COV LIFE BLOG

1 Peter 3:18-22 – Christ Suffered Once For All For You

[Our Father] disciplines us not to teach us how far we have to go to earn the right to be his children, but because we are his children. In his discipline, he is not making us pay the penalty for our sins, but delivering us from the sins for which Christ has already paid the penalty. His discipline, therefore, is never the result of his rejection, but the fruit of his acceptance. Since our penalty was fully and completely paid by Jesus on the cross, it needn’t be paid by us ever again!

Think with me for a moment. It is only when you understand the completeness of your justification (that your penalty has been paid and you have been made eternally right with God by the life and death of Jesus) that you are able to rest in the ongoing discipline of your sanctification. That discipline is not to make you right with God, but an expression of the fact that you have been made right with God, and because you have, you are now the object of his fatherly love. You can expect his discipline, but you do not have to fear his anger. You will experience his correction, but you will never face his rejection. He disciplines all his children in order to produce a harvest of righteousness, but he will never punish you for your sin. “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit” (1 Peter 3:18) Amen and amen!

Paul Tripp

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SCRIPTURES FOR THIS SUNDAY
Read 1 Peter 3:18-22 and consider the marvelous fact that Christ has suffered once for all for your sins. How does this affect how you face suffering in light of Christ’s suffering on your behalf?

SONG FOR THIS WEEK
Praise the King by Corey Voss