How very solemn is the thought that the Son of God was found in this world as a sufferer. Well He knew the path that lay before Him before He came into the manger; every pang, every sorrow, every painful circumstance, every trial; all that came out in His path, all that the cross involved, was known; yet He came, a Man of Sorrows, to suffer in this world. His sufferings are told out prophetically in the Old Testament Scriptures, the Spirit of Christ breathing out the deep feelings of the heart of Christ in language that speaks of depths into which the soul of man cannot enter. But we can contemplate in some feeble way the Sufferings of the Christ, realising in our spirits that we are on holy ground; and as we thus meditate a solemn stillness holds the heart, and the spirit bows in worship before God and His blessed Son.
The apostle Peter touches this precious subject in each chapter of his first Epistle, telling us in Chapter 1 that the prophets of old searched in their own writings to discover the meaning of what the Spirit of Christ wrote by them of the sufferings which belonged to Christ, and the glories after these. It is not difficult to realise that David could not enter into the real meaning of Psalms 22 and 69 which he wrote by the Holy Spirit, or Isaiah know the enigmas of his 53rd chapter. Yet how blessedly do these and other Scriptures of the prophets tell of the suffering Messiah and of the glories that should follow His path of suffering. The salvation and the grace of God towards us are bound up in the sufferings and glory of Christ. Not one soul could ever have known salvation apart from those holy sufferings. He must endure the divine wrath, and cry from the depths of His soul "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me before we could escape from that dread judgment that our sins merited. But how blessed that by faith we now have the assurance of the salvation of our souls as the fruit of the travail of His soul.
But we have been called to a path of suffering in this world, and Christ is brought before us as a model in 1 Peter 2:21. It is not long before the faithful Christian realises that the path of God's will for him is not an easy one. If the eye is fixed upon the Lord the path will be simple, but full of trials; and in these trials he will find that for conscience sake towards God he will need to endure griefs, suffering unjustly. This is the path that our blessed Lord trod. How He suffered unjustly at the hands of sinners! What a path of grief was His! But it is acceptable with God if we follow in the steps of Jesus, suffering for righteousness sake, enduring suffering for the good we do. There is ever the danger of our rebelling against the wrong when conscious that it is for good done, not for ill; and for this the blessed Lord is brought before us as a model. Whenever a rebel thought or feeling would rise within the breast let us think of Him. Perfection was with Him; "Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth; Who when reviled, reviled not again; when suffering, threatened not; but gave Himself over into the hands of Him Who judges righteously." What an example for us! Alas! how little have we followed Him. The trouble with us is that even in our good there is something of the flesh mixed with it, and in our suffering there is something of the chastening of God because of the flesh. And the measure of the flesh connected with the good will determine the measure of our resentment of the reviling and the suffering. But how blessed to have a perfect example; and, indeed, a perfect object upon which to rest the eye and the heart, in passing through the scene and circumstances of trial. But if there were the sufferings of the path, in which Christ is an example for His own, the Spirit of God would have us realise that there was also the suffering in which we could have no part, saving that our sins made them necessary, "Who Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree." The sufferings of the cross were for our sins: yours and mine.
Again the sufferings of Christ are brought in in connection with the path of the saints (1 Peter 3:16-18). We live in a world where men calumniate the Christian manner of life, speaking evil against those who follow in the steps of the Lord Jesus; but it is better, if such be the will of God that we suffer for well-doing rather than for evil-doing. Then we see the extent to which Christ went: He not only suffered in the cause of righteousness, for well-doing, but He suffered for the sins of others. If He bore our sins in His body on the tree, He suffered for them. But He was not only the substitute Who died for our sins, He suffered for sins, "The propitiation for our sins; but not for ours only, but also for the whole world." Not only did He suffer for sins; He suffered for sinners, "The just for the unjust." With the apostle Paul we can truly say, "The Son of God loved me, and gave Himself for me." He was our substitute; in love He bore the judgment we merited, and now we know what it is to be brought to God. The contemplation of such suffering love will surely make it easier for us to suffer for well-doing in this poor world.
"Christ then, having suffered for us in the flesh, do ye arm yourselves with the same mind; for he that has suffered in the flesh has done with sin" (1 Peter 4:1-2). Christ's whole course down here was one of suffering, suffering in His holy nature as passing through a world of sin; suffering the contradiction of sinners against Himself in the conflict of good against evil; suffering because He chose the will of God rather than the alleviation His divine power could procure, as in the wilderness, when He refused to satisfy His hunger because He had no word from God; suffering as learning obedience; suffering as taking upon His own spirit what He relieved in others, "Himself bare our sicknesses and carried our sorrows." But all this suffering ended for Him in the dread sufferings of the cross, where He died in the conflict of good against evil, resisting unto blood; where He gave Himself to secure the glory of God in relation to sin, and for us. What is our attitude to suffering? Are we prepared to suffer rather than to gratify the desires of the flesh? If we suffer rather than give way to sin we have the attitude of mind in which we can do the will of God. The armour against sin is in the mind that is prepared to suffer rather than yield to temptation; and Christ manifested this in perfection.
There are not only the sufferings of the pathway, in the normal walk of life; there are also times of persecution, when the saints of God are tried in the fire, Christ also had to suffer this, even to death. Here indeed are the martyr sufferings in which the Christian can have part (1 Peter 4:13). How must the blessed Son of God have suffered to see men take Him to the brow of the hill to cast Him headlong down; to see them take up stones to cast at Him. And see how they constantly beset His steps, sending officers to take Him, trying to catch Him in His words; and at last covenanting with Judas to betray Him, and heaping every dishonour upon Him before handing Him over to the shameful death of the cross. If we are privileged to share His martyr sufferings we are to rejoice, because "that in the revelation of His glory also ye may rejoice with exultation." Paul desired the fellowship of His sufferings, even to be conformed to His death; to die as a martyr, seeing His Master had done so. Peter too was to have this privilege, even as the Lord had predicted, "When thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and bring thee where thou dost not desire." In old age Peter was to die with outstretched hands, like his Master, upon a cross. This was not a way in which nature could delight: yet, through grace a way that Peter could rejoice in; and that we could rejoice in in the divine nature.
At the beginning Peter speaks of the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow: now at the close, in exhorting the elders, he speaks of himself as a witness of the sufferings of the Christ" and "partaker of the glory." No doubt Peter had suffered much, but he will not speak of this, rather does he speak of the sufferings of Christ that he had witnessed. What were his sufferings compared with the sufferings of the Christ that he had witnessed? But he would indeed partake of the glory about to be revealed. And this is God's grace for us also. Who among us can speak at all of suffering when we think of the suffering of the Christ? But we can exult in the glory that we shall surely share, and this because of Christ's sufferings for us.
In 1 Peter 1 then we are introduced to a Christ Who suffered; in 1 Peter 2 we see that if we have to suffer UNJUSTLY, Christ is our model; in 1 Peter 3 if we have to suffer for WELL-DOING, Christ went much further, suffering for sins and for sinners; in 1 Peter 4:1 we are to be prepared to suffer in the flesh so as to do God's WILL, as Christ did in perfection; in 1 Peter 4:13, if we are called upon to pass through PERSECUTION, it is to share in the martyr sufferings of Christ; in 5 we shall partake of the glory because of Christ's sufferings. In the light of these solemn and precious portions of Scripture we do well to meditate upon this wonderful subject, so that we may come out more like our blessed Master in the world out of which He has gone, joining with the writer to say "But the God of all grace Who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ Jesus, when ye have suffered for a little while, Himself make perfect, stablish, strengthen, ground: to Him be glory and the might for the ages of the ages. — AMEN."