"Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin. As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God."
1 Peter 4: 1-2

EVER since chapter 2: 11 Peter has been dealing with the sort of lives we as redeemed and born again believers should live. Because we are now in Christ a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, we must declare the praises of him who has called us out of darkness into his wonderful light (1 Peter 2: 9). Peter has dealt with how this is done in our relationship with authorities, and with the relationship of marriage, and with how we should live as Christians in everyday life. He now deals with how we face the particular experience which is peculiar to all disciples of Jesus.

The question we need to ask ourselves as we seek to study these two verses before us is as to exactly what Peter is referring to when he speaks of Christ suffering in his body. Unless we understand what Peter is referring to we shall not be able to understand his call that we should 'have the same attitude' as Jesus.

Christ indeed suffered in his body. He suffered in his body when he was condemned to death on the cross. However it is impossible for us to have the same attitude as Jesus in this respect because this suffering was uniquely his in his saving work to atone for our sins. He only could pay the price of sin which he did in the place of us who have sinned, as God laid on Jesus the iniquity of our sins (Isaiah 53: 6). Jesus suffered in his body to atone for our sins, and this is why he took human nature in order to suffer in our place.

As Peter tells us here that we must have 'the same attitude' as Jesus when he suffered in his body, the words of Peter here can not refer to his death.

Because Jesus was holy and undefiled, and lived a holy life, he suffered in his body in the sense that he came in conflict with the world, the flesh and the devil. His life rebuked the false religious living of the religious leaders amongst the Jews. He suffered because his life and teaching rebuked the hypocrisy and deadness of the spiritual life of the religious leaders. He suffered in his body because he lived for his Father in heaven in obedience to his will and purpose, and faced bodily hardship because he gave his life in service to God, his Father.

Jesus spoke of this suffering in John 15: 18ff when he spoke of the hate of the world against him. Jesus told his disciples in these verses from John's Gospel, that his disciples must expect the same treatment from the world if they remained faithful to him. Jesus also warned his disciples in Matthew 10: 38; 16: 24; and Mark 8: 34; 10: 21; and Luke 9: 21; 14: 27f that to be his disciple meant there was a cross to bear, which was the cost of being his disciples. This cross is not the general suffering of all humanity as we live this earthly life, such as sickness, poverty, the unkind behaviour of others towards us, etc. but the peculiar suffering which is caused by being disciples of Jesus, and seeking to follow Jesus and live for him, and stand for his truth and holiness.

The truth is that there is no friendship from the world for the true believer. The reason for this is that through the new life which is ours in Christ Jesus, and the fact that we have been taken out of the kingdom of this world, which is the kingdom of Satan, and translated into the Kingdom of God and of heaven, Satan is against us and seeks to cause us suffering in anyway he can.

Peter tells us who believe in Jesus as our Lord, Saviour and sin-bearer that we must have the same attitude as Jesus and be ready to suffer in our body in taking up the cross of discipleship and holy living which Christ lived. By this Peter means the suffering to our bodily life which is the result of seeking to imitate Christ in all things. Jesus suffered from the antagonism of the Jewish leaders as he exposed the hypocrisy and error in their lives. If we have the same attitude as Jesus the true believer will be ready to stand against all error and wrong in the visible church and come under the same rejection and criticism from the leaders in the church who place their wisdom and ideas over the Bible and its revelation from God, and therefore follow practices and teaching in the church which is against God's truth.

Jesus stood for the holiness of God, and because of this he suffered bodily suffering from the opposition of the religious leaders. As we seek to be disciples of Jesus in living holy lives we will find ourselves in collision with the ways of the world, and bodily suffering may well be the result as the world is angered against us in one way or another.

Jesus lived a completely holy life which brought him in conflict with Satan who sought diligently to cause him to sin. He was tempted more than any man yet remained sinless and holy. The believer has the same attitude as Jesus in the desire to be holy as he was holy. Jesus was totally victorious over all temptations and assaults of the evil one. We who seek to have the same attitude as Jesus find we fall and fail so very often, yet we have the same attitude as Jesus through the new life within us, and this is the bent and heart attitude of our minds and hearts.

To have the same attitude as Jesus is to have the desire and purpose to live as Jesus lived to the glory and praise of God.

If we have this same attitude as Jesus then Peter tells us that is proof that we have done with sin. What does this mean?

This cannot mean that we cease to sin, because it is the sad experience of all Christ's people, as Paul expresses in Romans 7: 18-20 where he says 'For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.'

It is a fact that every true believer empathises with this experience and declaration of the apostle Paul, but we need to notice what Paul is declaring here, which we also know to be true in our lives. Paul talks about his desire to be good. He also tells us he does what he does not want to do, that is these wrong things he does. He goes on to the conclusion that his wrong doing and sins is not him that does it, but sin living in him which causes this sin.

This seems so contradictory, but the true born again believer finds this experience to be true, and this helps us to understand what Peter says in verse 1 of chapter 4 of his first letter, where he says that when we know we experience the suffering in our bodies for living as disciples of Jesus, this expresses the truth that we have done with sin.

What Peter is expressing is the fact that no one suffers in their body because they are seeking to have the same attitude as Jesus if they are still living for the world. We live for Jesus and our ready to suffer in our earthly life as we follow him and live for him because of the great change that God has worked in us by his Spirit in new birth and new creation. Paul express this also in Romans 6 where he tells us we are unity to Christ by the supernatural faith that has been granted to us by grace, and in the union with Jesus we died when he died on the cross, and rose again to new life when he rose from the dead. This death with Jesus when he died means that the old adamic person we were born with when we were born into this world, and born spiritually dead and with a corrupt nature and under the wrath of God, died with Jesus when he died on the cross, where Jesus suffered all the wrath of God on that adamic person in our place. In this sense we have done with sin, for that adamic person is dead forever. But we do not just have union with Jesus in his death but also in his resurrection, and a new holy person, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4: 23), has been raised to this new life. This is not an experience but a reality. We have been translated from Satan's kingdom and born anew in the Kingdom of heaven and of God. We are raised to newness of life in a new heavenly realm, and made to sit in heavenly places (Ephesians 2: 6). This is that fact concerning all truly redeemed and saved persons. This is something we must reckon as true of us and ours by faith.

The trouble is that this new holy person, while still living this earthly life, is expressed through this earthly body, which still waits for resurrection and glorification, and in this earthly body their remains the old nature, the flesh, which is as sinful as it has always been, and this sinful nature is worked on by Satan in all manner of temptations and trials, and this is what causes the saint to continue doing wrong. But in the doing of wrong the new holy person we are living in the heavenly places hates this wrong because in our new person we have done with sin. It is impossible for the true believer to sin that grace may abound, because we hate sin and hate doing things which our Saviour hates and died to save us from.

The apostle Peter goes on in verse two to express the glorious truth which is the abiding reality of the new person we are who has done with sin.

Verse 2 commences with the statement 'as a result'. Because of this glorious fact that we have been raised to newness of life and have been translated into the kingdom of God, and been created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness, we do not live the rest of our earthly lives for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. This new life we have been raised to can do no other. Not to live for the will of God is alien and an abomination to us. This is why with Paul we say that when we do fall into sin, however small, we say it is not us that sins, but sin that dwells within us. In our new self we hate this wrong, and this means that when Satan overcomes us by his working on our sinful nature, we grieve and are unable to rest until we have repented and had a fresh washing in the precious blood of Jesus.