Peter has addressed how Christians are to relate and submit to authorities, specifically government, and slaves to their masters. In this there might arise unjust suffering for doing good, and we were called to this because Christ suffered for us as an example to follow. Then he shares that example:
23 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.
We try to imagine what Jesus endured, but it’s not really possible. It wasn’t just that he was beaten and jeered and called who knows what, but all of Satan’s bile was poured out on him. He endured spiritual rage which we cannot fathom. As one who was guiltless and completely innocent, Jesus endured it for us, for the love of his people. Seven hundred years before this happened Isaiah predicted it would happen just the way it did:
7 He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
If anyone could justify retaliation it was Jesus because it was those insulting him who were guilty and ought to have been punished, dying for their own sins. Yet the guilty punished the guiltless, and Jesus from the cross even asked the Father to forgive them because they didn’t have any idea what they were doing. Jesus could do this because his life was pure obedience to God the Father, and that in our place. He lived the life we should have lived, and gave us that life in his death. That becomes Peter’s argument, understanding our salvation, our guilt for his righteousness, is how we can also entrust ourselves “to him who judges justly.” Some very heavy theology gives us the ability to do some very heavy lifting when we endure any kind of suffering from others, intended or not:
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.
What’s amazing about Peter’s take on Jesus’ suffering and death is that it is steeped in imagery from Isaiah 53, and prior to the resurrection there wasn’t a Jew on earth who could have imagined interpreting that passage in Isaiah as applying to the coming Messiah. Such a thing was inconceivable to Jews, yet not long after Jesus’ death, these Jews were proclaiming something no Jew could have invented. That’s one, of many, powerful reasons we know the resurrection was an historical fact and witnessed by these same Jews. What was even more odious to Jews (as well as pagans) was that this proclaimed Messiah was hung on a tree, proof he was under God’s curse. What Jew at the time could ever make up a story about the Messiah being cursed of God? We don’t make up what we cannot comprehend. The long awaited (400 years!) Messiah was to be in the mold of a conquering Davidic king, not some common criminal killed as a slave on a Roman cross. That would have been impossible to conceived for a Jew, let alone invent and make up a new religion over it.
Yet from the very beginning Jesus was proclaimed as a sin bearer, our sins “in his body” on that cross. What does that even mean! Makes it kind of personal, doesn’t it. This is why I am convinced Jesus died for specific people, his people, including you and me, each of us by name. If he “bore our sins in his body on the cross,” he could not have been died and bore sins potentially for the mass of humanity. Yet most Christians believe he only paid for the sins of those who would eventually choose to believe in him. Everyone else will pay the price for their own sins. It can’t work that way. Jesus couldn’t bear potential sins in his body; he bore our sins, his people’s sins, those who are God’s elect, their sins. It amazes me that so many Christians have a problem with this truth, but the text will allow for no other interpretation, this and many others.
Because Jesus died for actual sins of actual, specific people, they, we, can “die to sins and live for righteousness.” That is not only possible it is reality. The transformation of God’s people comes from the transformation of our relationship to God, as I call it, a radical relational reversal, death to life, enemy to child, hate to love, enmity to affection, blindness to light. The entire orientation of our lives has been changed, from self to God, now living for him and not ourselves. This is far more than doing or not doing different things, being more moral. To “live for” something is to be passionate about it, smitten by it, to want it, bad. It doesn’t mean we always get it, but that becomes the direction and purpose of our existence. And we can because, in a direct quote from Isaiah 53, “by his wounds you have been healed.” We are no longer sick! Our spiritual malady is gone, done, over. Now we just need to act like it! And more Isaiah 53:
25 For “you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
This is who we are! Even though we had turned to our own way, no longer, now we have returned to him, our maker, our Redeemer, our friend, our Lord and God. As “they” say, as different as night an day, our souls now belong to him.
My Walk Through The Bible 
Mike, Thanks for putting in the time and effort to expose the reality of Christ’s exchange of His life for ours. What an amazing truth. Don
Indeed! Thanks, Don.