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1 Peter 2:21-23

(21) For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: (22) Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: (23) Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:
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The world will not submit to God, which is why the world is in the state that it is! Rather than submit to God, men seek to gratify – or satisfy – their desires. The pattern began early, when Helel (commonly mistranslated as “Lucifer“) did it, resulting in war with God! Then came Adam and Eve, who also did not submit to God. God said, “You may eat of all of the trees in the Garden” – there may have been hundreds of them – “but there is that one there of which I do not want you to eat.” Instead, they followed their own desire, taking from the very tree God said not to eat. This, of course, brought them into conflict with God!

The Christian is called to suppress his lusts. It is not wrong to have desire, but it is wrong not to suppress the lust that can lead a person to exceed his own authority and therefore bring himself into a state of disobedience or non-submission to the authority that God permits in this world.

So to this we were called. We are to be among the first harvest, which will include all of those people, beginning with righteous Abel, who submitted to God rather than man. They did what they did for the same reason that we will do what we will do – we all see God ruling His creation and know that our first priority in life is to submit to Him!

Jesus Christ, Peter says, committed Himself to Him who judges righteously. Jesus knew that Pilate was wrong. He knew that Ananias was wrong and that all the Sanhedrin was wrong. But He submitted to death and to the authority that was constituted by God in those men. He knew there would be a judgment. Those men will be judged for what they did by the very God that Christ, by faith, submitted to. He let God make the decision as to whether He was doing what was right or whether Ananias and Pilate were doing what was right. He did not resist the government, but allowed them to take His life. The resurrection proves that Jesus was right. The resurrection shows God’s judgment because He vindicated His Son.

I hope we get the point: God will vindicate us by a resurrection because we submit to Him and to His way even though we may be caught in the evil of abusive people in positions of power – whether husband, employer, local police, or national government.

— John W. Ritenbaugh

To learn more, see:
Submitting (Part 2)