Christ’s suffering love
Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God (1 Peter 3:18).
In Peter’s first letter he refers to the sufferings of Christ in every chapter. During His ministry the Lord had told His disciples about His future sufferings, death and resurrection. But they had failed to understand. They only understood when they saw the Lord in resurrection. The Saviour had impressed upon Peter the pathway that lay ahead of Him. At Caesarea Philippi, Peter confessed that Jesus was “the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). Afterwards, the Saviour explained that He would die and be raised again. Peter took the Lord aside and rebuked Him, saying, “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!” (v. 22). The Lord had to say to him, “Get behind me Satan.” There is no evidence Peter took the Lord’s rebuke to heart. He was with James and John on the Mount of Transfiguration and had heard Moses and Elijah speaking with the Lord about His death which He would accomplish at Jerusalem. But Peter did not listen. He had heard the Lord speak of Himself as the Good Shepherd laying down His life for His sheep. Then in John 13 he tells the Lord, “I will lay down my life for Your sake” (v. 37).
But in the first chapter of his first letter, he writes of how the Spirit of God guided the Old Testament prophets to write about the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow (1 Peter 1:11). He was writing as a man who understood how deeply the Lord loved him. Peter came, as we all do through God’s grace, to a personal understanding of Christ’s patient, suffering love. In the second chapter of his letter, He writes, “who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously” (2:23). It was whilst He was being reviled that the Saviour turned to look in love upon Peter.
In the third chapter, Peter writes, “Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.” He witnessed the Saviour being wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities (Isaiah 53:5). Notice how Peter writes, “to bring us to God”. He knew how far he had been from God, but he also knew the depth of Christ’s love for him and the cost of his salvation. The Lord had told Peter that “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak”, when he failed to watch with the Lord and fell asleep in Gethsemane (Matthew 26:41). In the fourth chapter, he writes “Christ suffered for us in the flesh” (1 Peter 4:1). The Lord became a man in order to die for us. And in all His strength as the Man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5), He undertook the great work of salvation. Then in chapter 5, Peter writes to the elders about caring for the Flock of God. He does not address them based on his authority as the most prominent apostle. He appeals to them as “a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed” (5:1). Peter had failed to understand the love of Christ, leading up to Gethsemane. But when the Lord was taken captive, he witnessed the sufferings which followed; he knew the resurrected Saviour and was restored by Him; and he watched the Lord return to heaven in glory. Writing as an old man, the reality of the suffering love of Christ had not in any way diminished, but glowed all the more brightly in his heart. He rejoiced as he wrote to fellow Christians who had never seen the Lord, but who believed in Him and rejoiced “with joy inexpressible and full of glory” (1:8).
Peter’s heart was full of worship in chapter 5, “To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen” (v. 11). May our hearts overflow afresh in grateful praise as we remember our Saviour’s suffering love.
