December 30, 2022

1 Peter 2:19-25 (HCSB)
19 For it brings favor if, mindful of God’s will, someone endures grief from suffering unjustly. 20 For what credit is there if you sin and are punished, and you endure it? But when you do what is good and suffer, if you endure it, this brings favor with God. 21 For you were called to this, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in His steps. 22 He did not commit sin, and no deceit was found in His mouth; 23 when He was reviled, He did not revile in return; when He was suffering, He did not threaten but entrusted Himself to the One who judges justly. 24 He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness; you have been healed by His wounds. 25 For you were like sheep going astray, but you have now returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.

Scarlett Nokes
Christ Suffered for Us.
Suffering has been a consistent theme throughout the week. Here Peter highlights Christ’s suffering, despite His sinless life, in order to secure our freedom. Even though we will never accomplish it, we should strive to live as Jesus did and to face suffering as He did–with calmness and supreme confidence that God is always, always, always in control of the future. To bring today back around to the prophecy of Christ, Isaiah 53 says, “it was our grief He bore our sorrows that weighed Him down” and “He was wounded and bruised for our sin” (vs. 4, 5). This profound summary of Christ dying for our sins, written hundreds of years before Jesus was born, should remind us all that our trust must be in Jesus.