Tag Archives: body

How Does Suffering Deal With Sin?

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HOW DOES SUFFERING DEAL WITH SIN?

Therefore, since Christ suffered in His body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because whoever suffers in the body is done with sin. As a result, they do not live the rest of their earthly lives for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans do – living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. (1 Peter 4: 1-3)

Again Peter’s words are puzzling. If we take them at face value, we may come up with some strange doctrines. If we suffer, do we become our own saviour? We must once again read them in conjunction with the rest of Scripture to get his meaning.

First of all, what was the purpose of Christ’s suffering? Jesus suffered in His body – as a perfect, sinless human being because He had to be our substitute in every way. His suffering and death as God’s sacrificial lamb atoned for sin, took sin away and brought about cleansing of the heart and conscience for those who believe in Him. He suffered in obedience to the will of His Father, without retaliation or threats, entrusting Himself to Him who judges justly.

The theme of Peter’s letter is suffering, especially in the context of the cruel and unjust persecution of believers. How were they to respond to injustice? Peter’s message to them was – take it on the chin, just like Jesus did. Why should they? What good would it do them to be sitting ducks for every person who had it in for them for whatever reason? What benefit would it be to them?

Peter’s response: It’s about your attitude. Paul spoke about attitude as well. His words to the Philippian church were – have the same attitude as Jesus had (Phil. 2:5-9). He gave up all His rights as God to come to earth as a human being. He humbled Himself from being God to becoming a man, a slave and a condemned criminal. You can’t go any lower than that! Why did He do it? Because the Father required it of Him if He was to be the Saviour of the world.

Suffering for doing the right thing has a purging effect. Jesus said that persecution for His sake is a reason to rejoice, firstly because of our identity with Him and secondly because we are in good company (Matt. 5: 11, 12). The prophets of old suffered persecution and even death for proclaiming God’s word to His rebellious people. Persecution for Jesus’s sake sets people apart as belonging to Him. Who would be willing to lay down his life if he was not convinced of the truth?

One does not indulge in every form of wickedness and, at the same time, live in the conviction that Jesus is Lord. It just does not work that way. People are persecuted because their righteous lives are a threat to the wicked. Ungodly people hate godly people because godly lives show up the wickedness of the wicked. Their response is not to change but to get rid of the one whose good behaviour offends them. Religious people did that to Jesus and they will do it to anyone whose godly life offends them.

Peter’s counsel was: Don’t stop living a godly life because it gets you into trouble. Be like Jesus. He trusted His Father for justice and did God’s will anyway. If you take up that attitude, you won’t want to fulfil the evil desires that would pull you away from God. The people around you indulge every whim; they live to satisfy every lust, but your focus must be on doing God’s will. That’s the evidence of your true sonship.

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him. For everything in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever. (1 John 2: 15-17)

To sum up then, the way Jesus lived and died is an example for us to follow. No matter what people did to Him, He trusted the Father and lived to do His will. His suffering did not destroy Him. On the contrary, it brought about our salvation. In the same way, if we suffer for our faith in Jesus, it will not destroy us. It will help to purge us from living sinful lives because we cannot experience persecution for our faith in Christ and live to satisfy our evil desires at the same time.

Our suffering does not take away our sin. Jesus’s suffering did that for us. However, it does take away our desire to sin because our hearts are set on living for Jesus and not for ourselves.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

Washed By The Word

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WASHED BY THE WORD

“He came to Simon Peter, who said to Him, ‘Lord, are you going to wash my feet?’ Jesus replied, ‘You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.’

‘No,’ said Peter, ‘you shall never wash my feet.’ Jesus answered, ‘Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.’ ‘Then, Lord,’ Simon Peter replied, ‘not just my feet, but my hands and my head as well!’

“Jesus answered, ‘Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.’ For He knew who was going to betray Him, and that is why He said not everyone was clean.” John 13:6-11 NIV.

Why are we going over this passage again? There is much gold to be mined from this incident and I am in no hurry to move on without digging a little deeper.

Yesterday we explored the thought that humble submission to the Master’s service is the heart of unity with Him. Unless we are one with Him, we cannot recognize Him in a disturbing disguise in the least of people and serve them in the disposition of our Messiah.

Peter displayed the typical attitude that resisted what Jesus wanted to do for Him. He thought he was being humble. Don’t we all when we are asked to receive the gracious ministry or generous gift of someone else, let alone what Jesus wants to do for us? We think that we are too unimportant to bother God with our insignificant needs. We can take care of them ourselves because God is busy looking after much bigger issues in the world!

What we think is humility is actually a slap in God’s face. It is not humility; it is stupidity, revealing our misunderstanding of God as our Father. A true father is never too busy to listen to his child’s insignificant needs. Because of his love, he stoops to the little one, wipes away the tears and kisses the bumps and bruises better. How much more tender and loving is our heavenly Father who heals our hurts and “washes our feet” with His loving ministry to all our needs.

It is pride that resists Him and arrogance that slams the door in His face when He comes in the disguise of a slave to embrace us with His love and to draw us into His heart to become one with Him. When we refuse to submit to the generosity and ministry of His servants, we are in reality refusing Him and saying, in effect, ‘I am self-sufficient and I don’t need you.’

Jesus’ gentle rebuke swung Simon Peter in the opposite direction. The Holy Spirit used an interesting title – Simon Peter. Was this a hint that Peter was in transition? He was still the old Simon, impetuous, vocal and volatile, but there was also an embryonic new Peter growing inside him. His spontaneous response to Jesus’ rebuke was to beg for an all-over wash, from head to foot because he desperately wanted to be one with his Lord. Peter might have been proud and did not understand but he was also honest and quick to correct, even over-correct his mistake.

Once again Jesus wove a spiritual lesson into a simple act of hospitality. Just as a bath was enough to keep the body clean, so His disciples were “bathed” by Jesus’ words. Their bodies were clean; it was only their feet — their daily “walk” in the world that needed to be refreshed. We have been made clean by the blood of Christ, forgiven and made righteous once and for all, but our walk needs to be washed daily by the water of the Word so that our fellowship with our Lord may be unhindered by sin.

What a beautiful picture of what the Word of God does for us! Paul used the same imagery to describe a husband’s loving sacrificial service to his wife.

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word.” Ephesians 5:26 NIV.

Here is the key to oneness in marriage — the wife humbly submitting to her husband’s loving and sacrificial service and continually separating herself to him as her one and only lover; and the key to oneness with Jesus. If we keep short accounts with Him and submit to His “washing”, we will be ready when He needs us to wash someone else’s feet.

 

Crime Scene With A Difference

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CRIME SCENE WITH A DIFFERENCE

“After they had done everything the prophets said they would do, they took Him down from the cross and buried Him. And then God raised Him from death. There is no disputing that — He appeared over and over again many times and places to those who had known Him well in the Galilean years, and these same people continue to give witness that He is alive.

“And we’re here today bringing you good news: the Message that what God promised the fathers has come true for the children — for us! He raised Jesus exactly as He described in the second psalm.

“My Son! My very own Son!
Today I celebrate You!”

“When He raised Him from the dead, He did it for good — no going back on that rot and decay for Him. That’s why Isaiah said, ‘I’ll give to all of you David’s guaranteed blessings.’ So also the psalmist’s prayer: ‘You’ll never let your Holy One see death’s rot and decay.'” Acts 13:29-35 (The Message).

This was a crime scene in reverse. Forensic science is so advanced that it is possible to prove that a murder had taken place without the evidence of a body. Jesus, on the other hand, was put to death in a public place. There were many witnesses to His murder and His burial place was known and even guarded by a platoon of Roman soldiers.

There was no need to cover up the heinous deed and no scheme to hide His body. His murderers needed to make sure that the body stayed where it was and that everyone knew it was there to prove that He was well and truly dead. He said He would walk out of the tomb and they did everything they could to prevent that from happening.

But He did the unthinkable. He walked out of the tomb and turned up among His friends to show them that He was alive. Has any other murder victim ever done that? Has any other religious icon ever done that? God Himself put His stamp of approval on Jesus by raising Him from death into an incorruptible and indestructible new body and by owning His as His Son.

All the characters in this great drama had inadvertently played their part to perfection, guaranteeing that God’s plan would come together just as He said it would. No amount of effort to cover up Jesus’ resurrection could disprove the fact. Their own prophets had accurately predicted it would happen and not just one — the same event was predicted by many different people across the centuries.

No elaborate cover-up schemes worked because Jesus walked out of a sealed and guarded tomb. No one can outwit God! His new resurrection body was not subject to earthly barriers. He moved in and out of locked rooms like a spirit and yet His disciples could see and touch Him and He even ate in their presence. No ghost can make a fire and cook breakfast on the shore of the Galilean lake.

Paul himself had encountered this Jesus in a blinding flash of light on the road outside Damascus. He had heard His voice and been transformed in an instant from a vicious persecutor to a humble servant who was willing to lay down his life for Him.

All in all, the proof of His resurrection was overwhelming but what was the point of it all? For God to come to earth in human form, to live as a human being for thirty three years and then to die as a felon for crimes He did not commit, is incomprehensible except for a very good reason.. The death penalty He had spoken over the human race because of our forefather’s rebellion, was carried out on Him and yet He was innocent of the crime for which He was paying.

This was really good news! Now every criminal — that’s us — can go free because our debt has been paid. And God can receive us back into His family as His sons and daughters if we accept His free gift of forgiveness and become reconciled to the Father.