Christ's Substitutionary Death
1 Peter 2:23-25 · Roger Henderson · Sep 13, 2026
1 Peter, No. 19
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/913261739295689

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Alrighty, so this is the section we started back in verse 11 of chapter 2 of 1 Peter talking about the root of submission. Then we've gone through the submission to government, submission in the workplace. And then last week, Miles started a section on submission of our Savior. We looked at this idea of Christ's suffering. Some have example, but that's not really the best word. Pattern is probably a better word. And then we're going to look today specifically at the suffering of Christ as our substitute. Some interesting verses. Some of the verses may be a little bit challenging. Some have been used by some for interesting Theology look at that and then in the coming weeks.

We're going to look at Submission in the family husband and wife and then finally a summary in 8 through 12 you know a neat section on on God's plan of submission and I heard Chester McCauley saying God never God never rules by committee. He's not about committees. That's what he said. Yeah, that's not, you know, the only person that ever said that. But you look at scripture, God doesn't live by committees. He appoints a head, and he has his plan and purposes, and we need to understand that that's how he leads, and not be upset or moved away from that teaching.

All right, so let's go ahead from there. So let's look at last week. We start off, actually, before that, could I get, talk Bonnie into reading, could you read 21 through, 1 Peter 21 through 25? Okay, just a minute, I'm sorry. That'll be last week. 1 Peter what? 1 Peter 2. Yes. 21 through 25. Okay, 21 through 25. 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 so 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 thank you okay so let's just look at what miles covered last week so it starts off in funny red For you, speaking of believers, have been called for this purpose. Miles kind of went through this.

The bottom line is we've been called to suffer like Christ, to suffer undeservedly. We don't deserve to suffer many times. Sometimes we do. I must admit it. Sometimes we blow it and we do suffer for our own. But we also, as believers in the Lord Jesus, we suffer as he suffered. So underserved suffering is kind of in view here. And it says, and it's after our Savior, since you suffered also, since Christ also suffered for you on your behalf. So he suffered for us on our behalf.

Leaving you an example, probably not the best translation. This is word pattern. I think Miles tried to write it on the board. It's like where you trace over You trace over like the dots, you know, when you're first starting school, you do your A, A, B, C. You trace over the A and the B and the C and so on. So it's like Christ is our life. And it kind of has this idea of a, since he is our life, he is our pattern for our life. He's not an example we live up to. He's our life. So pattern, I think it fits better.

And that's what the original meaning of that word means there. okay so then it goes on in 22 speaking of Christ 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, and that word entrusting himself has been supplied, it's the idea of handing himself over. He gave himself over to God's will. He handed himself, you know, remember, thy will be done? He handed himself over to him who judges righteously. You know, just a beautiful section. Miles did a great job last week on this.

It's a beautiful section about the Lord Jesus suffering on our behalf. And we're tracing over his pattern of his life and and we are to be entrusting ourselves Handing ourselves over to him who judges righteously Okay, so that's last week's verses so now for this week and he himself bore our sins and in his body on the cross so that we might on the cross so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness for for by his wounds you were healed for you were continually straying like sheep but now if you return to the shepherd and guardian of your soul so I like to McCauley did like a three a three statement outline of these verses maybe you don't need to anyway the first point is that The A part of 24 is the meaning of Christ's death.

And we're going to explore that. Now we study that in Romans a lot. But this is going to kind of give a new picture. And I really like this. I remember from times past, it's such a beautiful picture we're going to see from a particular original word. We're going to see that, ignore our sins is the word, we're going to see that.

And then we find out in the next part the purpose of Christ's death, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness, for by his wounds you were healed. And then thirdly, the benefit. So it talks about the idea that you were continually straying like sheep, but now you return to the shepherd and guardian of your soul. So that's kind of a brief outline of those verses and as usual we're going to dig in a little more deeply here and look at each one.

In particular, each of the words is important. Okay. And, and he himself bore our sins. So we're getting, you know, we talked to, it talks about how he never uttered, he never spoke up for himself. He never uttered phrases. And this is, and so it connects to the previous verse. And so we have additional information about Christ, what he's done. He himself, Christ and no other. And here's this kind of special word.

Anna Pharaoh it's bore our sins and notice that it's speaking of sins plural you know we're pretty particular here right we always look for the is it talking about sins in the plural or sins in the singular which which many times speaks to the sin nature so this case is speaking of sins and this also interesting enough it it's in the Aorist tense and I really like this helped me maybe the last five to ten years and and listening to Chester McCauley, he likes to look at the heiress, which I think is probably a little bit better. You can say it's a past point fact, but really time is not supposed to be involved. I've always struggled with that.

So he says, let's look at the heiress as an event, which I think is accurate. It's an event. So what's the event? The event is when Christ bore our sins, right? So heiress tense, an event, is active, Christ did it, and indicative is a statement of fact. Okay, so that mind bore here.

And this word is one of those cases where we really can benefit by the Hebrews translated the Old Testament into Greek. And by doing that, they kind of connected the Greek of that day, if you will, it's sort of like us translating into, you know, Denver English, or whatever, you know, whatever that is. Anyway, that helps us. So when we look at some Greek words that are used in the New Testament, we can say, oh, the Hebrews thought that same Greek word applied to an Old Testament principle. And this is one of the cases, Anna Pharaoh, the word is used in the Old Testament of a priest carrying up a sacrifice up to the altar.

And I find this is just such a beautiful picture here. So I couldn't find exactly the picture I wanted. So I have a picture of the altar and a priest. But according to Wiest, it should be, should be four and a half feet high. At least we know that from the Jewish records. And he approached it on an incline. So he would carry up the sacrifice up this incline and put it on the altar. So that's what this bore our sins or bearing our sins implies the idea of carrying up the sacrifice up to the altar. So boy, we're going to see a really interesting word picture painted here. So keep that in mind. So he bore our sins. And a couple of places he's used.

He's used New Testament and James where it says was not Abraham our father justified by works having offered up same word and a pharaoh Isaac his son on the altar and also in Hebrews it's used so also Christ having been offered once to be the sins of many Okay, so with that in view, then we go to, and you know I like Wiest a lot, so I'm gonna go to Wiest's translation of 24a. So here's Wiest's translation of 24a. And what Wiest tries to do, which I like, he tries to bring in the original meaning and all the context. So here's how he renders 24a.

Who himself carried up to the cross our sins in his body and offered himself there as on an altar. Boy, isn't that, I mean, it just gives you, we say Christ died for our sins, he's our substitute, all this, but this is one of the few places in scripture that gives us this picture of what happened when Christ interacted with our sins, plural. Himself carried up to the cross our sins in his body notice that he didn't have them I don't want to say this or in a knapsack or in a backpack He had in his body that kind of blows my mind again I haven't really thought through all this totally but he carried our sins plural in his body and offered them there on the cross so boy, that's just a Really interesting.

Actually, we're getting there. You're getting ahead of me, Bonnie. Bonnie's seen the charts. She knows where I'm going. Go ahead, Bob. I personally really like the tree which is in the King James. I remember Bible study fellowship as a new believer. It is. It is. The tree was emphasized as the tree.

And I didn't actually, the cross, I haven't... But the cross was, I guess, really a tree. I don't know. And you're probably right. I didn't actually look at the word for cross, so I apologize. We could do it. I'm not being critical. No, no, no. I hear what you're saying.

The tree has, I think, significance of the reality of something real. Sure. The cross is something real. We all know what the cross looks like. Sure. But the tree is rugged and probably not smooth. I mean, it's not something that's... How is this compared to the propitiation? Let's tie it up to Romans. Absolutely. I want to connect it to Romans.

And that's one of the struggles I had because you wouldn't believe it. Between the translations, not everybody translates it plural. Actually, we'll see in a second. 24b is a real problematic because you'll notice in this version, it translates it sins singular. So I had to struggle with that. So let me keep going. Let me paint the picture, and then we can ask. It's a good question. How does it connect with what we understand from Romans 6 especially?

Okay, our sins so so we know this from first John our sins He's a propitiation for our sins, but not for ours only but for the whole world So in this picture and this verse is saying he took our sins all the sins in his body up to the cross with it just such a beautiful picture of to me it says so of closeness and of care for man's sin Wow and Okay, so what else can we say about that?

Since this word anaphero in the Old Testament was used to carry up a sacrifice, so it's a picture of Christ carrying up a sacrifice, but he's going to be the sacrifice. It just hurts your head. And we know that many times Christ will be pictured as a sacrifice, as the one who's sacrificing.

He's a high priest. So we have picture upon picture of our Savior in many different roles. But it all kind of works together. And actually, Weiss picked up at the very end about this. Christ's picture has offered himself for our sins, plural, on the cross as on an altar. That all comes from Anna Farrow. So then Weiss edited says here, thus our Lord himself, the high priest and sacrifice, carried up our sins to the cross. I have to look at the original. It could be the tree. So just a beautiful picture here. This is one of the few places you get this kind of detail about that. It's one of the reasons it's such a favorite verse. So there's a little more to say here, but OK, now let's move on. So we're talking about sins plural. Let's keep moving. I want to try to tie it back to sins singular here. The verse goes on.

It says, so that, so now it's going to give the purpose, that. So here's 24b. 24b is a little problematic because different verses, different translations will render the word for sin either singular or plural. So I was forced to go back to the inner linear and say, well, what is the, what is the, you know, we trust the inner linear as being as close to the Greek as I can get. So, and it has sins plural in there. So the inner linear says 24b reads as follows.

Okay, let's just go back to the context here one second here, and he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross That having died to these sins and in context that's our sins if you look back to our sins plural we might live to righteousness by Whose wounds we are healed so I'm going to use that as my teaching point for now on even though other versions are slightly different and So that introduces a purpose. Having died, so that having died to our sin, having died, sins removed, speaking of the event of the cross, it's another aorist, to our sins, and notice sins plural, so we have it literally having become off with respect to our sins. I'm not quite sure I totally understand that translation.

So, in Romans 6.2, as we know, it says, we died to our sin nature, right? We know that to sin singular. Now this verse says, we not only died to our sin nature, we died to our sins.

And to my mind, that makes total sense. I mean, God solved the sin problem entirely. We are separated and we know that death means separation. We're separated from our sin nature. And this verse teaches that we're separated from our sins. So we have been separated from both our sin nature and our sins by Christ's death on the cross.

So I think that's what makes this verse truly exceptional. Besides the wonderful picture, it teaches, not too many verses speak about being separated from our sins, probably more than I think. I haven't actually done a super search, but this really brings in the light of the completeness of Christ's death on the cross.

Go ahead. Is therefore now no condemnation to those things? Right. There can't be one thing held against you. And then what's really neat is it's going to say, okay, 24 Bs in view, but then we haven't actually finished the verse yet, because it's going to say, that we might live to righteousness. So think about this. With our sins removed, both the sins plural and sins removed or separated, we're now able to live righteously, right? You're able to live a righteous life.

And we have several verses that kind of talk about that and I know from Bob Hope this And Bob and I had discussions in the past but there's several verses. Let me just put them all up here There's several verses in first John who's just this idea of practicing. We've had this discussion. I'm 10 15 years ago I think it's helpful here and the idea here is talking about the fact believers can can do righteousness or they can practice righteousness.

And that's what we just learned from this verse, 24b, it says, we have died to sins, and what was the purpose of that? That we might live and basically do the righteousness of God. And 1 John makes a huge case about you can tell a believer, he's the one, when all's said and done, he's the one that can do righteousness.

No one else can do righteousness unless, you know, so 1 John 2.29 says, If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who practiced or made better does righteousness is born of him. It's the proof of the pudding, right? And then 3.7 says, little children, make sure that no one deceives you. The one who practices or does righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous.

And then John 3.10 says, 1 John 3.10 says, by this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious. Anyone who does not practice or do righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.

So this verse builds this picture. Our sins are carried up to the cross by Christ. We die with respect to our sins, so that with a purpose we might live to righteousness. And this is kind of going on in the very last part of 24B is, by whose wounds we were healed. Go ahead.

I think one of the interpretations here relates to might or should. I mean, that's subjunctive. Yeah, I know. It seems to me this is not a first class. No. We might live to righteous, we might not. Yeah, and that's true. I think it's expected that Well, I think First John makes the point. He makes the point that believers, it's expected that they are to live right. I mean, that's the expectation.

God didn't save us so that we, he expects that we would live righteously. Now we don't do that, you know, 24 seven is, you know, but that's the expectation. We have his life so we can, we are the only ones on the planet that can live righteously. Right? I mean, that's kind of the, his argument there. And you're right, we might. You're right, it is subjunctive. Your first class condition was really the expected. Yeah, I didn't really go down that. I'm not sure why I didn't look at it. I'm not sure you have to. I'm just thinking about it. You know we fall short at times.

Right, right. But it's expected as being born again, our sins being paid for, so that we would live righteously. Well, that's exactly what 24b is painting. You've died, you've been separated from your sins, our sins, And the expectation is that you're going to live to righteousness. I mean, that's the whole thing. That's the whole reason he died on the cross. Okay, then it adds an additional thought at the very end.

By whose wounds you were healed. Or actually, some have stripes. But actually, wounds is a little bit better. And why do they have this singular sometimes, wound? Oh yeah, I know. It's challenging. Sometimes it says wound, some of his translations. Jim, what does yours say? Could you read 224 for us in your version you like? In the ESV it says wounds. Plural, right? Wounds plural. And the only Christian standard is wounds plural. And the Weymouth has...

Well okay in the inner linear it I mean I took this this is a word for word so it's singular here so you know and that's part of the challenge between and actually sins some people in the numerical standard they translate it sin singular and the King James they translate it Plural so we have a but you know it was somewhat.

That's why I just said okay I'm just going to you forget about the tram It's going to go the inner linear and look look at that and try to understand it from that So I think I I think I understand it Well I I think he's just trying to communicate to my mind, Peter's teaching us that he talked about the suffering of our Savior, right? And how his suffering was a pattern for us. And then he goes on here to say, in addition, Christ talks about his death on the cross and how that separated us from our sins, right? He's kind of expanding that in my mind. So he's giving us information that we need to believe that we've been separated from our sins.

Well yeah, there's actually another part there, we're gonna see a problem too. Yeah, there can be some problems here Okay by his by his death by anyway okay let's carry on like I said this this verse is presents some challenges anyway so so what so actually wound it's it's a this is a Greek word it's singular in the original I don't know how they got plural but anyway it's a bruise a mark left by scourging it's a wound in the singular if you have your I have my phone here, I can look it up, but you can look in your inner linear there. And the inner linear is singular. Okay, now here's the problem.

Some people have taken this last part of this verse and built a whole doctrine, right? If you're into healing, someone said, well, look at this. by whose wounds you were healed. Well, I'll just claim that verse. According to Constable here, I've heard people talk about this. Somebody said this verse supports the non-biblical doctrine that Jesus, by his death, made healing from any physical ailment something that every Christian can claim in this life. Yeah, but they left one thing out. You've got to give money. Yeah, I know that's exactly what the problem is you got to give money to make them rich, but but the verb tense Put nails it as it says not right. It says look at it.

You were healed talking about Okay, so what's the what's the verb tense? So you were healed? That's the key to this verse who's by it by whose wounds you were healed okay? We're all healed were healed is another heiress. So once again, I like to look at it as an event, so it's an event. So what event healed us? And let's look at the big picture. The big picture is that you received healing at the cross, right? You received basically...

Doesn't this kind of say that it's marks left by scourging, so it was the scourging of Christ before the cross? Well, I think it's making a connection with the fact that looking at what Christ suffered, that healed your sin problem, if you will. That's the healing that was involved. It doesn't heal Bob's eye or my back. It's talking about healing of the sin issue. Christ's death on the cross, if you want to say, healed the sin issue.

I have this question that in Eastern countries we see so many healings but we don't see that much in Western countries. What is the reason? We have actually seen where doctors were involved. I personally know the places where they were about to go to operate something and then at the final moment they said the issue has disappeared. So you're saying that you see more healings by the Lord, but not in our country?

I don't know. Whenever I try to talk to people, it looks like that. I'm not sure I can answer that. All I can say is that I know that some will refer to there's Eastern medicine, that's kind of a very broad term which takes in all of non-western medicine as there's eastern medicine and there's western medicine. I'm speaking here with very little knowledge.

Maybe Bob can help us here. One seems to be more scientifically based and one is more, I don't want to say non-scientifically, it's more maybe experiential. Thanks Bob. But they're different. I've come across doctors that are trained in eastern medicine. Like the acupuncture people and acupuncture for some people does work. It seems like I don't know Some people it doesn't work. So I would classify that as Eastern medicine and then you have where I classify Brother Bob here Western medicine, which is is a different more scientifically based approach. I don't know. I share that. But I'm talking like, for example, there was a lady in our church.

She was a nurse, nursing superintendent in allopathic medicine hospital. And she got some problem with her breast. And she was discharged from her breast. And some, I don't know the exact issue, but she had her surgery date fixed. And then she came and suddenly she was not a very regular member at that time. But she came and she asked my dad to pray and he prayed like casually. And then she went. And on the day of surgery, the doctors said, okay, they had the final testing report.

And then suddenly said, these two reports are not of the same person. Where is the person? And she said, I'm that person. And they said, no, it is not possible. And then she suddenly got healed and she lived many, many years after that. At least two decades after that.

I don't know why, but I would agree that there does seem to be, but the problem is documenting that and making sure, we know scripture is true, right? So we have to trust what scripture says. And this verse, that's why I pointed out, this verse is not teaching. This verse is teaching that we were that the healing talked about here is from sins christ didn't heal us from our back pain he did heal us from our sins that came from adam that's what he addressed he didn't address other sins so this verse is not teaching about healing from your physical ailments it's teaching about healing from the sin problem that's the key part of this interpreting this verse correctly i think is key taking this verse and running off and saying i want to be healed from X Y and Z and there are believers that do that there are groups of believers in in this country that do that They say well come down. You know come to our church to our healing service, and we'll heal you Amen amen Amen. I agree with you. Exactly Speaking of the cross here I'm just trying to I'm trying to teach this verse Accurately to the context and not not go off in some rabbit trail and say oh by the way This is going to take this verse and play it As Patty pointed out, there are other verses that talk about calling the elders.

And God does heal people. I think doctors have seen that. They've seen people that should... They've been healed by the Lord. Anyway, unless you want to say something, Bob. I don't know, maybe you don't. I think with it saying the tree, it goes all the way back to Adam. I think it's somebody. Anybody, any comments from Zoom land? Go ahead, Roger.

It's just, I think that the healing is from the, sin is fatal for us, it's a fatal condition, and that's what he's healing. Amen. Fatal condition, I think, in context. Exactly. Yeah, and you'd have to You know, Paul prayed that he would be healed, and he wasn't. He prayed three times for his ailment. So, yeah, I think the physical healing is a separate issue from what you have here in verse 24. Exactly.

I mean, who's to question God's working in a life to modify their natural history of disease? But let me just say this, in medicine there are examples of people who have what's called miraculous cures who are not believers. No one's been praying for them. They occur. They're described. It's often a case report or something. I mean, there's no question that there are some very serious diseases which ultimately go away without explanation, medically or scientifically.

So that's not saying God cannot heal. We can never limit God. We're studying in Colossians But this unequivocally sins. As Andrew put it well, sins are unto death. It's a sin issue that the healing here is of the sin issue That's what's in view because look look at the context. We've died to our sins, so we might live to righteousness Why would he change the whole mode and say oh by the way you get you get healed of all your? Your aches and pains and this that wouldn't make any sense. He's in context He he's continued the thought of the sin issue sins issue boy. I sure wish he would That's a different story. Someday he will. You'll get your chance. So let's go on to the next verse here. Great comments, great comments. This verse is kind of interesting.

It says, For you were continually straying like sheep. So now he's going to paint a picture using the sheep, the picture of sheep. And he said, you were like sheep. And it looks, you read Isaiah 53, 6a, it says, and all of us like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to our own way. So it looks like Peter is almost quoting Isaiah 53, right? Yeah, he is. Because it has the same message. He says, you were continually like sheep going astray.

So one of the challenges here is, If you read the rest of the verse, it seems like, well, is he talking about before you were a believer or while you were a believer? Because it says return, it kind of confuses the issue. And I struggled with that for a while. So I'm going to give you what I think, looking at the original, what I think it's teaching, which is a little bit different than what it says in ASB.

OK. For you are continually straying like sheep. OK. Straying is the idea to be Let us stray is passive voice. So what was your problem? Right? What was causing you to stray? Right? So you can, you look at, you look at mankind before their, before their believer, before they trust Christ, right?

They're continually straight, right? There's continually doing this. They're doing that. They're, they're like sheep. They're wandering around. They don't, don't know where they're going, what's happening. Right? Um, and they turn to their own ways. So I think it's picturing, as Isaiah, picturing pre-salvation. Because it's going to say now, it's going to make a contrast. It's going to say, but now, he said, you were straying before you were saved, like sheep. But now, something changed, OK? But now, in contrast from going astray, you have returned. And this can be translated. If you just translate it strictly from the word, epistrepo is to turn about or turn toward, okay?

And another aorist, we have lots of aorists in these passages. So again, it's speaking of event. So I think, boy, in scripture, for a believer, There's really, to my mind, and people want to have another event in their life, but salvation is a main event in a believer's life, right? So I think it's speaking of salvation.

Speaking of an event, salvation, you were turned about, right? You turned about to the Lord. You turned to the Lord when you believed the gospel. So you turned, but now you have turned. Returned, I don't think is accurate to the original here. You turned. You turn to serve and worship the true God, Zodiaty says. And we have several verses that kind of support that.

In Acts 11.21 it says, And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a large number of them believed, and, same word, epistrepo, turned to the Lord. Then another passage in 1 Thess says, for they themselves report about us what kind of reception we had and how you turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God.

So it seems to me that return, if you translate it that way, and I look, these are all eras, all these three passages, our passage is eras, the acts passages there is and so it's first that's there is so they're all speaking to my mind about the event of the cross how that turned them from wandering like sheep the following the lord standard you have a thought i think i guess you can't do it if you take a picture came on site i didn't know i didn't mean to scare you no i'll go ahead if you don't have a thought here i have a little sorry okay i didn't mean to scare you okay do you You know, I think this might be also after salvation. Men stray and it's because that word to listen under, we need to learn that as Christians.

My only struggle with that is, and I hear what you're saying, it says you have returned and it's an event, so I'm thinking, so there's an event after salvation it's not documented in scripture i don't know bob go ahead interesting uh... here's the passive tense the way you were describing this sounds like an active process doesn't it that i've decided well no and that's not you haven't decided I don't know.

Mike, I'm not sure. Well, let's just back up. How do you describe salvation? Did you turn yourself around? No, that's not the picture. You trusted the Lord and He turned you around, right? You didn't turn yourself around. That's a whole other discussion. But we have to respond by faith. Yeah, well, that's our part. We make a conscious decision to get saved. We're drawn by the Lord. He's drawing all men on Himself, right? That's what I think too. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think to my mind this fits the salvation experience the best That's why I'm teaching it that way.

I Struggled and I I look to different people most people avoid it, you know Well, I want somebody to talk about this. Well, nobody talked about it. They're afraid I don't know Anyway, go ahead. It's a translation of return. That's always kind of... Well, and that's what kind of throws you off. It's like it could just be... The Greek, you said, was turn. Yeah, you turn, just like... It makes more sense.

But Don, he's calling the whole world to himself. I mean, in a sense, we've all gone astray, right? Exactly, exactly. I mean, so since we've all gone astray, God would have us all come to himself. Exactly. He died for the whole world. Amen, amen. I agree, totally. Okay. Okay, we have a few more things to say here. Okay, real quickly. Okay, very last part. but now you have returned.

This is kind of interesting phrase, but now, so we were straying like sheep, but now you have returned or just turned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls. Kind of a beautiful picture here. Shepherd is poor man, poor man, poor man, caring for the flock metaphorically of Christ. That's a great shepherd watching over and providing for the welfare of the church. This one in many verses, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. So he's pictured here as a shepherd and the guardian. And guardian actually, you know, guardian is this word episkopos, which is what we call bishops and King James uses bishops. It's a watchman, one who oversees. When we're saved, God becomes the spiritual overseer of our souls.

I mean, that's such a neat picture. And there's actually a verse that kind of talks to that a little bit. We're going to study later on. In 419 it says, therefore, those who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls. So God is interesting. We're saved and who is watching over us? And it's no mystery. He's watching over our souls, entrusting their souls to a faithful creator in doing what is right.

So. all righty so those that's the two verses lots of interesting little turns in this and that in these verses that's what makes it so intimate amen no i agree with you he's the shepherd and guardian of your souls he carried look at the picture he carried up your sins to the cross and sacrificed himself there and he's he's the shepherd and guardian of your soul i mean this is super personal i mean beyond i mean you think Think of all these crazy things, thinking it's about some God way off and that doesn't care about you. This picture is a God that is so personal. He cares about you so much, just like you would carry your child. He carried you up to the cross with him and he's guarding over your souls, finishes up with.

Pretty amazing. Anyway, so a few little bumps along the way. I don't know. Hopefully by train of thought. And maybe there's some things to be said, you know, other people. I couldn't find exactly someone that really addressed all the things that I'd like them to address.

And of course, that's the challenge of Bible study, you know, you just, okay, where's the guy that's going to, and he doesn't, the Lord, you have to trust, you have to trust the Lord. It's come to that, as Mike likes to say. I like going all the way back to 1 Peter 1 verse 5, you who are being guarded by God's power through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. That's one of my favorite verses. No, that's neat. Well, you know, you find, you know, studying Paul for a long time, Paul's a, he loves logic. Logic, logic, logic, logic, so almost, almost too. to burn out.

But Peter gets really personal. It really gets down to carrying my sins up to the cross with him. He's guarding my soul. He's like a shepherd. So personal. I think that's why Bob just loves Peter too. He wasn't carrying our sins on his back. He was carrying our sins in his body. In his body.

I know that. That blew my mind. When I read that again, I said, Roger, I've been reading that wrong all this time. He's not carrying it on his back. No. No. It's in his body. In his body. That's so intimate. It is. Well, it says he became sin. And it became sin for us. It became sin for us. You're right.

I was listening to Miles Stanford yesterday, and he points out this principle of God, that God works in paradoxes. There's a paradox here that is, by working through wounds, you are healed, which is a paradox. Right. is healing, so that's an interesting paradox, but that's how God works. Yeah, that's good.

I like that. I like that. And what's amazing, he wounds his son, right? On our behalf. So, it's pretty amazing. Pretty amazing stuff. Alright, so let's close here. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much, Lord. We thank you for the blessings we have. Thank you. For the beautiful words you've given us today, Lord, from your scriptures, we thank you for the Lord Jesus. We ask in his name, amen.