SUFFERING IN THE FLESH

SUFFERING IN THE FLESH

As to your question about 1 Peter 4: 1, I think you must read from verse 18 of chapter 3 to understand chapter 4: 1. Christ has suffered for sins. He was put to death in flesh. We should not suffer for sins. We should be here (as the ark typified) always under cover of the death of Christ, of which baptism is the figure. Christ then having suffered for sins, do you “arm yourselves likewise with the same mind; for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin”. Here it is actual sins, in Romans 6 it is sin — the principle of sin. In the latter you by the Spirit reckon yourself to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God in Jesus Christ. Here it is that you do not commit sins. Christ has suffered for them. If you by the Spirit arm yourself with the same mind, that is, that Christ having suffered, being put to death in flesh, you suffer in the flesh, and you cease from sin. If you see anything that is not yours, and if you wish for it, you commit sin; but if ^[p. 95] you refuse the wish and do not take it you suffer in the flesh, and the sin is done with. If you were walking in the Spirit you would mortify the deeds of the body, and you would not desire anything which did not belong to you, but if you do desire it, if sin works, if you suffer in the flesh in not gratifying it, you are done with the sin.

I hope I have made 1 Peter 4: 1 plain to you. I always connect it with Marah (Exodus 15), the tree that was put into the bitter water — the cross, really Christ’s death, makes it sweet to me. The fact that Christ died for my self-gratification makes suffering in the flesh (refusing to gratify myself) sweet to me.