who himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, in order that, being dead to sins, we may live to righteousness by whose stripes ye have been healed.
Read Full Chapter →Commentary for this Verse
Peter has been holding up Christ as the pattern for believers who suffer for doing right. Then the argument turns: at the cross He did what no follower can copy, and two questions follow — when did He bear our sins, and what is the healing He bought?
Where the Example Stops
The verse marks a break in Peter's flow. Until now Peter has held up Christ as a model of patience. Here the subject changes to something we can only receive. Everything at the cross falls on one side: the sins were ours, the judgment was His.
William KellyAt this point the apostle turns from the more general reference to the Lord's sufferings for us, the peerless example of unrepining love and unswerving yet patient righteousness in a world of evil, to that which stands alone from all before and after in the expiation of our sins, here expressed in terms of extreme simplicity. In atonement Christ had no companions and no followers.
The Bible TreasuryAs a believer I had nothing to do with the judgment of my sin on the cross, or with the bearing of my sins there. God's only Son was there alone for me. "For our sake He made Him to be sin," not us with Him; "He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree," not we bore our sins with Him... His alone was the judgment, just as surely as the sin and sins were ours alone.
In His Own Body, On the Tree
The words "in His body on the tree" fix both the place and the moment. Writers insist that this was not a burden carried through His lifetime.
F. B. HoleHe bore our sins in His own body. He was definitely our Substitute. We had sinned in our bodies. He became a true Man, without sin, and He bore our sins in His holy body as a sacrifice for sin. He did this on the tree, for He made atonement only in His death. He did not bear our sins during His life, but in His death.
Some have said He carried our sins through His whole life. Kelly answers from what happened at the cross. The darkness and the cry of abandonment could not fit a life of unbroken closeness to God.
William KellyWhat did that supernatural darkness mean, which covered the cross in broad daylight from a certain point on? And what did the cry mean, from One who had always said "Father" in the full enjoyment of His love, but now cried "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"... His suffering for our guilt, and God's face shining at the same time! If He had been bearing our sins all His life, God must have abandoned Him all His life, for God cannot make the least allowance for sin.
The Curse Behind the Tree
Peter's word "tree" carries the idea of a curse. One writer warns against treating the visible scene as the whole of it.
Frederick W. GrantFirst, and this should be obvious though some miss it, the hanging on the tree is not itself the curse. It only marks out the one on whom the curse falls. The curse itself is not something outside a person. It is a deep reality in the soul of the one who bears it. This was the wrath against sin that Christ bore for us: God forsaking Him. If He had not borne it, no blessing could ever have come to anyone.
The Purpose: A Life That Answers the Death
The sentence does not stop at forgiveness. Peter names an aim, and it is a practical one. Older translations read "dead to sins" in the plural here, and the writer below builds on that reading.
William KellyThe practical aim suited Peter's earnestness: "that, being dead to sins, we should live to righteousness."... Here, as in 1 Peter 2:24, Peter urges death to sins as a practical reality. This is not the Christian privilege of having died with Christ to sin. It is the duty that flows from His death: that we should no longer serve sin, but live righteous lives after Christ's example.
The cost of the cross becomes the argument against going back.
Hamilton SmithChrist has borne our sins in His own body on the tree. He did this not only so that God would count us righteous and save us from the judgment of sins, but so that we should live to righteousness. His wounds have healed us — can we go on with sin that cost Him so much to remove?
The Healing of His Wounds
The closing phrase speaks of healing. One writer names the sickness it cures as sin itself.
Leslie M. GrantThis is not healing of the body, but healing from the dreadful disease of sin. Those wounds are the wounds of God's judgment, poured out on Him at Calvary.
The image is a lowly one — the mark a lash leaves — and that is where the comfort lies.
William KellyA strange contrast, but no less wonderfully true! The word means the welt or swelling left by the lash, which many a slave knew well. How comforting to the Christian, slave or not, who rests with assurance... on what God did for the ungodly through the shameful yet glorious death of His Son!
Summary
- Alone — Christ bore our sins alone: the sins were ours, the judgment was His. The example ends where the atonement begins.
- Body — He bore them in His own body, as our Substitute, and only in His death — not through His life.
- Tree — Hanging on the tree marked the One on whom the curse fell; the curse itself was the forsaking He endured within.
- Purpose — The aim was not forgiveness alone but a life done with sins and given to righteousness.
- Healed — The wounds of the lash cure the disease of sin. So why return to what cost Him so much?