Truths to Bank our Lives Upon
“God’s Word assures us that on the cross, Jesus Christ, the righteous one, faced the flaming sword for us. He walked alone into the presence of God with our sin placed on him, and there he suffered the punishment that the sword of God’s wrath brings. But consider what– no, consider who–is on the other side of the sword. Jesus did not die just to free us from sin and then leave us to our own lives. He didn’t just to give us hope and meaning wherever we might find it. No, he walked through that flaming sword to bring us to the point of this verse, to bring us to God as testimonies to his amazing love and unimaginable grace. God would give his own Son to bring us to him.
God is the ultimate focus of Christ’s death on the cross. Yes, Jesus died for sins and for the unrighteous, but ultimately Jesus died for God and His glory. For when Christ brings us to God, he brings us into a right relationship with God. It’s as if the universe is set back where it should be– a relationship in which he is the center and we orbit around him in a safe proximity and nearness, a relationship which His glory is the point and we find our joy and meaning in being a display of his worth rather than our own.
The reason Jesus can bring us to God like this is that though he was put to death in the body, as Peter points out, he was made alive by the Spirit. Jesus did not stay dead. Having satisfied the sword of God’s wrath, he got up from the dead. And having opened the way, he kept walking in the garden, into the presence of God, but no longer alone. He faced the flaming sword alone, but now that he has satisfied it he is alone no more. Now he walks with a crowd, a multitude that cannot be numbered, men and woman from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation, purchased for God and given to him as a tribute to the praise of his glorious grace.
When Peter wrote these words, he was writing to Christians who were suffering for their faith in Christ, oftentimes in small ways, but nevertheless real. Earlier in this letter, he extorted them to preserver in suffering, because they were following Christ’s example(2:21). Here in this verse he’s doing something quite different. He’s reminding them that Christ’s suffering has been vindicated. It has come to an end. He is raised from the dead and is seated at the right hand of God. These aren’t examples for us to follow; they’re truths to bank our lives upon.
Christian, your sins have been paid for, your substitute was sufficient, and you have been brought to God. Christ is done with your sin– and so are you.The trials of life are small in comparison to the future Christ has sucured for you. So do not grow fond of this world’s love, and do not faint under this world’s scorn. Christ died for sins, for sinners, for God, so that you may live for God and with God, now and forever more.”
Mark Dever and Michael Lawrence, It Is Well: Expositions on Substitutionary Atonement
