Our Glorious Sin-Bearer!



The Wednesday Word

OUR GLORIOUS SIN-BEARER Part 2


"Who His own self bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by Whose stripes ye were healed. For you were as sheep going astray but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls"
 
-I Peter 2:24, 25


Last time we considered how this text brings us,
(1) A Glorious Person; and
(2) A Great Substitution;
Today, from the text, we consider two more excellent Gospel Truths and discover,

3. A Grand Result.
Because of the cross we have died to the guilt of our sins. Our sins were bought, paid and owned by the purchasing power of the Redeeming Lamb.  We are "healed by His stripes." He has taken our sins away! (John 1: 29)

This brings to mind the words of Psalm 103:12, " As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us." That´s more Good News!

Again, look at the result of the Gospel. That we "should live unto righteousness.” The verse does not say that we should live righteously, though it is true that we should (see Titus 2: 11-12). But the meaning here is that those who have died to sins in Christ are, by virtue of His doing, dying and rising again, reckoned as righteous IN HIM. This is the same “Righteousness of God" which Paul teaches in his epistles.   So away with these fellows who say that Paul and Peter had two different Gospels.

Next, we see,

4. A God-Blessed Evidence.
How do we know that we are partakers in this great redemption?  On what ground can we say that we have died to sins in Christ, and live unto gospel righteousness?

Verse 25 answers this question: It reads, "For you were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls." Most of us can remember when Christ and His great salvation were nothing to us, but now we can say:-

"Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God:
He to rescue me from danger
Interposed His precious blood¨

There came a time when we were convinced of our sinfulness and saw our need of the Almighty Saviour and were returned -brought back- to Jesus. He is the one Who said that He had come "to seek and to save that which was lost” and an excellent job He has done in that department.

Jesus is the Good Shepherd. If He had not sought us, we would never have sought Him. We have been "returned" (been brought back---the verb is passive) to the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls. Yes, it is all of sovereign grace, from first to last!

We have been brought back to Jesus. We were given to Him before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4). We went astray but He is our Shepherd. He sought us and found us. He will supply all our need, both temporal and spiritual.  We shall not want (Psalm 23:1).

And He is the Bishop (Overseer) of our souls. He watches over us, as Peter wrote later in this epistle (Chapter 3:12), "The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayers."

He will not lose one of His blood-bought sheep, as it is written in Psalm 101:6, "My eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with Me.”

And that´s the Gospel Truth!


-preacher D. G. Miles McKee


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