It wasn’t long after I came over to Jesus’s side that I discovered that not all Christians think alike. The larger church is divided into smaller camps. At college, I began to learn more about these camps. There were of course the Catholics. From the snatches I heard said about Catholics, I assumed that few (if any) were Christians in any meaningful sense. There were also the liberals, who were really only humanists (that was the derision de jour at the time) in Christian’s clothing. And then there was “us,” the real Christians.

But even among us, there were camps. There were the Calvinists (who weren’t any fun), the fundamentalists (who didn’t want anyone to have any fun), and the Pentecostals (who were having all the fun, speaking in tongues and getting slain in the Spirit).

Somehow, I learned these things without ever talking to a Catholic, a liberal, or a Pentecostal. In the years since, I’ve spoken to all these folks and many at length. I’ve learned that talking about people reinforces stereotypes while talking to people tears them down.

Even after the stereotypes are gone, differences remain. My answer, the Catholic’s answer, and the mainline church member’s answer are not all the same. That’s alright. Neither I, the Catholic, or the mainline church member are saved by having the right answers. If we’re saved at all, it’s because the Answerer has us – Jesus who died for us and rose again.

One continuing difference between conservative Christians and liberal ones is more a difference of emphasis than anything else. When liberals speak of Jesus, they are more likely to speak of his example than are conservatives. Conservatives are more likely to speak of Jesus’s saving death than are liberals. Most liberals believe that Jesus is our savior and most conservatives believe that Jesus is our example, but there are people within these movements who completely ignore one or the other.

Because that is true, when conservatives hear a liberal talking about Jesus’s example, they can jump to the conclusion that she thinks that Jesus wasn’t the son of God, that eternity doesn’t matter, and that the world will be saved by just laws and not by Jesus’s death and resurrection.

And because there are conservatives who belittle Jesus’s example (I’m thinking now of a well-known evangelical leader of about 30 years ago who said, “If Christ is an example, nobody needs him; but if he’s a sacrifice, everyone does”[1]), liberal Christians think that conservatives only care about getting to heaven when they die. If the earth falls apart in the meantime, so what?

So, is Jesus our example or is Jesus our savior? According to St. Peter – who ought to know – he is both, and more! Let’s read our text, 1 Peter 2:21-25, and see for ourselves.

To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

I learned to play guitar about 30 years ago. I started on a borrowed children’s guitar, then a borrowed nylon-string guitar, and finally bought an $85 beast of a guitar I picked up at a garage sale. I taught myself chord shapes from a book (this was in the days before YouTube), picked up a finger-picking technique from by brother-in-law, and a friend taught me to play one three-chord chorus. Other than that, I taught myself.

I wrote a song within six months of learning to play. And then another, and another. But I never really played with people. 99% of my playing time has been spent alone. And the result, after 30 years of playing guitar, is that I’m not very good at it. I really needed an example.

I don’t understand the man who said, “If Christ is an example, nobody needs him.” What does he mean by “needs him”? If he means that people don’t need his example to live rich, fruitful, loving, purposeful, God-honoring lives, I am sure he is wrong.

There are of course people – even some who identify as Christians – who think we don’t need Jesus as a savior. If by that they mean that just laws and economic policies will transform the world into a utopia where people never die but live forever, free of sin and saved from every evil, I am sure they are wrong.

We need a savior, and we need an example. Let’s expand on my guitar illustration. Imagine some poor teenager, living in the Kara-Kum desert. He doesn’t even know what a guitar is; and even if he did, he could never afford one; and, even if he could, there are no guitars to buy. The only way he will ever play is if someone gives him a guitar – some musical savior.

And let’s say that happens. Someone from far away comes to Kara-Kum and gives our teenager a guitar. But what is he going to do with it? He has never seen anyone play a guitar. He has no idea of notes and triads and suspended fourth chords. He needs an example.

It’s a little like that for us. We could not live the eternal kind of life because we didn’t have it and had no way of getting it. But someone came from far away to give us this life, and had to sacrifice his own to do it. That someone is Jesus. He is our savior. Without him, the eternal kind of life would be eternally out of reach, but we are not without him.

We who have believed in Jesus have received the eternal kind of life. Now we need an example; otherwise, we won’t know what to do with it. Jesus shows us how to live this life, by his example in Scripture and by his Spirit in us. Without the life he died to give us, his example would have little meaning—like showing chord charts to a teenager who has never seen a guitar. But without his example, that life would have little consequence, like a guitar in the hands of someone who doesn’t know what to do with it.

Peter clearly sees that Jesus is our example (verse 21): “Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.” When Peter wrote, “Christ suffered,” he knew what he was talking about. He had seen Christ suffer, not just on the cross, but during the years that led up to it. Peter had seen him “endure opposition from sinners” (Hebrews 12:3) – from people who hated him, told lies about him, tried to manipulate him, and on and on.

The word translated “example” (ὑπογραμμὸν in Greek) comes from the schoolrooms of the ancient world. When a child was learning to read and write, he would follow the lines of the large letters (the ὑπογραμμὸi) at the top of the “page” until he had learned how make his own letters. Peter wants us to follow Jesus, follow his lines, “follow in his steps.”

That raises the question: Do you know enough about Jesus to do that? For example, do you know what he did when people tried to manipulate him so that you will know what to do when they try to manipulate you? Do you know what steps he took when life was so busy that he didn’t have time to sit down and eat a meal? What about when his brothers mocked him? What steps did he take when he began to succeed, and his popularity grew? You need to know what path he took if we are going to follow in his steps. If you call yourself a Christian and do not know the life of Jesus, you’ve got some catching up to do. His path is marked out for us in the Bible. Learn it.

He is our example, according to Peter, of how to suffer. Everyone suffers, but most of us don’t know how to do it the Jesus way. We haven’t learned to follow his example.

How did Jesus suffer? First, Peter tells us that he suffered for others – “for you” – not for himself. He did not suffer for the sake of suffering – that would be pathetic – but for the sake of helping. There is nothing meritorious about suffering. Avoid it when you can. But endure it when you must, especially when it is for someone else.

Secondly, Peter tells us that Jesus didn’t suffer (this is verse 22) because he had done wrong or because he got caught in an untruth. “He committed no sin and deceit was not found in his mouth.” He suffered unjustly. Better to suffer unjustly than justly.

Thirdly, Jesus suffered quietly. “When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats” (v. 23).  Jesus didn’t complain. He didn’t lash out. Is that how we suffer?

Today we have very different examples. Politicians and celebrities have made an art form of attacking anyone who speaks against them. They mock, insult, and threaten—and ordinary people (even Christians!) are following their example. We need to decide whose example are we going to follow.

Fourthly, when Jesus suffered (v. 23), he “entrusted himself to him who judges justly.” The word the NIV translates “entrusted” usually has a different meaning. It is the word repeatedly used of Judas “handing” Jesus over to the people who killed him. Judas handed him over to evil men, but Jesus handed himself over to God.

Are you able to do that when people mistreat you? Do you have any idea how Jesus did it? He has given us an example. His story is like one of those letters at the top of the page. Are you learning to follow it?

Jesus knows how to navigate life. How important it is for us to follow his example! But Jesus is not only our example; he is also our savior! Look at verse 24: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.” Thinking about Jesus our Example has taken Peter’s mind to Jesus our Substitute and Savior.

Many Christians seem to think that Jesus’s death is a kind of magic sin eraser. (I’m borrowing language from my son Kevin here.) It’s not that they think about it very deeply. They don’t know how Jesus’s death fits into God’s one great plan to bless humanity. They are unfamiliar with its biblical antecedents. And because they haven’t thought about it, it seems magical.

Peter, however, had thought deeply about it. He had listened to Jesus himself explain it—an explanation that came wrapped in Old Testament language. So, when Peter thought about Jesus’s death, his mind naturally went to the Old Testament, and especially to Isaiah 53, that great chapter where (to borrow again from Kevin) Law and Gospel converge.

Isaiah 53 does not treat the atoning death of God’s servant as a magic sin eraser but as a covenant sacrifice that makes possible a relationship with God. The magic eraser view removes salvation from the context of relationship and slips it into the context of religion (or even superstition), which is disastrous to faith.

When we talk about the context of a relationship with God, we are talking about covenant. God chose to make covenant the entry point to a close and enduring relationship between himself and humans. The idea should be familiar to us, for we also make covenant the entry point to our most enduring and productive human relationship. We call it “the covenant of marriage.”

You will recognize some of the elements of covenant in the marriage ceremony: it contains covenant promises (we call them wedding vows). There are covenant witnesses: usually, but not always, the best man and maid of honor, who sign the marriage license. There is a covenant symbol: we call it a wedding ring – “I give you this ring as a symbol of my vow…” There is a covenant meal: we call it the wedding reception. All these things have their origin in the ancient practice of covenant.

There are notable covenants in the Bible. God entered covenant with Noah and his descendants. He famously struck a covenant with Abraham. At Sinai, the Lord and the people of Israel entered covenant together. Through Jeremiah, God promised to institute a new covenant with people.

Covenant is about relationship and relationship requires sacrifice. In Bible times, every covenant was instituted with a sacrifice. The blood of the sacrifice was sprinkled on the covenant parties to symbolize their purification from past sins. Later they sat at table together and ate the sacrificed animal; to eat together was in ancient societies a sign of acceptance and fellowship.

Sacrifice is always a part of biblical covenants. In Isaiah 53, from which Peter repeatedly quotes, we read, “The punishment that brought us peace was upon him” (Isaiah 53:5). That is covenant language. Verse 10 says, “the Lord made his life an offering for sin.” More covenant language. Peter likewise speaks of Jesus bearing our sins in his body. More covenant talk.

In earlier covenants, people brought the sacrifice. But in the new covenant, God does. It was the Lord who laid on him the iniquity of us all (Isa. 53:6). Jesus understood that he was the covenant sacrifice, the entry point for a relationship between humans and God. So, on the night he was betrayed, he took the cup and – what did he say? “This cup is the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:20).

Jesus’s death was not a magic eraser. It brought us into relationship with God, with whom we had been separated. Apart from that relationship – what St. Paul calls “peace with God” – there is no salvation. Jesus died, Peter says in chapter 3, “to bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). The Bible never says Jesus died to get us into heaven – as if that were salvation. It says that Jesus died to bring us to God. If we don’t enter a relationship with God, we are not saved, whatever we say we believe.

Once we have been reconciled to God by a savior, we need an example to show us how to live as God’s people. We also need a shepherd who leads guides, protects, and cares for us. We have one (verse 25): “…you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”

Even after we have been saved, even after we have been given an example, we need a shepherd and overseer. We still wander. There are threats to our souls. We need real-time help, correction, direction, and sometimes rebuke. We need a shepherd. In Jesus, we have one—a good one.

Now a word about order. Experiencing Jesus as savior comes first, then comes our experience of Jesus as example and shepherd. Go back to my illustration of the Turkman teen in the Kara-Kum desert. Elon Musk’s Starlink brings internet to the desert and this boy becomes addicted to watching guitar instruction videos. He learns the shape of every chord, memorizes the notes up and down the neck. He watches his favorite guitarist, Billy Strings, on YouTube and tries to imitate his every move. He looks great. The only problem is: he plays on an air guitar. He doesn’t have a real one. It is imaginary.

If we take Jesus for our example but not our savior, our spiritual life will be imaginary. We need the life that a relationship with God brings. When we have it, Jesus’s example becomes priceless.

We can also get things out of order when we want Jesus to be our shepherd but not our example. The testimony of Christians throughout the ages is that they experience the reality of the good shepherd’s guidance, protection, and provision when they are trying to follow his example. If they ignore his example – live like people who are not in relationship with God – they probably won’t experience, or realize they have experienced, his guidance, provision, correction, and protection.

Next Sunday, we will remember and affirm our covenant at the Lord’s Table, the Communion meal. Before you do that, would you ask yourself three questions? Ask yourself: Have I entered into a relationship with God through Jesus so that he is my savior? Am I actively trying to follow his example? Am I experiencing his correction, guidance, provision, and protection?

If the answer to any of these is no or is “I don’t know,” and you would like to change that, please talk with me. Then follow up by finding someone who is living this kind of life and ask them how they do it. Decide right now that you are going to do that. And if I can be of help, please talk to me.

Blessing/Sending (1 Peter 2; Matthew 16 & 28)

Christ has left an example for us, that we should follow in His steps. So, let us take up our crosses and follow Jesus. He is worthy of our trust and obedience, and He is with us always

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[1] Fred Smith, Leadership, Vol. 4, no.3.