God Expects Me to Set Apart Christ as Master in My Heart
1 Peter 3:13-18
(Children's Sheet for Sermon Interaction is at bottom. Notes are throughout sermon)
Please turn to 1 Peter 3. Our text this morning is 1 Peter 3:13-18. I am going to start reading from back in verse 8 because I want to pick up with Peter's flow of thought. It is there in verse 8 that Peter makes a summation of all that he has just covered. Then Peter quotes the Old Testament in verse 10 to support his point. The Scriptural understanding that Peter has in quoting the Old Testament is his special apostolic insight with authentic revelation for its New Covenant application. As we read 8-18 together, I want us to notice Peter's emphasis upon doing good. Doing good is a big concern for Christians. It is a prominent thread that runs through the fabric of Peter's whole point. Starting in verse 8 we read,
"8 To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic; have brotherly affection love, kindhearted, and humble in spirit; 9 not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead; because you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing. 10 For 'Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; 11 let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. 12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. 13 Who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good? 14 But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, 15 but set apart Christ as Master in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence; 16 and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame. 17 For it is better, if God should determine it, that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong. 18 Because Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God," 1 Peter 3:13-18
Please prepare your heart to learn, along with me, from the preaching of God's word. The sermon them is,
"God Expects Me to Set Apart Christ as Master in My Heart"
[Prayer]
Jesus Christ is our Master that we obey in the comfortable times. He is our Master that we obey in the harsh times. As Christians, our calling is to be focused upon obeying our Master all the time. Peter has some specific things to say about this. The concern has to do with our actions as people who are showcased as the ones who are the Christians. The sense is that our obedience to Christ is a way of heralding Christ to the lost world culture. What I mean is that what is happening in your day to day activities, is that your actions are being manifested to others. Think about this because as you are showcased in the world as God's child, there we will be times that you will suffer but yet you have not done anything wrong. Sometimes we will suffer for actually doing what is right. Either way, all of it should be experienced with Christ being set apart in our hearts as our Master. It is Jesus that we are showcasing as we are showcased. Keeping this in mind, I am wanting us to glean some important principles.
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The first one is that since we are blessed in our salvation, suffering because of our salvation is one of the signs of our blessing which prophetically points to our eternal blessing to come. In light of this fact, instead of fear, and being troubled, the Lord urges us to be considering who we serve now as our Master because we serve Him forever. Peter asks,
"But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.' Who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but set apart Christ as Master in your hearts" 1 Peter 3:12-15
We must remember that Peter is quoting Psalm 34:12-16. Peter started the quote back in verse 10. He made the point that we, who are in Christ, are the contrast because we are the truly righteous ones who truly do true righteousness. The New Covenant fulfillment of the prophetic Psalm is that because we are in Christ the righteous One, as His New Covenant people, we are enabled to do righteousness to begin with. The fulfillment continues on as we set apart Christ as Master in our hearts and do the manifestation side of our goodness. Further, it is because you are in Christ that you are are His blessed one in the midst of the curse. Those who are elect to be kingdom people of the royal priesthood are the only ones who find favor with God as His blessed ones. What this means is that in this way, you are always blessed. Everyone else is lost. This means that they are dead in their sins. In spiritual death, they are the true evil doers. The lost are doing what is naturally in their hearts to do. They are cursed by sin, and so their affinity is to do sin as their natural inclination. It is as Peter says of the contrast,
"the face of the Lord is against those who do evil." 1 Peter 3:12
What the Spirit is telling us here in the context is that the lost, in the revelation of God's word, are the evil doers of the world. They are the evil doers because they are not the righteousness of God in Christ like we are, 2 Corinthians 5:21 (manifested in Romans 5:5). They are, in a sense,
"curses incarnate."
They do what they are. When Peter asks who is there to harm Christians who are demonstrating that they are doing good, Peter knows that there are plenty of lost evil doers who want to harm us. He also knows that they do harm us. This is why Peter said that we greatly rejoice in the salvation that is to be revealed in our future,
"even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials," 1 Peter 1:6
In spite of the trials, the Spirit has been indicating that we need to live among the world in such a way that we consistently manifest the Spirit. Peter's emphasis is to manifest being an example of goodness. We need to be the love of Romans 5:5 to people. Let's bring it out of our hearts and into our actions. It means that you manifest what you are in Christ Jesus as His,
"blessing-incarnate."
Each of us is a miracle work of God, as Paul says,
"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." Ephesians 2:10
1@ All who believe in Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good ________________. Ephesians 3:10
What does this mean for you when you are the blessing? It means that we should not be doing the same sinful things that the lost world culture does--right? We should be doing the good works that we were created to do. You see folks, the Spirit is pressing us with this urging in a strong manner. In 1 Peter 1:14, Peter says that we must be obedient children--not conformed to the former lusts which were ours in our ignorance. Peter goes on; Like the Holy one who called you, you are to be holy yourself, 1 Peter 1:13-16. You are meant to proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light, 1 Peter 2:9. As an alien and stranger in this world you are to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against your soul, 1 Peter 2:11. You are to act in such a way that no accusations can be brought against you. This even means that we should be trying to avoid doing things that are against the law of the land. We are to keep our behavior excellent among the evil-lost Gentiles so that in the thing in which they slander us as evildoers, they may, because of our good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation, 1 Peter 2:12. We are to be submissive to every human institution. Peter says that we are looking for it to bring
"... the praise of those who do right. 15 For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men." 1 Peter 2:13-15
Servants must be,
"... submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable. 19 For this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly. 20 For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God." 1 Peter 2:18-20
2@ Whenever Christians ______________ for doing what is right, and patiently endure it, this finds favor with God. 1 Peter 2:20
Christian wives are to be seeking to win over their husbands who are disobedient to the word. How? By manifesting a gentle and quiet spirit. The point is that we are "the" blessings that God has made. You are "the" Christian. You are the one who is demonstrating your blessedness in Christ. Keeping all of this in mind, Peter also knows that we are all human. Yes, you have the supernatural Spirit within you. But the Spirit knows that in your humanity, you can shrink back in fear when threatened for living out the life of Christ. This is why the Spirit prompts Peter to encourage us to have no fear, or be troubled, because of the suffering we experience for being blessings. Harm does not await you in your future resurrected glory. In the midst of the suffering, we need to be drawing both nourishment and strength from the fact that our blessing is that we are called to His eternal glory in Christ,1 Peter 5:10. The point is that your future hope must be a strong part of your vision for you to consistently manifest Christ in the midst of the curse. Think about when you first got saved,
"God ... caused us to be regenerated to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,"
[Your hope was living and alive then wasn't it? Of course it was. It is the same hope you have now. And what is our hope? It is our vision of better things to come--now look at verse 4]
"4 to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." 1 Peter 1:3-5
This is the whole point. This hostile world, and any pain you experience for being blessed, and in being a blessing, will pass away. But there is more than mere passing. Something so grand and amazing awaits us forever that this small time should be virtually insignificant in comparison. In the meantime, there is a lot of very important significance concerning what happens now. This is why it is important to set apart Christ as Master in our hearts. This is why it is important to respond properly to the lost who are always trying to make us out to be the evil ones. The word that Peter puts here for Jesus Christ being Master is kurios in the Greek. It is also translated as Lord. Jesus Christ is in our hearts as both Lord and Savior. He is not one without the other. He is the Savior who rules as Master. He is the Master who saves. He is both; and He is described this way in so many different terms,
"25 For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls." 1 Peter 2:25
3@ Jesus Christ is the _________________ and Guardian of Christians. 1 Peter 2:25
The point is that when you set aside the Savior as Lord--as the shepherd--what you are doing is being the sheep who looks to your Master on a continuous basis for your next move. You are making a specific volitional decision to serve Christ in obedience. It is something that you have to decide to do for the sake of your Master. Do you remember the other thread in Peter's theme: Doing all for the sake of Christ according to the way of Christ ... the Lord. Now the principle here to remember is that He is our Master forever, so we need to act like it now.
In recognizing these things, we must also understand that we are not trying to get saved by our own works of obedience. We must understand that grace is the backbone of Lordship. The same grace that saves us, is the same grace that moves us to set apart Christ as Master to go forward, (even in the face of persecution for doing good) and continue to be a blessing that shines the gospel anyway. The reason I am emphasizing this is because there is a lot of weird teaching out there about grace and obedience. Years ago, when I owned my own business, I met with a client. The man was a Christian worker who headed up a para-church ministry. During the course of our conversation around our commonality as Christians, something was said about repenting from sin, and obedience to God, in the Christian's daily walk. What disturbed me was that the man kept quoting from the Old Covenant Mosaic Law codes to make his point about holy living for New Covenant people. He kept saying that Christians were in danger of losing salvation. Finally I told him that Christians are not under the Old Covenant Mosaic Law codes. Instead, we are under the grace covenant of Jesus Christ. I was just beginning to introduce a whole lot more that I wanted to explain; like Christ is the fulfillment of the Mosaic Law given at Mt Sinai, and the fulfillment of that law lives in us; including the fact that Christ is our Master to obey in His New Testament imperatives that operate through the law of love (which He fulfills positionally in us); that He empowers us to do obey Him by His Spirit, while also forgiving us when we fail, and so forth (in our current earth bound condition). But, before I could go any further, the man cut me off by retorting,
"Oh, so you're one of those greasy grace guys aren't you?"
I was taken back by his comment, as I sought to correct his ignorance while trying to do a business deal at the same time. Many of you are familiar with this type of thing. You want to promote grace as a living blessing as you set apart Christ as Master in your heart, and then amazingly, you are accused of licentiousness. Or, you want to encourage repentance and purity in behavior, and what happens? You are accused of legalism. Sometimes we wonder,
"What is the balance?"
The balance is the truth that Peter is touching upon here that annihilates both extreme (and unbiblical) ends of the spectrum. We don't want to be at one end of the spectrum where there is this kind of belief that once you receive Christ as Savior then nothing changes--you just go on doing whatever you want to do in "sloppy agape." That extreme says,
"After all, I am saved by grace, and I am kept by grace, so why not just do whatever I want to do by grace; even if it is sinful?"
People who hold to this position, might decide to keep living with someone in a fornicating relationship. Remember, your doctrine will drive your actions--even if it is wrong doctrine. Wrong doctrine drives wrong actions; And so people might decide it is okay to be in an adulterous relationship. They may think it is just fine to lie. These kinds of people are the true greasy grace guys.
This reminds me of another man that I met a few years ago who represents the other side of the coin. He worked in a church as a teacher and praise and worship leader. I had a confrontation with him because he boldly refused to believe the clear doctrine that God, in His grace, molds and disciplines those whom He loves. He told me,
"God doesn't do that."
His contention was that grace means that our actions do not matter in this life because, after all, Christ paid it all for our sins. I was perplexed with what the man believed. Then I found out what I suspected. This so-called "minister" [sic] was living in adultery. He was visiting a woman on a regular basis and fornicating with her. He was planning to leave his wife and three young children. When I confronted the man with what I had found out about him, he lied and said that there was no such affair going on. Your doctrine will drive your actions. Sadly, this adulterer, who was doing so-called "ministry," completely abandoned his Christian wife and children for the woman he had been in adultery with. Amazingly, he justified all his actions with his skewed philosophy of the grace of the cross. Jude makes reference to people who have invented a humanistic license out of the sacred covenant of grace when he says,
"For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation,
[Now listen to this,]
ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness
and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ." Jude 1:4
Turning the grace of God into licentiousness is the exact opposite of setting apart Christ as Master in one's heart. At the other end of the spectrum is the guy that says that you have to follow a certain set of rules for living that either make you attain the miracle of regeneration, or keep you being it. Sometimes these kinds of short-list standard bearers will have their criteria of do's and don'ts that they think are the checks that mean you are truly saved. Their personal criteria could be the Mosaic law codes--It's a popular one for people who do not understand the fullness of the New Covenant. It could also be some other religious notion. Either they invented it, or they learned it. The point is that these are activities. They are supposed to secure, and hold, your salvation; or they are supposed to be a bullet-list for daily living to demonstrate your spirituality to everyone; or to yourself. My point is that both views are "extremes" and both are wrong. What we want is the right view. So, what is it? The right view is how the New Covenant Christian is supposed to believe. The right view is not legalism. The right view is not license. It is living your saved life by setting Christ apart as Master (Lord) in your heart. If you want to make an illustration with this by using three "L's" what you can do is put License at one end, and Legalism at the other end, like on a graph. Then you can put Lordship in the middle. Lordship is the balance because it is the truth. When we do this, we are not following the Mosaic Law codes. We are following the same Lord now that we will be following trillions upon trillions of millennia from now. We are abiding by His real New Covenant rules which are all focused around the law of love as is explained in the New Testament imperatives that God has given us to obey. And whenever you fail (and you will fail) you are forgiven by the same Lord. This God ordained Lordship relationship does not diminish grace at all. It identifies the grace that you have as an eternally saved person. You ask;
"How can the Lordship of Christ identify grace?"
If Christ is truly your Lord, then you necessarily must be saved by grace alone. People who are not spiritually saved do not have a relationship with Jesus Christ as their Lord. Their relationship with Jesus is that He is someone else's Lord. In fact, their relationship with the real Jesus Christ is that He is their enemy. People who are not saved will talk about Jesus in glowing terms. They will say
"He was an effective communicator;"
"He was a revolutionary."
Or,
"Jesus was cool."
In fact you'll hear him called
"... a great leader who practiced outstanding management principles."
This is the kind of Jesus that they will "allow" to be their friend. Some of those things may be true about the real Jesus, but the real Jesus "Christ" is the whole Jesus Christ who allows people to be His friends. This is why many unsaved people are fine with saying that Jesus was a great leader, but when it comes to submitting to Him as "the great leader" over their own lives as Master, they suddenly decide that He is not the kind of friend, or Savior, that they had in mind. So, what they are demonstrating is that instead of separating Christ as Master in their heart, Christ is really separated out away from their heart. The main point is that the same grace that saves you, is the same grace that moves you to set apart Christ as Master because that is what He is. So, in the midst of suffering in the lost world culture, we recognize that this suffering is one of the signs of our blessing which prophetically points to our eternal blessing to come. In light of this fact, instead of fear and being troubled, the Lord urges us to be considering who we serve now because we will serve Him forever. This leads to the next principle.
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It has to do with serving Christ from our hearts by being ready to make a defense of our salvation.
"15 but set apart Christ as Master in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence;" 1 Peter 3:15
4@ God wants us to set apart Christ as ______________ in our hearts. 1 Peter 3:15
It is our salvation by the Spirit that dictates our actions. The world does not recognize this. So, what happens is that the world wants to know something. Listen to me because this is important--
The world wants to know why you do what you do as a Christian.
We need to show them that we do what we do because of our miraculous saving hope in respect to our glorious saving future. Now I want us to think about something; This hope is in us, but this hope is in all us Christians because Christ is in our hearts as the great fulfillment of all that needs to be fulfilled. This is what Peter is talking about. We see it first mentioned by him where the Spirit indicates that we have been,
"... regenerated to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." 1 Peter 1:3
When we think of Christ as the great all in all, what we are meaning is
a) what He is,
and
b) what He has done, and is doing,
"in"
C) all the people that He has redeemed and changed in regeneration.
The all in all aspect of Christ is reserved only for the church. This is the fullness, where God,
"... gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all." Ephesians 1:22-23
This is what Christ has done. It is what He is doing. Christ, as God, is the One Who is in all in eschatological fulfillment,
"When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all." 1 Corinthians 15:28
Let me get more specific: I am going beyond the fact that Jesus is both Master and Savior in us. What I am saying here is that Christ is Master, Savior, and also God, in us who are the elect who are made manifest in salvation by grace through faith. I am also saying that this is what Peter means. I know it is difficult to see here; especially that Peter is making a "God" reference; but I want us to discover some details that help to bring this out for us. When Peter says to set apart Christ as Master in our hearts, he is loosely quoting from the Old Testament in Isaiah 8:13. Peter does this in keeping with his practice. He quoted Isaiah 8:14 earlier in 1 Peter 2:8. He quotes Isaiah 8:12 in 1 Peter 3:14. In the Massoretic text, the Lord is clearly called Yahweh. In the Greek Septuagint, Yahweh is the one Who is identified as being set apart as Master (kurios) in our hearts in Isaiah 8:13,
"13 Set apart Yahweh of hosts [the Lord, kurios, in the LXX] himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. 14 Then He shall become a sanctuary; But to both the houses of Israel, a stone to strike and a rock to stumble over, and a snare and a trap for the inhabitants of Jerusalem." Isaiah 8:13-14
Here, in our text, Peter takes that Isaiah 8:13-14 prophecy, and through His apostolic insight, he refers to Yahweh as Christ. This is the big money point. This is, once again, a clearly Biblical reference to Christ being God incarnate. The main thing is that the living hope that is within you is more than simply faith that you have where you are looking to your glorious future in your salvation. The hope that is within you is eternal Yahweh, eternal Lord-master, and eternal Lord Savior, as the great eternal life,
"... the riches of the glory of this mystery ... which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." Colossians 1:27
5@ Christ in all of us Christians is our _____________ of glory. Colossians 1:27
Christ is the hope of glory who gives us life through His life, and we serve Him, as the One true God, in our lives. When we are confronted by the world concerning the hope that is in us, we are to be prepared to give an answer. Now let's think about that answer. The answer is simple: The Messiah who was promised to come according to prophecy, has come. He is Jesus, God's only begotten Son Who was born of a virgin. He died for certain people to surely forgive those people of their sins, as both the sacrifice that He as the High Priest offered up, and as the executionary murder that the Jews conspired to commit. He rose from the dead as the living God-man, Lord, and Savior, who is the reigning Messiah King forever. We are saved in believing in Him as our God, Lord, and Savior. Our eternal inheritance is in Him where we await a better future that never ends. He is in us spiritually as our hope of glory. This is a concise answer concerning our hope.
Now notice that the Spirit is still urging us to stand against the world in a defensive posture, yet at the same time, to do so in a kind of manner that does not bring undue friction because of our style. The way to avoid undue friction where we leave offense in the realm of the Spirit, is that we defend our Christianity with gentleness and reverence in respect to those we are engaging. This is counter-natural. The natural defensive posture is to attack, and attack harshly. It is so that victory will be attained at all costs. But Christians are to trust in God's sovereignty by allowing the Spirit to do the work concerning the proclamation of the hope within us through gentleness and quietness that is inoffensive. Remember, this is the same way that Peter said that Christian wives are to try to win over husbands who are disobedient to the word. It is precious fruit of the Holy Spirit. This leads to the third principle.
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God expects me to set apart Christ as Master in being ready to make a defense of the hope within, so that those who are seeking to slander me, with accusations of bad behavior, will be put to shame,
16 and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame." 1 Peter 3:16
For this principle, it is important that we notice that Peter says that the good behavior that we accomplish is "in Christ." Being "in Christ" is your position in spiritual salvation. Outside of this salvation, people can do things that look good, but whatever they do is not seen by God as being righteous. In Christ, is the grace place that produces true righteousness. The point is that as long as you are acting in diplomatic niceness which means you are being irenic, non-escalative, and submissive to authorities, in your approach, which is good behavior, then you can not legitimately be accused of being trouble makers, or someone who uses your faith as an excuse to break the law of the land. This only leaves those who are lost and blind in sin to revile us in our good behavior that we have because we are in Christ. But to do so, is to their shame, and not to ours. The big point is that you do not want to give anyone an opportunity to have a basis to slander you. We want the eternal hope that is within us to either repel those who are being hardened by the Spirit, or to effectually draw those who are elect that the Spirit is freeing up to have the same hope that we have. This leads to the next principle.
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God expects me to set apart Christ as Master so that I should only be abused by sinners for good conduct in suffering that God has determined, instead of reaping the consequences for bad conduct in the suffering that God has determined,
"17 For it is better, if God should determine it, that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong." 1 Peter 3:17
As Christians, we think of doing what is right, and we immediately think that it is good conduct. The big point here is that the world may not see what is right as good conduct. We must do what is right according to God's definition of what is right, whether the world recognizes its goodness or not. When we do what is right we are doing what is righteousness. Now we need to think about what Peter is getting at here, because it seems like he is stating the obvious. But Peter knows that while we are in Christ, we can easily try to explain away the suffering and attacks from the lost world culture in terms of it being because we are righteous. We could say,
"Well, the reason I get persecuted so much is because I am a Christian."
Or,
"The reason I suffer all the time is because I believe the Bible, and people know this."
But this is not always the case. Sometimes Christians will suffer because of their sin. I have personally seen Christians suffer because of sin, and then try to blame their suffering on being persecuted for being a Christian. But, suffering because of sin is suffering that they've brought upon themselves that they deserve as part of the shame of trying to go back into the ways of the world they were delivered out of. This suffering is determined by God. This is important for us to see here, and it requires taking a close look at what Peter is saying. When Peter says that it is better, if God should determine it, that you should suffer, it is tempting to look at what Peter means as being that God may determine that you only experience suffering for doing what is right. But this is not what Peter is saying. Peter is saying what he says later in 4:19.
"17 For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; ... 19 Therefore, those also who suffer according to the determination of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right." 1 Peter 4:17-19
Suffering is according to the determination of God. Doing right is something that should be done in the midst of it. It is important to recognize that Peter is saying that God determines suffering for whatever we do whether right or wrong as a first principle--and it really is to be looked at as a first principle. So, according to concurrence in God's sovereignty it is better that we experience suffering that God determines we receive for doing what is right, than receive suffering that God determines for us for doing what is wrong. The gravity of this exhortation is huge, and should not be brushed aside. Even though Peter says clearly that people are the ones who persecute Christians in and 2:12, and 3:16; and later that our adversary the devil goes about like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour in 5:8, God is the one who determines it by allowing, in a sense, these things to happen according to His sovereign hand. This leads to the fifth and final principle,
/5/
God wants me to set apart Christ as Master in my heart in respect to recognizing God's determination of my suffering being better because of righteousness since this kind of suffering is in the legacy of the Master,
"18 Because Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God," 1 Peter 3:18
6@ The righteous Christ suffered once for the sins of unrighteous ones, that he might ______________ them to God. 1 Peter 3:18
Here is the pinnacle example of suffering; the truly righteous One suffered while doing the true good deed in God's determination. Peter mentioned the same standard back in 2:21,
"21 Because you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps," 1 Peter 2:21
Think about what this means for you--Since we are walking in the example of Christ, we should be expecting what Christ expected, right? Christ expected to suffer for righteousness in doing good. But, Christ also had another expectation. He expected to save specific people. Christ also fully expected His own life in the future to be glorious. In God's determination, Christ the righteous one, suffered for the elect who were not yet saved. It was for one main reason. It was so that Christ would bring us to God in His same determination. This, by the way, is another declaration of being Once Saved In Eternal Spiritual Salvation (OSIESS). The great Righteous One suffered on the cross with the guarantee that he would bring those who are elect to God. This is the example we are to follow. If we should suffer according to God's will, let it be as walking in the steps of Christ. He had self sacrificial resolve in doing what needs to be done, which is good, while having the future reward in mind.
Let's briefly recap everything: We have been exploring the fact that God expects us to set apart Christ as Master in our hearts. We have seen that since we are blessed in our salvation, suffering because of our salvation is one of the signs of our blessing. It prophetically points to our eternal blessing to come. So, instead of fear, and being troubled, the Lord urges us to be considering Him now, while looking to our everlasting future glory with Him. We need to be ready to make a defense of our salvation. Remember, part of our defense results in the fact that those who are seeking to slander us with accusations of bad behavior, will be put to shame. When we suffer for truly bad conduct, we are suffering for not setting apart Christ as Master in our hearts. Ultimately, God wants us to set apart Christ as Master in our heart in recognizing His determination of our suffering being better because of righteousness. This kind of suffering is in the legacy of our Master, amen.
1@ All who believe in Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good ________________. Ephesians 3:10
2@ Whenever Christians ______________ for doing what is right, and patiently endure it, this finds favor with God. 1 Peter 2:20
3@ Jesus Christ is the _________________ and Guardian of Christians. 1 Peter 2:25
4@ God wants us to set apart Christ as ______________ in our hearts. 1 Peter 3:15
5@ Christ in all of us Christians is our _____________ of glory. Colossians 1:27
6@ The righteous Christ suffered once for the sins of unrighteous ones, that he might ______________ them to God. 1 Peter 3:18
