1Pet 3:18 For Christ also has suffered once for sins, the Righteous on behalf of the unrighteous, that He might bring you to God, on the one hand being put to death in the flesh, but on the other, made alive in the spirit;
Christ is the righteous One, and we are the unrighteous ones, yet He died for our sins. Christ died concerning our sins so that He might bring us to God. His death removed all the barriers, in particular the barriers of our sins and unrighteousness. Because His death has removed the barriers of sins and unrighteousness, we have a way to reach God. Christ died in order to bring us to God. Sins in verse 18 and in 2:24, 1 Corinthians 15:3, and Hebrews 9:28 refer to sins we commit in our outward conduct. But sin in 2 Corinthians 5:21, John 1:29, and Hebrews 9:26 refers to sin by birth in our nature. Christ died for our sins, carrying up our sins on the cross, that our sins might be forgiven by God. But He became sin and took away the sin of the world that the problem of our sin might be solved. Peter does not deal first with sin in our nature, but with sins in our conduct, in our manner of life. In this book Christ's death redeemed us from our inherited vain manner of life (1:18-19). The fact that Christ, the righteous One, died "on behalf of the unrighteous" indicates that His death was for redemption, not for martyrdom. On the cross Christ was our Substitute, bearing our sins, the righteous One judged on behalf of us, the unrighteous, by the righteous God according to His righteousness, that He might remove the barrier of our sins and bring us to God. This was to redeem us from our sins back to God, from our unrighteous manner of life back to the righteous God. (c) 2007 Living Stream Ministry.
Bible verses are taken from the Recovery Version of the Bible and Words of Ministry from Witness Lee, Life-study of First Peter, pp. 217. Both are published by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim, CA. Please visit us at www.emanna.com. Send comments to: [email protected].
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