By his wounds you have been healed

1 Peter 2:24. He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, Peter writes, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness. Then he borrows a line from Isaiah 53 that has been loved for centuries: by his wounds you have been healed.

Peter is not writing theology for its own sake here. The verse comes in the middle of practical instruction to servants who were suffering under harsh masters. He tells them that Christ suffered too, and then he explains what that suffering accomplished. It was not merely an example. It bore something. Our sins were carried in his body.

Sunday is a good day to hear that plainly. Whatever you carry into the service this morning, the weight of it was carried first by someone else, up a hill, on a piece of wood. The healing Peter speaks of is not a feeling. It is a fact, purchased, finished, and offered.