The Suffering Jesus: An Example for Every Christian

If Jesus Christ was perfectly in the will of God, perfectly gifted for ministry by God, perfectly loved by God, perfectly righteous, if His faith in God was absolutely perfect, and He still suffered unjustly, then what makes us think we who are so imperfect will escape it? Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson. One pastor of a church in China tells of being thrown in prison and physically abused so many times that he lost count. Yet, according to an official Chinese report, despite his being arrested and educated many times, this pastor's heart has not died and his nature has not changed. Now that's victory in the midst of persecution. It's a kind of victory that Christ modeled perfectly and you can have as well. Knowing how to glorify God in suffering, that's our focus here on Grace to You, as John continues his study called Through Suffering to Triumph.

And now here's the lesson. The images of Jesus Christ are many. And if you were to survey various people in our society about images that they have in their minds concerning Jesus Christ, there might be a number of them. Some people would see Him as a baby in a manger and their image of Christ would be the Christmas image.

Some people would see Him as a little child, perhaps living in a carpenter shop and on one occasion confounding the religious leaders of Jerusalem. Some people would see Him as a gentle, loving teacher. Some people would see Him as a compassionate and powerful healer who could heal the sick and raise the dead. Some people would see Him as a courageous, bold and fiery preacher who got great crowds together and spoke to them the Word of God. Some would see Him as a virtual model of manhood, the model man, the consummate human being. And all of those images of Christ would to one degree or another be true.

And we can all learn from His life as we look at the perfections of His person, at His goodness, His kindness, His sympathy, His concern, His care, His tenderness, His forgiveness, His wisdom, His understanding, His trust in God. As we look at all of those characteristics of Christ, they are images that are instructive for us and we can learn from them. But there is an image of Christ that surpasses all of those and in a sense is the truest perception of Christ and the one that is most necessary. Paul summed it up when he said this, I am determined to know nothing among you except Christ and what?

Him crucified. The proper vision of Christ is as the crucified one. The truest and purest perspective of the person and work of Christ is found in viewing Him as the suffering Jesus. That surpasses all the others. And so as we look unto Jesus who is the author and finisher of our faith, we must look at Him in His suffering.

That's the key. The focal point for every Christian must be on the suffering Christ. The crucified Christ is our vision. Nowhere do we see Him so clearly as on the cross. Nowhere do we see His deity so manifest as on the cross. Nowhere do we see His humanity so manifest as on the cross. Nowhere do we see His work being accomplished as clearly as on the cross. There in His suffering He is most completely revealed. And that is precisely what is in the mind of Peter as he writes starting in verse 21 of chapter 2.

Let me read it to you. For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth. And while being reviled, He did not revile in return. While suffering He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously. And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. For by His wounds you were healed.

For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls. Nowhere Peter talks about the suffering Jesus. And before we're done with this passage you're going to see Him suffering in three ways. As our standard or model for suffering, as our substitute or sin bearer in suffering, and as our shepherd perfected through suffering. We see Him then as the model to follow, the substitute who paid the price for our sin, and the shepherd who drew us to Himself. Here then, Peter focuses on the perspective of the suffering Jesus. Notice then back in verse 21 how he opens this particular portion. For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you. What have we been called to?

Go back to verse 20. We have been called to suffer for doing what is right and to patiently endure it which finds favor with God. Now you understand that as Christians we're at odds with the world, right? They're hostile to us, they reject us. As a result of that there is unjust punishment, there is unjust criticism, there is unjust persecution to one degree or another.

Sometimes it is verbal, sometimes it is physical, sometimes it is mental, just the ostracizing of a person. Social, but always as committed people who follow Christ we are at odds with the system that follows Satan. So we're going to suffer, and we are going to suffer, please notice in verse 20, for what is right. There's no virtue in suffering for what is wrong, that's deserved suffering. But we as Christians will suffer for doing right because the world is offended by our doing right. And when we suffer we are to endure it patiently because that finds favor with God. Then in verse 21 he says, for you've been called for this purpose.

What purpose? To suffer for what is right, that's what we've been called to. Because if you've been called to be a Christian you've been called to be at odds with the world. And if you've been called to be at odds with the world you have been called to suffer. And if you manifest your Christianity there will be hostile reaction, you will suffer, you've been called to that. Then he says, since Christ also suffered for you.

And then this, leaving you an example for you to follow in his steps. Peter says you've been called to suffering, now look at your example who is Christ. First of all then he is the standard of our suffering. In his suffering he sets the standard for our suffering, that is a very, very important reality. For Jesus Christ the path to glory was the path of suffering.

And that's the pattern for us. The path to glory for us is the path of suffering and we've gone over this already in this chapter. Your eternal capacity for glorifying God is in proportion to your suffering for his cause in this life. Those who suffer most for righteousness here will be granted the greatest capacity for glory in the life to come. So we've been called to suffer and suffering is the path to glory. It was for Christ and the greater the suffering the greater the glory. In Hebrews 2 10 it says it was fitting for him that is Christ for whom are all things and through whom are all things in bringing many sons to glory to perfect the author of their salvation, that is Christ, through sufferings. So God has perfected Christ through suffering. The path to glory, the path to completion, fulfillment for Christ was the path of suffering.

That was God's plan. Hebrews chapter 5 verses 8 and 9, although he was a son he learned obedience from the things which he suffered. And the next verse says by it he was made perfect.

Again the same idea. Perfection not in the sense that he being imperfect became perfect but he being perfect fulfilled that perfection through suffering. The path to glory is the path of suffering. In Matthew you remember chapter 10 where Jesus instructs the disciples. It says this in verse 21, and brother will deliver up brother to death. In other words you believers are going to be turned over to the authorities by your own brothers and sisters, your own family members. Fathers will turn their child over to death. Children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death and through the history of the church that has been true.

And you will be hated by all on account of my name. Verse 23, whenever they persecute you in this city flee to the next for truly I say to you you shall not finish going through the cities of Israel until the son of man comes. In other words as long as you're in this world you're going to be persecuted and you're going to be fleeing from one place to the next. But then verse 24, this is the principle, a disciple is not above his teacher nor a slave above his master. In other words if they did it to Christ who is the teacher why not the disciple? If they did it to Christ who is the master why not the slave? In John you remember chapter 15 Jesus said they'll hate you because they hated me. And so he says in verse 25 of Matthew 10, it is sufficient for the disciple that he become as his teacher and the slave as his master. And what he's talking about there is persecution.

They persecuted Christ, they'll persecute you. And the path to glory for him was through suffering and the path to glory for us is through suffering. Now let me say it in a simple way, unjust suffering was Christ's path to glory, it must be ours. And as we go through unjust suffering the first thing we want to notice is that Christ is our standard. He is our example.

And that's precisely what it says if you'll note it again in chapter 2 verse 21. He suffered for you leaving you an example for you to follow in his steps. Now in what way is the death of Christ an example?

Well we've already given you the basic idea but let me be more specific. When Jesus died on the cross he was being executed as a criminal. Had he committed a crime? Had he? No. Was he guilty of any wrongdoing? No.

Was he guilty of any trespass? No. Was he guilty of any sin? No. Did he ever have an evil thought? No.

Did he ever say an evil word? No. Was it an unjust execution? Yes. Was it the most unjust execution ever perpetrated on any human being? Yes.

Now what then do we learn from it? Jesus shows us that a person can be in the will of God. He was.

A person can be greatly, eminently gifted by God for ministry. He was. A person can be beloved of God. He was. A person can be perfectly righteous. He was.

A person can be totally obedient to God in everything. He was. A person can believe God perfectly and yet he suffered and his suffering was unjust. He was misunderstood. He was misrepresented. He was hated. He was persecuted. He was murdered. And what is the point? Christ in his death gave us the standard of how to respond to unjust persecution.

He is the epitome of illustrations. It is possible to be perfect and still suffer. Jesus did.

And along with that, let me just say this. It is extremely shallow theology and it is utterly ungodly Bible interpretation to say, as some contemporary false teachers say, that Christians who suffer are out of God's will. That is absurdity. That is God's will to suffer for righteousness sake. To say that when a believer suffers, he's not claiming his available resources is foolishness.

It's heresy. If Jesus Christ was perfectly in the will of God, perfectly gifted for ministry by God, perfectly loved by God, perfectly righteous, if his faith in God was absolutely perfect and he still suffered unjustly, then what makes us think we who are so imperfect will escape it? Or what foolish, ridiculous theology would concoct the idea that to suffer means you're out of God's will? Was Jesus out of God's will?

More than that, was he out of God's will when he died on the cross? What a foolish, absurd thought. No, the surprising truth here is that the righteous will suffer and the righteous do suffer for their goodness and their godliness. And in the midst of that, they can look at Jesus Christ as the standard for how they are to respond to the suffering. And that's the whole point.

We should expect to suffer? He did. It was his path to glory, it's our path to glory. Please notice then, verse 21, he's left us an example. That word example is a wonderful word, hupagramas. It literally means writing under, and it was writing put under a piece of paper to trace letters on. Christ is the pattern, he's the standard. He's the example by which we trace our life.

It had the usage of a child in a basic class learning to write the alphabet and putting a model under what he was writing on or below what he was writing on. Following the model, the standard, the pattern. So Christ has given us the pattern, the standard. It says for you to follow in his, see the word steps? Marvelous word, hiknos. It's the word footprints, plural, footprints.

In fact, it means tracks, a line of footprints. We are to follow in his tracks. We are to follow in his footprints.

Why? Because the path to glory which he walked is the path of righteousness and the path of righteousness in an unrighteous world is the path of unjust suffering. That's it. And some of our dear brothers and sisters in Christ are suffering more than we are and many are suffering in ways differently than we are. But those who walk the path of righteousness to glory will follow the path through suffering.

I know it and I experience it and I'm sure many of you as well. If we move in the same direction Christ moved in, we're going to experience the same unjust suffering. So Peter wants us to look closely at how Christ responded to suffering. Now keep in mind that he suffered a lot in his life but never did he suffer as much as he did at the cross. And so Peter takes us right to the cross.

He moves us right into the scene of maximum suffering. He also reveals to us his personal experience because he was with Christ right up until the end and he certainly had first-hand knowledge of the suffering of Christ on the cross, even if from afar. Furthermore, he not only shows us his personal knowledge in regard to the suffering of Christ but he shows us his understanding of Isaiah 53, the greatest Old Testament chapter on the suffering of Christ. For he uses five different quotes or allusions to Isaiah 53 in this brief passage. Isaiah 53, you remember, is about the suffering Messiah.

So we have here then Peter taking us to the cross through the eyes of his own experience and taking us to the cross through the eyes of the prophet Isaiah in that great 53rd chapter. The first thing he draws on is Isaiah 53, 9 to describe Christ's reaction to unjust treatment. Look at verse 22.

In all of it, he committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in his mouth. That is drawn out of Isaiah 53, 9. And it describes Christ's general reaction to unjust treatment.

He committed no sin. Now in Isaiah 53, if you were to look it up in verse 9, what it says there is he committed no violence. Isaiah used the word violence. The Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of Isaiah, uses the word lawlessness. The Septuagint was going deeper, but the Septuagint translators understood that Isaiah, by the word violence, meant sin, which is violent against God. Violence not in the sense that we think of violence as a single kind of act, but violence in the sense that it violates God. He never violated God. The Septuagint translators used the word lawlessness to say that he never violated the law of God. Peter comes right to the heart of it, and he simply uses the word sin, because that's exactly what he knew Isaiah meant, and the Holy Spirit confirms it here.

Peter, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, says that what Isaiah meant was sin. What he's saying is Jesus committed no sin, even under the most difficult circumstances when he was being unjustly treated. And here you have the full character of what theologians for centuries have called the impeccability of Christ defended.

He was impeccable. That is, he did not sin, he could not sin. Back in chapter 1, verse 19, he is an unblemished, spotless lamb. And here, Peter quotes out of Isaiah that the Messiah committed no sin, never violating the law of God, and never being lawless. He had no sins of his own, Peter further says, nor was any deceit found in his mouth. Why does he say that? Isn't it enough to say he committed no sin?

It is. But the second statement is just a strengthening of the first, because where is it that sin most easily shows up? And where is it that sin shows up first of all?

In the mouth. Because the heart speaks through the mouth. The mouth of Jesus uttered no deceit. Now the word for deceit means any type of sin of the tongue. And the tongue sins by deception, innuendo, slander, a myriad of ways. But no wickedness came out of his mouth. No wickedness ever came across his tongue. He committed no sin by act, and he spoke no sin by mouth.

You see, the mouth, more than any other agency of human behavior, reveals the heart. That's why James 3-2 says, whoever doesn't offend with his mouth, the same is a perfect man. Conversely, the perfect man will never offend with his mouth. Jesus, who never offended with his mouth, is therefore a perfect man. He committed no sin, and no sin ever crossed his lips. He was absolutely flawless, sinless, perfect.

Even the thieves on the cross, Luke 23, 41, hanging there, one of them says, We indeed suffer justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong. No jury could ever find him guilty of anything. His trial was a farce. All the accusations were lies.

They were trumped up. Jesus said, you remember, in John 8, 46, Which of you convicts me of sin? Go ahead. Which of you can legitimately accuse me of sin? And of course, none could speak.

None could speak because there was no sin. This is Grace to You with John MacArthur. Thanks for being with us. Today, John continued a study that shows you how to go through suffering to triumph. Now, we're talking about how Jesus handled suffering and what an example he is.

He's a perfect example. He sets the standard for how to deal with unjust treatment. But there are other people in Scripture who also suffered unjustly. I think of the apostle Paul. By the end of his life, all of his companions had left him except for Luke. And the last epistle he wrote is kind of sad in that regard. He talks about Demas forsaking him. And so, John, can we learn also from how these saints and martyrs suffered unjustly and how they handled it?

Well, I think we can. I mean, I think that's the point of the record of those things in Scripture. Just as an illustration of the fact that we learn from their experiences, for years and years in my early ministry, and even into this particular period of ministry after many years, I've gone back to Paul's testimony in 2 Corinthians 12, where he has prayed three times for a thorn in the flesh.

And if you listen to some TV preachers, you would think there was something wrong with Paul. Yeah, right. Because you can cast it out. You can get rid of it.

Bind it and throw it into the pit. Yeah, but Paul just says, look, I've asked the Lord three times, and the Lord will not take this away. And Paul goes on to say—and this is the thing that really gripped me when I was young in the ministry— that my strength is perfected in your weakness.

It is having to live with the fact that you're weak. You're not able to build an impervious wall around yourself and protect you from suffering, because I have a purpose in that suffering, and it's to break your self-confidence. It's to crush your own will and make you follow Christ, no matter how difficult it is.

So I think God does His greatest work through our suffering. And so once I learned that, and I learned that from Paul, every part of his life was fraught with not just physical suffering, but massive disappointment. I mean, you would think if ministry was easy, Paul should have had an easy life, because he was the greatest apostle in terms of the extent of his ministry. He was really an agent of Jesus Christ like maybe no other human being after him has been.

And yet he struggled all the time. He struggled with the people around him who were sinners. He struggled with the church. He struggled with the leaders of the church.

This is the nature of ministry, and the good news is that when you run out of resources, the Lord just picks it up and goes from there. So I think I learned early that you want to be in the place where God can refine you and at the same time break you so that He can do His best work. And along that line, I want to mention our newest study guide, How to Handle Persecution, based on Acts 4, 8, and 16.

This brand new study guide, we're excited about it. It pairs well with our current series from 1 Peter on dealing with suffering. In 1 Peter, the apostle has a lot to say about how the Lord Jesus Christ suffered unjustly and how we as Christians actually can take courage and rejoice if we suffer unjustly for our faith in Christ.

In fact, as I said, God's doing some of His best work in us through that suffering. This is the seventh volume in our relaunched series of study guides. Great tools for studying with a group or your own personal study and devotional reading. As always, affordably priced and available exclusively from grace to you.

That's right, friend. Christians just like you have gone through intense suffering and come out stronger. To learn from their examples, pick up the new study guide on How to Handle Persecution when you contact us today.

Our toll-free number here, 855-GRACE, and our website, gty.org. How to Handle Persecution. We'll show you why you can anticipate abuse and adversity, but actually rejoice in it and persevere and grow stronger through the suffering. Again, to get a copy of the How to Handle Persecution study guide, it's brand new, call us at 855-GRACE or go to gty.org. And to learn even more about experiencing victory in hard times or the marks of saving faith or any other biblical topic, let me encourage you to download our app, simply called the Study Bible. It's a free app that gives you the full text of Scripture in English Standard, King James, and New American Standard versions, along with access to thousands of free resources. And for a small price, you can add the 25,000 notes from the MacArthur Study Bible. Again, the Study Bible app is free to download. Just go to gty.org. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson, encouraging you to be here tomorrow when John shows you how you can endure persecution with humility and trust, as Jesus did. It's another half hour of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time on Race to You.