Submission – Not So Easy

1 Peter 2:21-25

²¹For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. ²²He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. ²³When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. ²⁴He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. ²⁵For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

This passage finds its source in Isaiah 53, where the sacrifice of Jesus is prophetically described in brilliant and horrifying detail. In these verses, Peter borrows heavily from that description and points directly at Jesus as the fulfillment of that saving work. Peter also holds Jesus up as our example. No, we will not have to die for the sins of the world, but we are called upon to emulate His humble service to mankind.

To fully grasp this passage, we need to review the words of Isaiah 53. I believe that all of us need to read this particular chapter on a regular basis, for the strength of these words is unsurpassed in Scriptures.

Isaiah 53

¹Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

²For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.

³He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows  and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

⁴Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.

⁵But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

⁶All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.

⁷He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,

and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.

⁸By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?

⁹And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence,

and there was no deceit in his mouth.

¹⁰Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt,

he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

¹¹Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my  servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.

¹²Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.

The Good News is that Jesus was the complete fulfillment of these words and we will not be called upon to die for the sins of others as He had to do for us. But we are called upon to look upon His sacrifice and see our role model of humble service to those who may hate us or act without compassion. That is what Jesus faced through not fault of His own. Yet He stands as the embodiment of service and surrender.

Willingly being submissive does not come easily. Our flesh driven pride requires attention as we seek to surrender to the service of others. All that is within, if left unchecked, will indeed deny any possibility of submission and that must be called into obedience to the Lord. I think that as we read the story of Jesus’ Passion we find that even He had to keep His flesh under control. His prayer in Gethsemane allows us to see that there was indeed a struggle, but one which was submitted to the Sovereign power of God.

None of us will be completely successful in appropriating the submitted life. But the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit does draw us ever deeper into that submission – if we allow it. May God grant the grace necessary for us to surrender into that work. To God be the glory.