For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: (22) Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: (23) Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: (24) Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. (25) For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.
How very blessed is introduced here the person and actions of Christ! And, let the Reader observe, how Christ's death is first spoken of, as a Surety, before that his meekness is held forth as an example. I mention this the rather, because those wretchedly deluded men, who wish to rob the Lord Jesus of his glory, and, consequently, the Church of her happiness, in talking of Christ dying only as a martyr to his religion, and wholly as an example of patience to his people under suffering, bring forth this passage, as, in their view, justifying their argument; whereas, in fact, it is the reverse. For this very portion first mentions Christ's suffering for us; before that it is added, he becomes our example, that we should follow his steps. A plain proof that the former is the grand cause the Holy Ghost first insisted on; and the latter, but as a sweet elect arising out of it. And when the whole volume of testimonies in scripture to this glorious doctrine of atonement is taken into the account, to what a miserable expedient must such men be reduced, who shelter themselves under such a flimsy covering, for their un-belief? How fully Christ speaks of his giving his life a ransom, Matthew 20:28. How blessedly Paul also testifies of it He gave himself (saith Paul) an offering and a sacrifice to God, for a sweet smelling savor, Ephesians 5:2. Who gave himself for our sins, Galatians 1:4. Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, 1 Corinthians 15:3. And this same Apostle, in the next Chapter, saith, that Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. Observe, it is for sins, and the just for the unjust. And how could either be, but as a sacrifice for sins, and as in the room and place of the Sinner? 1 Peter 3:18
I need not tell the Reader, acquainted with his Bible, that the greater part of these verses is a quotation from the prophecy of Isaiah 53:1. And who can read the account of either, among the Lord's people, dry-eyed, or unaffected in heart? The Prophet, as though he had been in the hall of Pilate, describes the sufferings of Christ as accurately, seven hundred years and upward before the event came to pass, with all the blessed consequences resulting from it. And, here the Apostle goes over the subject again, who was himself an eye-witness of it, 1 Peter 5:1. The close of the Apostle's account is very blessed. He considers the Church as sheep, and Christ the shepherd. He beholds them as having gone astray, like sheep, in the Adam-fall of nature, and now brought back by the recovery of grace. And what I beg the Reader not to overlook in this relation is, that They were sheep before they strayed. And they were Christ's sheep, given him by the Father, before he purchased them in redemption, from their Adam-wanderings, by his blood, and brought them back by his Spirit. Oh! the preciousness of this to my soul! Yes! through grace I am now returned to the Great Shepherd and Bishop of Souls! His is a diocese indeed, over which the Lord exercises his Pastoral care, by watching over it night and day, lest any hurt his fold, Isaiah 27:3. But where shall we look for any other? Precious Lord Jesus! thou art the same still in heaven! Thou art our High Priest forever, after the order of Melchizedec