Well, we're going to look at 1 Peter 4, and if I were going to put a title on the whole chapter, I would entitle it, "Past, Present, and Future." Although Peter's continuing interest is to help people to understand their lives between the 'already of their conversion, and the not yet of their home going,' he can't do that without referencing the past and focusing on the future. Let me read just the first two verses of 1 Peter 4.
Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.
I would ask you, again, at street level, where you live every day, what is it that you're living for? Peter only proposes two options here; it's, you're either living your life shaped by human passions, that is your desires and your emotions and your motivation; or for the will of God. And what Peter wants us to understand, and this is hard for some of us, but living a life shaped and directed by God's will, inescapably means a willingness to suffer.
He said, "arm yourself," that means prepare and protect your heart with Christ's thinking. Let's think about what he's talking about there. Jesus knew what His job description was, and He was willing. Let me let me read some verses for you.
He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief... Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted...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. All 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. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; and like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.
That was Jesus' job description; that was a prophecy of Jesus in Isaiah 53. He knew what He was facing, and He was willing. So, Peter says, "If you're going to live for the will of God between the 'already and the not yet' you've got to take on the thinking of Christ."
This humble, determined submission to do the will of God is where the defeat of sin begins in your life. That's what he means in "cease from sin." The more you're committed to do the will of God, the more you're committed not to give way to your passions; and the more you're willing to suffer for doing what is good, the more temptation doesn't have power in your life. It really is true that obedience always begins, hear what I'm about to say, with a submission of your heart to the will of God. Your body will always go where your heart has already gone. And so, the battleground is this battleground of "Am I willing to do what Jesus did?" Jesus said, "I came to do the will of my Father," and no matter what that means, I will do His will.
I don't know about you, but I don't like to suffer. I don't like discomfort of any kind. I don't like to wait in traffic. I don't like people disagreeing with me. I don't like physical pain. And so, if I'm ever going to live this life that is God's plan for me between the 'already and not yet,' I need rescuing, empowering, transforming grace. Because this way of living no longer dictated by my passions, but shaped by the will of God, even if I suffer, is counterintuitive for me. It only ever happens by means of God's grace, and Jesus died so that grace 'right here, right now' would be ours!
