The previous two weeks in 1 Peter 2:18-25 we’ve looked at how God advances the gospel through unjust suffering.

Jesus Christ is not only the greatest example of this, but his substitutionary death is our only hope.

“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live for righteousness.”

1 Peter 2:24

We also mentioned two people in the modern era who’ve modeled proper responses to unjust suffering:

• An African-American Baptist minister named Martin Luther King, Jr., and 
• A White Anglican British politician named William Wilberforce. 

In his famous Letter from A Birmingham Jail (16 April 1963), Dr. King wrote:

Though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label.

Was not Jesus an extremist for love: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.”

Was not Amos an extremist for justice: “Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream.”

Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel: “I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.”

Was not Martin Luther an extremist: “Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God.”

And John Bunyan: “I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience.”

And Abraham Lincoln: “This nation cannot survive half slave and half free.”

And Thomas Jefferson: “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal …”

So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice?

In that dramatic scene on Calvary’s hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime—the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their environment. The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment. Perhaps the South, the nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.

You can learn more about William Wilberforce in this…

• Documentary: The Better Hour: The Legacy of William Wilberforce
• Book (by Eric Metaxas): Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery 
• Film (starring Ioan Gruffudd): Amazing Grace

Sunday we looked at 1 Peter 1:3-5 where God holds out a sovereign and living hope for his people, espeically his people who are in despair. 

To help us see how to rest and believe in our living hope, we referenced an account from John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress. 

Christian and Hopeful are locked in a dark dungeon, deep in the heart of Doubting Castle. Giant Despair rules over Doubting Castle, and he’s been railing on them trying to persuade them that suicide is their only escape from despair.

After several days of depression and deprivation, a way of escape dawns on Christian.

Now a little before it was day, good Christian, as one half amazed, brake out in passionate speech:

“What a fool am I thus to lie in a stinking Dungeon, when I may as well walk at liberty. I have a Key in my bosom called Promise, that will, I am persuaded, open any Lock in Doubting Castle.”

Then said Hopeful, “That’s Good News; good Brother pluck it out of thy bosom and try.”

Then Christian pulled it out of his bosom, and began to try at the Dungeon door, whose bolt (as he turned the Key) gave back, and the door flew open with ease, and Christian and Hopeful both came out.

Then he went to the outward door that leads into the Castle-yard, and with his Key opened that door also. After he went to the iron Gate, for that must be opened too, but that Lock went damnable hard, yet the Key did open it.

Then they thrust open the gate to make their escape with speed. And so were safe. 

On Sunday we looked at the overall message of 1 Peter. Standing firm in our gracious suffering is one of the key elements in Peter’s message (cf. 1 Peter 2:21-25).

We referenced that there may be no greater example of what 1 Peter 2:21-23 looks like in the history of modern America than in the actions and words of the Baptist minister, Dr. Martin Luther King.

We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We shall meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will, and we shall continue to love you. Throw us in jail and we shall still love you. Bomb our homes and threaten our children, and we shall still love you. Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our community at the midnight hour and beat us and leave us half dead, and we shall still love you. But be ye assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer. One day we shall win freedom but not only for ourselves. We shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process and our victory will be a double victory.

-The Words of Martin Luther King, Jr.  Selected by Corretta Scott King

Such actions point us to Jesus Christ himself who wins our hearts

• By enduring our rebellion, rather than retaliating against it, and 
• By taking our sins on himself, rather than throwing our sins back in our face. 

He has worn us down by his capacity to suffer for us. 

By his wounds we have been healed. 

Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Acceptance

• Religion: “I obey; therefore, I’m accepted.”
• Gospel: “I’m accepted; therefore, I obey.”

Motivation

• Religion: Motivation is based on fear and insecurity.
• Gospel: Motivation is based on grateful joy.

Obedience

• Religion: I obey God in order to get things from God.
• Gospel: I obey God to get God – to delight in an resemble him.

Circumstances

• Religion: When circumstances in my life go wrong, I am angry at God or myself, since I believe that anyone who is good deserves a comfortable life.
• Gospel: When circumstances in my life go wrong, I struggle, but I know my punishment fell on Jesus and that while God may allow this for my training, he will exercise his Fatherly love within my trial.

Criticism

• Religion: When I am criticized, I am furious or devastated because it is critical that I think of myself as a “good person.” Threats to self-image must be destroyed at all costs.
• Gospel: When I am criticized, I struggle, but it is not essential for me to think of myself as a “good person.” My identity is not built on my record or my performance but on God’s love for me in Christ.

Prayer

• Religion: My prayer life consists largely of petition, and it only heats up when I am in a time of need. My main purpose in prayer is control of the environment.
• Gospel: My prayer life consists of generous stretches of praise and adoration. My main purpose is fellowship with God.

Confidence

• Religion: My self-view swings between two poles. If and when I am living up to my standards, I feel confident, but then I am prone to be proud and unsympathetic to failing people. If and when I am not living up to standards, I feel humble but not confident – I feel like a failure.
• Gospel: My self-view is not based on my moral achievement. In Christ I am simul iustus et peccator – simultaneously sinful and lost, yet accepted in Christ. I am so bad that he had to die for me, and I am so loved that he was glad to die for me. This leads me to deep humility and confidence at the same time.

Identity

• Religion: My identity and self-worth are based mainly on how hard I work, or how moral I am – and so I must look down on those I perceive as lazy or immoral.
• Gospel: My identity and self worth are centered on the one who died for me. I am saved by sheer grace and I can’t look down on those who believe or practices something different from me. Only by grace am I what I am.

(via Stephen Thomas Burch)