alive to God!
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