… ²⁴and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.

Two great truths come to us in this passage: first, what Christ has done for us, and second, the model we are to follow in our relationship with others. Essentially, what Peter teaches us here is a modification of the so-called golden rule: “Do to others as Christ has done to you.”

Peter shines the spotlight on the event of Jesus’ crucifixion, the ultimate rejection by those causing His suffering. Suffering did not cloud His focus on the purpose for which He came and lived. He “bore our sins,” that is, He carried the full weight of them. A whole book could be written to unpack the depth of what this means, but we might direct our contemplation to Jesus’ response to this weight, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46). What an anguished cry for help!

While theologians wrestle with how Jesus, who was fully divine and fully human, could make such a statement, Peter brings this truth into the context of human suffering. Like Christ, we believers struggle under the weight of the sins and offenses of others against us. Like Christ, we are to die to sins of retaliation, anger, bitterness, gossip, and fear—all of which damage our relationships. In Christ, we are different from people of the world, and we do not use worldly means for handling the difficulties of life (see 2 Cor. 10).

We live “to righteousness,” that is, we focus on what is right. Jesus spoke of loving one’s enemy and turning one’s cheek. Of course, these have their limits, as we see our Lord rebuking the hypocritical religious leaders. He could have called down a legion of angels to thwart His crucifixion, but instead, He went to His death alone, like a lamb to the slaughter. He saw in the cross the righteousness of God, for it would accomplish our salvation (see Heb. 12:2–3). His wounds would spiritually heal our relationship with God.

How do we emulate what Christ did in our lives? Of course, we ourselves cannot redeem anyone from sin for eternal salvation. But in a very profound way, we can bring a form of redemption into our relationships by acting toward others the way Christ acted toward us. When our behavior to mirrors Christ’s experience on the cross, we confront others with the image of Christ in us. When we act like Christ, we transform our experience from something we endure to something we embrace by God’s power. By faith, we see our suffering as an opportunity for the glory of God to shine through us.

Lord, I choose to see my suffering not only as something to endure but as an opportunity to show Christ by bringing redemptive acts into my relationships.