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, realizing 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 realize 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 toward
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 realizes 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 toward 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 done to us when conscious that
it is for good which we have done, not for ill; and for this the blessed Lord is brought before us
as a model. Whenever a rebellious thought or feeling would rise within our breast, let us think of
Him. Perfection was with Him "Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth; who, when
He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not; but committed Himself
to Him that judgeth 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 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 realize that there was also the suffering in which we could have no part, except that our sins

made those sufferings necessary- "Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree"
(verse 24). 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 (Chapter
3:16-18). We live in a world where men slander 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. "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring
us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit" (verse 18). 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.

"Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same
mind:for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; that he no longer should live the
rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God" (Chapter 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 took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses" (Matt. 8:17). 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 toward 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 armor 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, but 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 (Chapter
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 dishonor 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 "when His glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with
exceeding joy" (Chapter 4:13). 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 carry thee whither thou wouldest not" (John 21:18).
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, it was a way that Peter could rejoice in,

and a way that we can rejoice in through 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 Christ,
and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed" (Chapter 5:1). 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 Chapter 1, then, we are introduced to a Christ who suffered; in Chapter 2, we see that if we
have to suffer unjustly, Christ is our model; in Chapter 3, if we have to suffer for well-doing,
Christ went much further, suffering for sins and for sinners; in Chapter 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 Chapter 4:13, if we are
called upon to pass through persecution, it is to share in the martyr sufferings of Christ; in Chapter
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 hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus,
after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. To Hun be
glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen."

(From An Outline of Sound Words, Number 25.)