Study of First Peter Chapter 2 Lesson 41
Summary of
1. Christ bore our deserved
suffering, that is, our sins of His own volition, choosing to fulfill the will
of God being obedient even unto death.
2. The UNDSF of Christ, His
spiritual death while being judged in our place, makes it possible for us to be
free from both the penalty and power of sin and therefore to live for Him!
3. Being
free from the penalty of sin is indicated here by being healed from the malady
of spiritual death.
4. Being
free from the power of sin in one's life is to make decisions necessary to
consistently walk by the Spirit thereby maintaining the isolation of the sin
nature.
5. To conquer the sin
nature's attempts to rule one's life by choosing to continue walking by the
Spirit indicates that we are living righteously.
- gives us the capacity to
maintain our spiritual momentum in life as we live out the truths of the Word!
Peter contrasts here our status before salvation
and after salvation, for you were . . . but now.
For you were continually straying like sheep,
- have the comparison stated as UB's we acted like sheep
- Isa 53:6
points out the principle "All of us" [no exceptions] "like sheep have gone astray", Each
of us has turned to his own way;"
The more
we understand sheep, we will realize that this is not
really a very high compliment. Quote
from an experienced shepherd:
"I
do not doubt that it would be hard to find more stupid animals than sheep. For
some reason, sheep have a remarkable aptitude for getting lost.
They
can be perfectly at home in a pleasant pasture, until one revolutionary spirit
among them finds a hole in the fence. In less time than it takes to tell, they
will desert the grass and head for the hole. In five minutes flat there won't
be a sheep in the pasture and there will be hundreds on the road. All because
some sheep decided to go astray, leading all the rest with it."
Some Observations
1. Sheep
easily go astray.
Isa 53:6 "all we like sheep have gone astray...."
Sheep
have an overwhelming curiosity that causes them to wander!
The seed
bed of that curiosity in man is the sin
nature.
Marching
orders to the disciples given by Jesus (Mt 10:6) they were to go to "the
lost sheep of the house of
2. Sheep
are most helpless when they are without a shepherd.
-
separated from a shepherd;
they're vulnerable Num.
27:17; Matt
3. Sheep
will often leave good pasture to graze in very shabby places.
- sheep have been known to fight over a small
tuft of grass when nearby there is plenty of grass.
4.
Closeness to the shepherd is the only protection the sheep have.
The contrast: but now you have returned to the
Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.
- you have returned evpistre,fw aorist passive indicative; to turn around, to turn back, of a change of
mind or course of action, come to believe in,
The
emphasis is not so much on what their turning from, that
is, spiritual death and blindness as an unbeliever, to the new object of
attention, Jesus Christ and the provision of salvation.
This change of mind, or conversion, brought them to
the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.
-
Both terms, Shepherd and Guardian refer to Christ in His ministry to believers
in time after salvation.
-
the word for Guardian is evpi,skopoj overseer,
guardian, bishop
-
The How as we have seen before is through His indwelling of each believer
through the Word, through doctrine in your F/O/R being used under the ministry
of the Holy Spirit.
-
the term for souls is
yuch, which here refers to the inner, spiritual
life
Observations on
1.
To be able to rescue the sheep Christ had to lay down His life for them.
John 10:11
2.
He died for all, unlimited atonement, but here the focus of the sheep is on
those who believed in Christ first in their status before salvation and then
after salvation.
3.
Straying and wandering sheep will not find themselves.
4.
Therefore God initiates and seeks the sheep by calling them with the Gospel of
Grace. By responding to that gospel
hearing by believing it they then are found sheep.
5.
Now as believers, Christ
becomes the Shepherd of their souls providing the necessary truth
to fill the void as we consistently take in the Word under the ministry of the
Holy Spirit.
6.
As the guardian and overseer of our soul as believers He is able protect us
provide us the wisdom needed for discernment to the extent or degree that we
have taken in the truth.