“That He Might Bring Us To God”

Uplook2 – September 2017 — Grace & Truth Magazine

That He Might Bring Us To God

“For Christ indeed has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God; being put to death in flesh, but made alive in the Spirit.” —1 Peter 3:18 JND

Suffering is something the flesh does not appreciate. We shrink from it. In the verse preceding ours, we who are believers are made aware that a pathway consistent with our testimony will lead us into suffering. In addition, when we do well as a Christian, hardship may be at our doorsteps. Certainly this is not attractive for the natural man with all his aspirations for ease here on earth. But the called out one, the follower of Jesus Christ, has a different object. He looks to the Lord as his goal, wisdom, purpose and delight.

Peter pointed us to the Lord’s sufferings for sins; and how much did our blessed Lord suffer when He walked here as that perfect One in the midst of sinners. Always rejected by those He came to save, at the end of His earthly life man nailed Him to the cross. On that cross the sinless one suffered for sin. Men railed Him, Satan assailed Him and God in righteousness hid His face from Him for in the three hours of darkness the Lord was made sin for us. Never will we be able to fathom the depth of His suffering by the hand of God. He died, yet He was also made alive. The Lord Jesus came forth by the Spirit out of the grave and now we see that perfect Man alive, risen and glorified at the right hand of the Father. He is the propitiation for our sins! He is that great substitute who died in our place! He has reconciled us to God!

Our verse emphasizes, “that He might bring us to God.” His perfect work completely satisfied the claims of God, and it is through His precious blood that we may enter into the presence of God. The saint of God may draw near to Him into the holiest of all because of the blood of Jesus. Communion with the blood of the Lord and sharing the Father’s thoughts about His Son is that blessed occupation the believer may be engaged in when he remembers the Lord Jesus in His death at His table. There we remember Him who suffered for sins, who offered Himself wholly to God. Have we taken our place in practice at the Lord’s Table where we may express that we are brought to God? GT

By Klaas Rot