The Servant of Servants
1 Peter 2:18-25
Tom J. Nettles
In this passage, Peter
continues his admonitions to Christians to live submissively within the sphere
of their present calling. A call to submission does not mean, necessarily, that
the sphere of labor or relationship is ideal, or even just, but that a
Christian can live with godly integrity and can conduct himself as a follower
of Christ under stress as well as in happy situations. This idea becomes
especially poignant when we realize that the example given is that of Christ’s
patience and submission in the most unjust action ever done in human history.
A. Does Peter’s address to slaves give warrant to slavery
as a human institution? Passages such as these were frequently used in defenses
of slavery. The assumption was that the regulation of an existing institution
was tantamount to God’s approval of the institution. He regulated slavery, and
did not issue a mandate against it; the institution of slavery, therefore, is ordained
of God and we must not insist on its abolition but only seek to remove any
abuses from it. Though arguments on this issue from a biblical standpoint can
be complicated at times, The general principle of Scripture is that personal
freedom is superior to slavery, thus if a slave could obtain his freedom, he
was urged to do so [1 Corinthians 7:21] The foundation of slavery,
man-stealing, is strictly seen as a violation of divine law [1 Timothy 1:10],
and Christian Masters were to be aware that they themselves had a Master in
heaven and that they should consider their Christian slave as Brothers (Paul
even states in the case of Onesimus and Philemon “No
longer as a slave but as a beloved brother.”] Over and above the importance of
this particular ethical issue, Peter is concerned that all Christians conduct themselves
with integrity, personal purity, and loving deference in the inequities of a
fallen world.
B. Unjust suffering borne patiently is pleasing to
God—19, 20. Peter looks at the condition from the standpoint of the dominance
of sin in all human relationships. In a pagan society the regard that a Master
would have for his slave would normally involve a peculiarly egregious
violation of the second Great commandment, “Thou shalt
love they neighbor as thyself.”
1. Disobedience to the commandments rules in the hearts
of all men, so a Christian should not be surprised when the world, especially
someone in a place of power, shows no regard for God or man..
Peter gives the admonition to slaves with the assumption that their true
Christian character will shine most brilliantly when they are called on to
respond to injustice. Responding positively to the benevolent and gentle does
not draw upon the reserves of grace but is no more than natural men would do.
If we love those that love us, how does that let grace prove itself.
Even the unbelievers would be show respect to those that treated them with
favor. [cf. Matthew 5:43-48]
2. In addition, patience under just suffering, a
warranted punishment, is not a distinct demonstration
of Christian character but an expected attitude thoroughly consistent with a
deserved chastening. To receive punishment with resignation and patience when
it is due for disobedience shows no extraordinary strength of character; to
resist it and resent it, in fact, would only aggravate one’s guilt.
3. The manifestation of grace for the Christian slave
occurs when he/she does all that the Master requires [which according to Christ
should not raise the spirit of expectation in the slave for gratitude from the
master (Luke 17:10)] and yet on pure whim or from arrogant malice receives
rough, ill treatment from the Master. This shows that one, no matter what his
earthly condition is or who is his earthly authority, views the Lord as his
true master. Such submission is “a gracious thing,” that is a manifestation of
grace. The Christian has focus on the love, mercy, faithfulness, and grace of
God and desires to pleas Him, knowing that whatever we do we
do “as unto the Lord.” We should implant in our hearts and test our actions
each day by Paul’s question to the Galatians, “For am I now seeking the
approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please Man? If I were still
trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ” [Galatians 1:10].
C. This gives rise to the servant theme of Isaiah 52:13ff
– What more powerful impulse to bear with patience unjust suffering than the
events that constitute our eternal freedom from a deserved wrath of
unimaginable proportions. Seeing that the Christian’s status of favor with God
was purchase by the death of the spotless, innocent Lamb of God, he concludes
that to just such
treatment we are called. “For to this you have been called.”
II.
Christ’s example
of suffering from his immediate tormentors
A.
This
kind of suffering is our example [21]. If we look for some model as to how one
that is pure-minded and desires to honor God with his conduct should respond
when falsely ridiculed, dishonored, abused, maligned, and condemned we look to
Christ. One of the immediate applications of our knowledge that Christ died for
us is the willingness to receive false accusations and unjust treatment so that
we might manifest the life of Christ in this world [cf. Matthew 5:11, 12; Luke
6:22, 23]. We are not left to guess in this matter; Christ has both instructed
us and exemplified the God-honoring response.
v His example is not
for our redemption but as a demonstration of trust in the Father in the present
providence as well as for the demonstration of future justice and glory. This
is a pertinent application of the suffering of Christ, but is not the
explanation of the reason that the just one suffered unjustly at the hands of
men.
B.
He
did not retaliate in kind 22, 23. Peter invokes the language of Isaiah 53:7-9
to show the infinite patience of our sinless Lord under the malicious hands of
sinful men. This was God in the hands of angry sinners, when as a matter of
pure justice untempered by mercy we should have seen
sinners in the hands of an angry God.
C.
He
had ultimate trust in the justice of God: He did this in two ways.
1. cf. Romans 12:17-21. The Christian lives in this life
with the knowledge that he is not responsible for the avenging of wrongs done
to him. God is the perfect judge of all wrongs and He will render to every man
his just treatment in eternity for it is His alone to judge and to take
vengeance.
2. Christ knew also, that his treatment was a part of the
exact justice that his Father was inflicting on Him as the substitute and
representative of the people that the Father had given Him in eternity past.
Though it was not just as coming from the hands of men, this passion event was
perfectly consistent with justice as it came from the eternal purpose and the
immediate hand of his Father. He knew that at the level of eternity, his
suffering would indeed accomplish justice and he would not suffer beyond what
was exactly just for the redemption of the people. He would pay the utmost
farthing, endure the wages of sin, and buy us with his precious blood.
3. Now Peter explains why this is so.
III.
His substitutionary
suffering is the ultimate example of injustice serving the cause of justice
A.
The Event
1.
Bore our sins –
the true cause of his suffering – Isaiah 53:4—Peter used an intensive pronoun
to show that Christ Himself and no other shouldered the full burden of sin and
He himself and no other paid the full price of our pardon. The idea of bearing
our sins means that he undertook before God to absorb the debt of the full
account of wrath due for the sins of those that he shouldered. He bore “our griefs” and carried “our sorrows” and was “wounded for our
transgressions” and the chastisement that came upon him was designed to give us
peace.
2.
In his own body –
This was a more severe trial to his body than the buffeting of the soldiers.
One would be villainous ever to underestimate the exquisite amount of pain that
racked the body of Christ when the inventive cruelty of malicious and
power-hungry sinners trained to be brutal and merciless exhibited their
sinister skill of torture on a body doomed soon to expire. It was truly
unimaginable. The true pain, however, and that that brought forth the cry of
the Lord’s mouth was the wrath of the sword of divine justice that pierced his
heart in full payment for those sins that his elect had committed or ever will
commit. The soldier’s spear entered a heart already burst open through the
intense experience of infinite wrath. Body and soul suffered at the hand of God
more than it could ever have suffered from the puny attempts of men to exhibit
their wrath. It is nothing when placed beside the anger of the self-existent
infinitely mighty, infinitely holy God. Look at Luke 12:4-7.
3.
On the tree –
everything preliminary, as trying and traumatic as it was nothing compared to
the time on the cross in full contact with the unsparing retributive justice of
God for our sins. We do not discern the various ways in which the sin of the
world troubled the soul of Jesus. In Luke 12:49, 50 he said, “I came to cast
fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled! I have a baptism to
be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished!” In
Gethsemane Jesus told his disciples, “My soul is very sorrowful, even unto
death” [Matthew 26:38]. His probing the possibility of
the cup passing from him indicates that he was already in the foretaste of the
deep anguish looming before him, soon to be accomplished on the “tree.” Jesus
was in the throes of an increasing perception in his humanity of the depths and
heights and width and breadth of the wrath of God, and it is not impossible
that certain elements of divine wrath already were accompanying these physical
and mental struggles leading up to the cross. But none can fathom the wrath
unleashed during the hours of darkness on the cursed tree. “Well might the sun
in darkness hide and shut his glories in, when Christ the mighty Maker died for
man, the creature’s, sin.”
B.
The purpose
1.
That we might die
to sin: consequences and corruption
v
Sin holds its
sway over us in that we are under its curse of condemnation. Jesus’ death was indeed
the “Death of death.” “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are
in Christ Jesus.”
v
One of the
immediate punitive aspects of Adam’s sin was the corruption of soul that
separated him from his primordial love of God and subjected him to the deceit
of Satan, the passions of the flesh that continually waged war against his
soul. Now Christ’s death has brought forgiveness and consequently the
indwelling of the Spirit to mortify the flesh, break the bonds of Satanic deceit, and produce real holiness. “But now that you
have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get
leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life” [Romans 6:22].
2.
Live to
righteousness: by looking to Christ
alone and by presenting your members as slaves to righteousness Romans 6:19
v
The righteousness
we formerly perceived was a self-righteousness, which
was no righteousness at all. Now the believer that has been brought to the
cross of Christ does not look to his own righteousness but only to the righteousness
of Christ. He has become righteousness to us [2 Corinthians 5:21 and 1
Corinthians 1:30]. Like Paul, now we yearn for and relish to be found only in
the righteousness that comes by faith in Christ [Philippians 3:9].
v
Now that we know
true righteousness, we seek to pursue it and as formerly we were slaves to sin,
now we are slaves to righteousness (“having been set free from sin, have become
slaves of righteousness.”
3.
His wounds are
effectual for this Isaiah 53:5 – “By his wounds, you have been healed”--This
is, of course, literally true but also a literary irony. How can the wounds
inflicted on one person heal another person? We are reminded of the great hymn
by Charles Wesley, “Arise my soul arise,” in which Wesley poignantly observed,
Five bleeding wounds He
bears; Received on
They pour effectual prayers; they strongly plead for me:
“Forgive him, O forgive,” they cry,
“Forgive him, O forgive,” they cry,
“Nor let that ransomed sinner die!”
His wounds were not
inadvertent, accidental, or without purpose, but, as Wesley reminds us, were
effectual for the forgiveness of sins and constitute Christ as the great high
priest who has offered the final sacrifice, once and for all rendering perfect
sacrifice to satisfy the justly aroused wrath of God.
C.
The restraining
reason
1.
Straying – Isaiah
53:6 Peter
applies the prophecy of Isaiah 53 specifically to the Christians of the
dispersion—sojourners, aliens and
pilgrims; Their pilgrimage now is purposeful and will end in a home that is
glorious and incorruptible. Their pilgrimage formerly was an aimless and
dangerous journey, going astray like sheep into a bottomless gulf of divine
retribution, but now having been brought back.
2.
Return – Their
return was not of their own initiative or cunning or strength, but was
initiated by the Good Shepherd who sought them and bought them with His
redeeming blood. John 10:1-18
v
As the Door of
the sheepfold, none can enter except through Him. 7, 9
v
As Good shepherd
He lays down His life; knows all the sheep, has purchased sheep that presently
are in other folds and will without fail bring them also.
A. Our aim should be not to get even with the world, but
to please God.
B. We must learn not to point to the sins of others, but
to mourn for our own
C. Embrace and enjoy all that Christ is as our Shepherd