1 Peter 2:24 “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”
Peter continues to quote from Isaiah 53 in order to encourage his readers, especially slaves, to face their suffering because they know they have eternal life. Because we know that the penalty of our sins has been removed, we should not fear death. This verse turns to a key thought in Christian theology: the historical fact of Jesus’ death. Jesus is not a myth. We cannot focus only on the story of the Christ. We must keep in mind that Jesus was a real person who died on a Roman cross. By his death he took our sins upon himself. He died in our behalf as a substitute. This perspective of the atonement finds strong support in this verse and is undeniable. Why did Jesus need to die on the cross? We need to understand Old Testament theology to answer this question. Sin produces death. Death is the result of sin. The penalty for disobeying God’s laws is death. In the Old Testament, an animal’s life was paid for this penalty, but it was only a temporary fix that had to be redone every year. Jesus came as the perfect sacrifice as one who never committed a sin. His death once for all took care of the penalty of all people.
The result of Jesus’ death is that we now have freedom to live for righteousness. We are able to be holy as God commands. This is a deep healing of our souls which leads to a new way of thinking and acting. The deepest form of healing we need is in our souls, our inner persons. We can look to Jesus for this healing.
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