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Synopsis of the Books of the Bible
John Nelson Darby
1800-1882
1 PETER
Introduction & Chapter 1
The First Epistle of Peter is addressed to believers among the dispersed of
Israel found in those provinces of Asia Minor Which are named in the first
verse; the Second Epistle declares itself to be a second addressed to the
same persons: so that the one and the other were destined for the Jews of
Asia Minor (that is, to those among them who had the same precious faith as
the apostle).
The First Epistle is founded on the doctrine of the heavenly calling (I do
not say of the assembly on earth, which is not brought before us here)
in contrast with the portion of the
Jews on the earth. It presents Christians, and in particular Christians
among the Jews, as pilgrims and strangers on earth. The conduct suited to
such is more largely developed than the doctrine. The Lord Jesus, who was
Himself a pilgrim and a stranger here, is presented as a pattern in more
than one aspect. Both epistles pursue the righteous government of God from
the beginning to the consummation of all things, in which the elements melt
with fervent heat, and there are new heavens and a new earth, in which
righteousness dwells. The first gives the government of God in favour of
believers, the second in the judgment of the wicked.
Nevertheless, in presenting the heavenly calling, the apostle necessarily
presents salvation- the deliverance of the soul in contrast with the
temporal deliverance of the Jews.
The following is the description which the Spirit gives of these believers.
They are elect, and that according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.
Israel was a nation elected on the earth by Jehovah. Here, it is those who
were foreknown of the Father. The means by which their election is carried
out is sanctification of the Holy Ghost. They are really set apart by the
power of the Spirit. Israel was set apart by ordinances; but these are
sanctified unto the obedience of Jesus Christ and for the sprinkling of His
blood, that is to say, on the one hand to obey as He obeyed, and on the
other to be sprinkled with His blood and thus to be perfectly clear before
God. Israel had been set apart for the obedience of the law, and for that
blood which, while it announced death as the sanction of its authority,
could never cleanse the soul from sin.
Such was the Christian's position. The apostle wishes them grace and
peace-the known portion of believers. He reminds them of the blessings with
which God had blessed them, blessing God who had bestowed them. Believing
Israelites knew Him now, not in the character of Jehovah, but as the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
That which the apostle presents as the fruit of His grace, is a hope beyond
this world; not the inheritance of Canaan, appropriate to man living on the
earth, which was the hope of Israel, and is still that of the unbelieving
nation. The mercy of God had begotten them again for a living hope by the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from out of the dead. This resurrection shewed
them a portion in another world, and the power which brought man into it,
although he had been subjected to death: he would enter it by resurrection,
through the glorious triumph of the Saviour, to share an inheritance that
is incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away. The apostle is not
speaking of our resurrection with Christ; he views the Christian as a
pilgrim here, encouraged by the triumph of Christ Himself in resurrection,
which animated him by the consciousness that there was a world of light and
happiness before him, and a power which would bring him into this world.
Consequently the inheritance is spoken of as "reserved in heaven.'' In the
Epistle to the Ephesians we are seated in the heavenlies in Christ, and the
inheritance is that of all things of which Christ Himself is heir. But the
Christian is also in fact a pilgrim and a stranger on the earth; and it is
a strong consolation to us, in our pilgrimage, to see this heavenly
inheritance before us, as a certain pledge of our own entrance into it.
Another inestimable consolation is added. If the inheritance is preserved
in heaven for us, we are kept by the power of God all through our
pilgrimage that we may enjoy it at the end. Sweet thought!-we are kept here
below through all our dangers and difficulties; and, on the other hand, the
inheritance there, where there is no defilement or possibility of decay.
But it is by moral means that this power preserves us (and it is in this
way that Peter always speaks), by the operation in us of grace, which fixes
the heart on objects that keep it in connection with God and with His
promise. (Compare 2 Peter i. 4.) We are kept by the power of God through
faith. It is, God be praised, the power of God Himself; but it acts by
sustaining faith in the heart, maintaining it in spite of all temptations
above all the defilement of the world, and filling the affection with
heavenly things. Peter, however, always occupied with the ways of God
respecting this world, only looks at the share that believers will have in
this salvation, this heavenly glory, when it shall be manifested; when God
will, by this glory, establish His authority in blessing on the earth. It
is indeed the heavenly glory, but the heavenly glory manifested as the
means of the establishment of the supreme government of God on earth for
His own glory and for the blessing of the whole world.
It is salvation ready to be revealed in the last times. This word "ready"
is important. Our apostle says also that the judgment is ready to be
revealed, Christ is glorified personally, has conquered all His enemies,
has accomplished redemption. He only waits for one thing, namely, that God
should make His enemies His footstool. He has taken His seat at the right
hand of the Majesty on high, because He has accomplished everything as to
glorifying God where sin was. It is the actual salvation of souls-the
gathering together of His own, which is not yet finished (2 Pet. 3:9 &
15); but when once all they who are to share it are brought in, there is
nothing to wait for as regards the salvation, that is to say, the glory in
which the redeemed will appear; nor consequently as regards the
judgment of the wicked on earth
which will be consummated by the manifestation of Christ. All is
ready. This thought is
sweet for us in our days of patience, but full of solemnity when we reflect
upon the judgment.
Yes, as the apostle says, we rejoice greatly in this salvation, which is
ready to be revealed in the last times. We are waiting for it. It is a time
of rest, of the earth's blessing, of the full manifestation of His glory
who is worthy of it who was humbled and who suffered for us; the time when
the light and the glory of God in Christ will illumine the world and first
bind and then chase away all its evil.
This is our portion: abundant joy in the salvation about to be revealed and
in which we may always rejoice; although, if it be needed for our good we
may be in sorrow through divers temptations. But it is only for a very
little while-only a light affliction which passes away and which only comes
upon us if it be needful in order that the precious trial of faith may have
its result in praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ
for whom we are waiting. That is the end of all our sorrows and trials;
transitory and light as they are in comparison with the vast result of the
excellent and eternal glory towards which they are leading us according to
the wisdom of God and the need ofour souls. The heart attaches itself to
Jesus: He will appear.
We love Him although we have never seen Him. In Him, though now we see Him
not, we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. It is this which
decides and forms the heart, which fixes it and fills it with joy however
it may be with us in this life. To our hearts it is He who fills all the
glory. By grace I shall be glorified, I shall have the glory; but I love
Jesus, my heart pants for His presence-desires to see Him. Moreover we
shall be like Him and He perfectly glorified. The apostle may well say "
unspeakable and full of glory." The heart can desire nothing else: and if
some light afflictions are needful for us we endure them gladly since they
are a means of forming us for the glory. And we can rejoice at the thought
of Christ's appearing; for in receiving Him unseen into our heart we
receive the salvation of our soul. This is the object and the end of faith;
far more precious than the temporal deliverances that Israel enjoyed
although the latter were tokens of the favour of God.
The apostle goes on to develop the three successive steps of the revelation
of this grace of salvation-the full and entire deliverance from the
consequences, the fruits, and the misery of sin: the prophecies; the
testimony of the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; the manifestation of
Jesus Christ Himself when the deliverance that had been already announced
should be fully accomplished.
It is interesting to see here how the rejection of the Messiah according to
Jewish hopes, already anticipated and announced in the prophets,
necessarily made way for a salvation which brought with it that of the soul
likewise. Jesus was no more seen; the earthly portion was not realised by
His first coming; salvation was to be revealed in the last times. But thus
a salvation of the soul was unfolded the whole extent of which would be
realised in the glory about to be revealed; for it was the spiritual joy of
the soul in a heavenly Jesus who was not seen and who in His death had
accomplished expiation for sin and in His resurrection, according to the
power of the life of the Son of God, had begotten again to a living hope.
By faith then this salvation was received-this true deliverance. It was not
yet the (glory and the outward rest; that salvation would indeed take place
when Jesus appeared but meantime the soul already enjoyed by faith this
perfect rest, and in hope even the glory Itself.
Now the prophets had announced the grace of God which was to be
accomplished for believers and which even now imparts to the soul the
enjoyment of that salvation; and they had searched into their own
prophecies which they had received by inspiration from God, seeking to
understand what time, and what manner of time, the Spirit indicated, when
He testified beforehand of the sufferings of Christ, and the glories that
should follow. For the Spirit spoke of them both by the prophets, and
signified consequently more than a temporal deliverance in Israel; for the
Messiah was to suffer. And they discovered that it was not for themselves
nor for their own times, that the Spirit of Christ announced these truths
with regard to the Messiah, but for Christians. But Christians, while
receiving the salvation of the soul by the revelation of a Christ seated in
heaven after His sufferings and coming again in glory, have not received
those glories which were revealed to the prophets. These things have been
reported with great and divine plainness by the Holy Ghost sent down from
heaven after the death of Jesus: but the Spirit does not bestow the glory
itself in which the Lord will appear; He has only declared it. Christians
have therefore to gird up the loins of their mind, to be sober, and hope to
the end for the grace that (in effect) will be brought to them at the
revelation of Jesus Christ; Such are the three successive steps in God's
dealings: the prediction of the events relating to Christ, which went
altogether beyond Jewish blessings; the things reported by the Spirit; the
accomplishment of the things promised when Christ is revealed.
That, then which the apostle presents, is a participation in the glory of
Christ when He shall be revealed; that salvation, of which the prophets had
spoken, which was to be revealed in the last days. But meantime God had
begotten again the believing Jews to a living hope by the resurrection of
Jesus Christ from among the dead; and by means of His sufferings had made
them comprehend that even now, while waiting for the revelation of the
glory, realising it in the Person of Jesus, they enjoyed a salvation of the
soul before which the deliverances of Israel faded away and might be
forgotten. It was indeed the salvation "ready to be revealed" in all its
fullness; but as yet they only possessed it in respect of the soul. But,
being detached from the manifestation of the earthly glory, this salvation
had a yet more spiritual character. Therefore they were to gird up their
loins, while waiting for the revelation of Jesus, and to acknowledge with
thanksgiving that they were in possession of the end of their faith. They
were in relationship with God.
When announcing these things by the ministry of the prophets, God had
Christians in view, and not the prophets themselves. This grace was in due
time to be communicated to believers; but meantime, for faith and for the
soul, the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven bore testimony to it. It was to
be brought at the revelation of Jesus Christ. The resurrection of Jesus
Christ, which was the guarantee of the accomplishment of all the promises
and the power of life for their enjoyment, had begotten them again unto a
living hope; but the right to enjoy the effect of the promise was founded
on another truth. To this the exhortations conduct us. They were to walk as
obedient children, no longer following the lusts that had led them in the
days of their ignorance. Called by Him who is holy, they were to be holy in
all their conversation, as it is written. Moreover, if they called on the
Father, who, regardless of man's pretension to respect, judged according to
every one's work, they were to pass the time of their sojourn here in fear.
Observe, here, that he is not speaking of the final judgment of the soul.
In that sense " the Father judgeth no man, but has committed all judgment
to the Son." The thing spoken of here is the daily judgment of God's
government in this world, exercised with regard to His children.
Accordingly it says, "the time of your sojourn here." It is a judgment
applied to christian life. The fear spoken of is not an uncertainty as to
salvation and redemption. It is a fear founded on the certainty that one is
redeemed; and the immense price, the infinite value of the means employed
for our redemption-namely, the blood of the Lamb, without blemish and
without spot-is the motive for fearing God during our pilgrimage. We have
been redeemed at the cost of the blood of Jesus from our vain conversation:
can we then still walk according to the principles from which we have been
thus delivered? Such a price for our deliverance demands that we should
walk with circumspection and gravity before the Father, with whom we desire
to have intercourse both as privilege and spiritual relationship.
The apostle then applies this truth to the Christians whom he was
addressing. The Lamb had been ordained in the counsels of God before the
world was made; but He was manifested in the last days for believers: and
these are presented in their true character, they believe in God by
Jesus-by this Lamb. It is not by means of the creation that they believe:
although creation is a testimony to His glory, it gives no rest to the
conscience and does not tell of a place in heaven. It is not by means of
providence, which, even while directing all things, yet leaves the
government of God in such profound darkness. Nor is it by means of the
revelation of God on Mount Sinai under the name of Jehovah and the terror
connected with a broken law. It is by means of Jesus, the Lamb of God, that
we believe; observe that it is not said, " in Him," but by Him in God. We
know God as the One who, when we were sinners and dead in our trespasses
and sins, loved us, and gave this precious Saviour to come down even into
the death in which we were, to take part in our position as lying under
this judgment, and die as the Lamb of God. We believe in God who by His
power, when Jesus was there for us-in our stead- raised Him up from the
dead and gave Him glory. It is in a Saviour-God therefore, a God who
exercises His power in our behalf, that we believe by Jesus, so that our
faith and our hope are in God. It does not say in something before God, but
in God Himself Where then shall any cause for fear or distrust arise as
regards God, if our faith and hope are in Himself ? This changes
everything. The aspect in which we view God Himself is entirely changed;
and this change is founded on that which establishes the righteousness of
God in accepting us as cleansed from all sin, the love of God in blessing
us perfectly in Jesus, whom His power has raised from the dead and
glorified-the power according to which He blesses us. Our faith and our
hope are in God Himself.
This places us in the most intimate of relationships with the rest of the
redeemed: objects of the same love, washed by the same precious blood,
redeemed by the same Lamb, they become-to those whose hearts are purified
by the reception of the truth through the Spirit-the objects of a tender
brotherly love, a love unfeigned. They are our brethren. Let us then love
one another fervently with a pure heart. But this is based on another
essentially vital principle. It is a new nature which acts in this
affection. If we are redeemed by the precious blood of the Lamb without
spot, we are born of the incorruptible seed of the word of God, which lives
and abides for ever. For the flesh is but grass, the glory of man as the
flower of grass. The grass withers, its flower falls, but the word of the
Lord abides for ever. This is the word of the gospel which has been
preached unto us. It is an eternal principle of blessing. The believer is
not born after the flesh to enjoy temporary rights and blessings, as was
the case with a Jew, but of an incorruptible seed, a principle of life as
unchangeable as the word of God Himself. The prophet had told them so, when
comforting the people of God; all flesh, the nation itself, was but
withered grass. God was unchangeable, and the word which by its immutable
certainty secured divine blessings to the objects of God's favour, wrought
in the heart to beget a life as immortal and incorruptible as the word
which is its source.
Chapter 2
Thus cleansed therefore and born of the word, they were to put off all
fraud, hypocrisy, envy, slander; and, as new-born babes, to seek for this
milk of the understanding, in order to grow thereby (for the word is the
milk of the child, as it was the seed of its life); and we are to receive
it as babes in all simplicity, if in truth we have felt that the Lord is
good and full of grace. It is not Sinai (where the Lord God declared His
law from the midst of the fire, so that they entreated not to hear His
voice any more), to which I am come, or from which the Lord is speaking. If
I have tasted and understood that the Lord acts in grace, that He is love
towards me, and that His word is the expression of that grace, even as it
communicates life, I shall desire to feed on this milk of the
understanding, which the believer enjoys in proportion to his simplicity;
that good word which announces to me nothing but grace, and the God whom I
need as all grace, full of grace, acting in grace, as revealing Himself to
me in this character-a character which He can never cease to maintain
towards me, making me a partaker of His holiness.
I now know the Lord Himself: I have tasted that which He is. Moreover this
is still in contrast with the legal condition of the Jew, although it is
the fulfillment of that which the Psalms and the prophets had declared (the
resurrection having plainly revealed in addition a heavenly hope). It was
they themselves who were now the spiritual house, the holy priesthood. They
came to the Living Stone, rejected indeed of men, but chosen of God and
precious, and they were built up on Him as living stones. The apostle
delights in this word " living." It was to him the Father had revealed that
Jesus was the Son of the living God. No one else had then confessed Him as
such, and the Lord told him that on this rock (that is, on the Person of
the Son of God in power of life, manifested in the resurrection, which
declared Him to be such) He would build His assembly. Peter, by his faith,
participated in the nature of this living rock. Here then (chap. 2:5) he
extends this character to all believers, and exhibits the holy house built
on the Living Stone, which God Himself had laid as the chief corner-stone
elect and precious. Whosoever believed in Him should not be confounded.
Now, it was not only in
the eyes of God that this stone was precious, but in the eyes of faith
which- feeble as the possessors of it may be-sees as God sees. To
unbelievers this stone was a stone of stumbling and of offence. They
stumbled at the word, being disobedient, to which also they were appointed.
It does not say that they were appointed to sin nor to condemnation, but
these unbelieving and disobedient sinners, the Jewish race-long rebellious,
and continually exalting themselves against God-were destined to find in
the Lord of grace Himself a rock of offence; and to stumble and fall upon
that which was to faith the precious stone of salvation. It was to this
particular fall that their unbelief was destined.
Believers, on the contrary, entered into the enjoyment of the promises made
to Israel, and that in the most excellent way. Grace-and the very
faithfulness of God-had brought the fulfillment of the promise in the
Person of Jesus, the minister of the circumcision for the truth of God to
fulfill the promises made to the fathers. And, although the nation had
rejected Him, God would not deprive of the blessings those who-in spite of
all this difficulty to faith and to the heart-had submitted to the
obedience of faith and attached themselves to Him who was the despised of
the nation. They could not have the blessing of Israel with the nation on
earth, because the nation had rejected Him; but they were brought fully
into the relationship with God of a people accepted of Him. The heavenly
character which the blessing now assumed did not destroy their acceptance
according to the promise; only they entered into it according to grace. For
the nation, as a nation, had lost it; not only long ago by disobedience,
but now by rejecting Him who came in grace to impart to them the effect, of
the promise.
The apostle, therefore, applies the character of " holy nation" to the
elect remnant, investing them in the main with the titles bestowed in
Exodus 19, on condition of obedience, but here in connection with the
Messiah, their enjoyment of these titles being founded on His obedience and
rights acquired by their faith in Him.
But, the privileges of the believing remnant being founded on the Messiah,
the apostle goes farther, and applies to them the declarations of Hosea,
which relate to Israel and Judah when re-established in the fullness of
blessing in the last days, enjoying those relationships with God into which
grace will bring them at that time.
"Ye are," he says, "a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a purchased
people." These are almost the words of Exodus 19. He goes on: "Which in
time past were not a people, but are now the people of God; who formerly
had not obtained mercy, but have now obtained it." These are the words of
Hosea 2. This sets before us, in the most interesting way, the principle on
which the blessing is founded. In Exodus the people were to have this
blessing if they exactly obeyed the voice of God. But Israel had not
obeyed, had been rebellious and stiffnecked, had gone after strange gods,
and rejected the testimony of the Spirit; yet, after their unfaithfulness,
God Himself has laid in Zion a Stone, a chief corner-stone, and whosoever
believed in Him should not be confounded. It is grace that, when Israel had
failed in every respect, and on the ground of obedience had lost
everything, God should bestow on them by Jesus, through grace, that which
was promised them at first on condition of obedience. In this way all was
secured to them.
The question of obedience was settled-on Israel's disobedience-by grace,
and by the obedience of Christ, the foundation laid by God in Zion. But
this principle of grace abounding over sin-by which is shewn the inability
of disobedience to frustrate the purposes of God, for this grace came after
the completion of disobedience-this principle, so glorious and so
comforting to the convinced sinner, is confirmed in a striking way by the
quotation from Hosea. In this passage from the prophet, Israel is
presented, not merely as guilty, but as having already undergone judgment.
God had declared that He would no more have mercy (with regard to His
patience toward the ten tribes); and that Israel was no longer His people
(in His judgment on unfaithful Judah). But afterwards, when the judgment
had been executed, He returns to His irrevocable purposes of grace, and
allures Israel as a forsaken wife, and gives her the valley of Achor-the
valley of trouble, in which Achan was stoned, the first judgment on
unfaithful Israel after their entrance into the promised land-for a door of
hope. For judgment is changed into grace, and God begins all afresh upon a
new principle. It was as though Israel had again come up out of Egypt, but
upon an entirely new principle. He betroths her to Him for ever, in
righteousness, in judgment, in grace, in mercy, and all is blessing. Then
He calls her "Ruhama," or, "the object of mercy," and " Ammi," " my
people."
These, then, are the expressions which the apostle uses, applying them to
the remnant who believed in Jesus, the stumbling-stone to the nation, but
the chief corner-stone from God to the believer. Thus the condition is
taken away, and instead of a condition we have blessing after disobedience,
and after judgment the full and assured grace of God, founded (in its
application to believers) on the Person, the obedience, and the work of
Christ.
It is affecting to see the expression of this grace in the term " Achor."
It was the first judgment on Israel in the land of promise for having
profaned themselves with the forbidden thing. And there it is that hope is
given: so entirely true is it that grace triumphs over justice. And it is
this which has taken place in the most excellent way in Christ. The very
judgment of God becomes in Him the door of hope, the guilt and the judgment
having alike passed away for ever.
Two parts of the christian life-so far as it is the manifestation of
spiritual power-result from this, in the double priesthood; of which the
one answers to the present position of Christ on high, and the other
anticipatively to the manifestation of His glory on earth-the priesthoods
of Aaron, and of Melchisedec. For He is now within the veil according to
the type of Aaron; hereafter He will be a priest on His throne-it will be
the public manifestation of His glory on earth. Thus the saints exercise "
a holy priesthood " (ver. 5) to offer up spiritual sacrifices of praise and
thanksgiving. Sweet privilege of the Christian, thus brought as near as
possible to God ! He offers-sure of being accepted, for it is by Jesus that
he offers them -his sacrifices to God.
This part of the christian life is the first, the most excellent, the most
vital, the source of the other (which is its expression here below); the
most excellent, because, in its exercise, we are in immediate connection
with the divine object of our affections. These spiritual sacrifices are
the reflex, by the action of the Holy Ghost, of the grace which we enjoy;
that which the heart returns to God, moved by the excellent gifts of which
we are the object, and by the love which has given them. The heart (by the
power of the Holy Ghost) reflects all that has been revealed to it in
grace, worshiping the Author and Giver of all according to the knowledge we
have of Himself through this means; the fruits of the heavenly Canaan in
which we participate presented as an offering to God; the entrance of the
soul into the presence of God to praise and adore Him.
This is the holy priesthood, according to the analogy of the priesthood of
Aaron, and of the temple at Jerusalem which God inhabited as His house.
The second priesthood of which the apostle speaks is to shew forth the
virtues of Him who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.
Its description is taken, as we have seen, from Exodus 19. It is a chosen
generation, a holy nation, a royal priesthood. I only allude to the
Melchisedec priesthood to shew the character of a royal priesthood.
Priests, among the Jews, drew near to God. God had formed the people for
Himself: they were to shew forth all His virtues, His praises. Christ will
do this perfectly in the day of His glory. The Christian is called to do it
now in this world. He is to reproduce Christ in this world. It is the
second part of his life.
It will be noticed that the first chapter of this epistle presents the
Christian as animated by hope, but under trial-the precious trial of faith.
The second chapter presents him in his privileges, as of a holy and royal
priesthood, by means of faith.
After this (chap. 2:11), the apostle begins his exhortations. Whatever may
be the privileges of the Christian, in his position as such, he is always
viewed as a pilgrim on the earth; and, as we have seen, the constant
government of God is the object which presents itself to the mind of the
apostle. But he warns them first, with regard to that which is inward,
against those sources from which the corruptions spring, that (in the scene
of this government) would dishonour the name of God and even bring in
judgment.
Their conversation was to be honest among the Gentiles. Christians bore the
name of God. The mind of men, hostile to His name, sought to bring disgrace
upon it, by attributing to Christians the evil conduct which they
themselves followed without remorse, while at the same time complaining
(chap. 4:4) that they would not go with them in the same excesses and
disorder. The Christian had only to follow the path of faithfulness to God.
In the day when God would visit men these calumniators, with their will
broken and their pride subdued by the visitation of God, should be brought
to confess-by means of the good works which, in spite of their calumnies,
had always reached their consciences-that God had acted in these
Christians, that He had been present among them.
After this general exhortation, brief but important to believers, the
apostle takes up the relative walk of Christians in a world where on the
one hand God watches over all, yet where He permits His own to suffer,
whether for righteousness' sake or for the name of Christ, but where they
ought never to suffer for having done wrong. The path then of the Christian
is marked out. He is subject for the Lord's sake to human ordinances or
institutions. He gives honour to all men, and to each in his place, so that
no one shall have any reproach to bring against him. He is submissive to
his masters, even if they are bad men, and yields to their ill-treatment.
Were he subject only to the good and gentle, a worldly slave would do as
much; but if, having done well, he suffers and bears it patiently, this is
acceptable to God, this is grace. It was thus that Christ acted, and to
this we are called. Christ suffered in this way, and never replied by
reproaches or threats to those who molested Him, but committed Himself to
Him that judges righteously. To Him we belong. He had suffered for our
sins, in order that, having been delivered from them, we should live to
God. These Christians from among the Jews had been as sheep going astray;
they were now brought back to the Shepherd
and Bishop of their souls. But how entirely these exhortations, shew that
the Christian is one who is not of this world, but has his own path through
it: yet this path was the way of peace in it !
Likewise wives were to be subject to their husbands in all modesty and
purity, in order that this testimony to the effect of the word by its
fruits might take the place of the word itself, if their husbands would not
listen to it. They were to rest, in patience and meekness, on the
faithfulness of God, and not be alarmed at seeing the power of the
adversaries. (Compare Phil. 1:28)
Husbands were in like manner to dwell with the wife, their affections and
relationships being governed by christian knowledge, and not by any human
passion; honouring the wife, and walking, with her as being heirs together
of the grace of life.
Finally, all were to walk in the spirit of peace and gentleness, carrying
with them, in their intercourse with others, the blessing of which they
were themselves the heirs, the spirit of which they ought consequently to
bear ever with them. By following that which is good, by having the tongue
governed by the fear of the Lord, by avoiding evil and seeking peace, they
would in quietness enjoy the present life under the eye of God. For the
eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and His ears are open to their
prayers; but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. And who,
moreover, would harm them, if they followed only that which is good ?
This, then, is the government of God, the principle on which He
superintends the course of this world. Nevertheless it is not now a direct
and immediate government preventing all wrong. The power of evil still acts
upon the earth; those who are animated by it shew themselves hostile to the
righteous, and act by means of that fear which Satan is able to produce.
But by giving the Lord His place in the soul, this fear which the enemy
excites has no longer a place there. If the heart is conscious of the
presence of God, can that heart tremble at the presence of the enemy ? This
is the secret of boldness and peace in confessing Christ. Then the
instruments of the enemy seek to turn us aside, and to overwhelm us by
their pretensions; but the consciousness of God's presence dissipates those
pretensions, and destroys all their power. Resting on the strength of His
presence, we are ready to answer those who ask the reason of our hope, with
meekness and holy reverence remote from all levity. For all this it is
necessary to have a good conscience. We may carry a bad conscience to God,
that He may pardon and have mercy on us; but if we have a bad conscience,
we cannot resist the enemy- we are afraid of him. On the one hand, we fear
his malice; on the other, we have lost the consciousness of the presence
and the strength of God. When walking before God, we fear nothing; the
heart is free: we have not to think of self, we think of God; and the
adversaries are ashamed of having falsely accused those whose conduct is
unblamable, and against whom nothing can be brought except the calumny of
their enemies, which calumnies turn to their own shame.
It may be that God may see it good that we should suffer. If so, it is
better that we should suffer for well doing than for evil doing. The
apostle gives a touching motive for this: Christ has suffered for sins once
for all; let that suffice; let us suffer only for righteousness. To suffer
for sin was His task; He accomplished it, and that for ever; put to death,
as to His life in the flesh, but quickened according to the power of the
divine Spirit.
The passage that follows has occasioned difficulties to the readers of
scripture; but it appears to me simple, if we perceive the object of the
Spirit of God. The Jews expected a Messiah corporeally present, who should
deliver the nation, and exalt the Jews to the summit of earthly glory. But
He was not present, we know, in that manner, and the believing Jews had to
endure the scorn and the hatred of the unbelieving, on account of their
trust in a Messiah who was not present, and who had wrought no deliverance
for the people. Believers possessed the salvation of their soul, and they
knew Jesus in heaven; but unbelieving men did not care for that. The
apostle therefore cites the case of Noah's testimony. The believing Jews
were few in number, and Christ was theirs only according to the Spirit. By
the power of that Spirit He had been raised up from the dead. It was by the
power of the same Spirit that He had gone-without being corporeally
present-to preach in Noah. The world was disobedient (like the Jews in the
apostle's days), and eight souls only were saved; even as the believers
were now but a little flock. But the spirits of the disobedient were now in
prison, because they did not obey Christ present among them by His Spirit
in Noah. The long-suffering of God waited then, as now, with the Jewish
nation; the result would be the same. It has been so.
This interpretation is confirmed (in preference to that which supposes that
the Spirit of Christ preached in hades to souls which had been confined
there ever since the flood) by the consideration that in Genesis it is
said, " My Spirit shall not always strive. with men but their days shall be
a hundred and twenty years." That is to say, His Spirit should strive, in
the testimony of Noah, during a hundred and twenty years and no longer. Now
it would be an extraordinary thing that with those persons only (for he
speaks only of them) the Lord should strive in testimony after their death.
Moreover, we may observe that, in considering this expression to mean the
Spirit of Christ in Noah, we only use a well-known phrase of Peter's; for
he it is, as we have seen, who said, " The Spirit of Christ which was in
the prophets."
These spirits then are in prison, because they did not hearken to the
Spirit of Christ in Noah. (Compare 2 Pet. 2:5-9.) To this the apostle
adds, the comparison of baptism to the ark of Noah in the deluge. Noah was
saved through the water; we also; for the water of baptism typifies death,
as the deluge, so to speak, was the death of the world. Now Christ has
passed through death and is risen. We enter into death in baptism; but it
is like the ark, because Christ suffered in death for us, and has come out
of it in resurrection, as Noah came out of the deluge, to begin, as it
were, a new life in a resurrection world. Now Christ, having passed through
death, has atoned for sins; and we, by passing through it in spirit, leave
all our sins in it, as Christ did in reality for us; for He was raised up
without the sins which He expiated on the cross. And they were our sins;
and thus, through the resurrection, we have a good conscience. We pass
through death in spirit and in figure by baptism. The peace-giving force of
the thing is the resurrection of Christ, after He had accomplished
expiation; by which resurrection therefore we have a good conscience.
Now this is what the Jews had to learn. The Christ was gone up to heaven,
all powers and principalities being made subject to Him. He is at the right
hand of God. We have therefore not a Messiah on earth, but a good
conscience and a heavenly Christ.
Chapter 4
>From the beginning of this chapter to the end of verse , the apostle
continues to speak of the general principles of God's government,
exhorting, the Christian to act on the principles of Christ Him elf, which
would cause him to avoid the walk condemned by that government, while
waiting for the judgment of the world by the Christ whom he served. Christ
glorified, as we saw at the close of the previous chapter, was ready to
judge; and they who were exasperated against the Christians, and who were
led by their own passions, without caring for the coming judgment, would
have to give account to that Judge whom they refused to own as Saviour.
Here, it will be observed, it is suffering for righteousness' sake (chap
2:19; 3:17) in connection with the government and judgment of God. The
principle was this: they accepted, they followed the Saviour whom the world
and the nation rejected; they walked in His holy footsteps in
righteousness, as pilgrims and strangers, abandoning the corruption that
reigned in the world. Walking in peace and following after good, they
avoided to a certain extent the attacks of others; and the eyes of Him, who
watches from on high over all things, rested upon the righteous.
Nevertheless, in the relations of ordinary life (chap. 2:18), and in their
intercourse with men, they might have to suffer, and to bear flagrant
injustice. Now the time of God's judgment was not yet come. Christ was in
heaven; He had been rejected on the earth, and the Christian's part was to
follow Him. The time of the manifestation of the government of God would be
at the judgment which Christ should execute. Meanwhile His walk on earth
had furnished the pattern of that which the God of judgment approved.
(Chap. 2:21-23, 4:1 and following verses.)
They were to do good, to suffer for it, and to be patient. This is
well-pleasing to God; this is what Christ did. It was better that they
should suffer for doing well, if God saw fit, than for doing ill. Christ
(chap.2:24) had borne our sins, had suffered for our sins, the Just for the
unjust, in order that we, being dead to sins, should live for
righteousness, and in order to bring us unto God Himself. Christ is now on
high; He is ready to judge. When the judgment shall come, the principles of
God's government will be manifested and shall prevail.
The beginning of chapter 4 requires some rather more detailed remarks. The
death of Christ is there applied to practical death unto sins; a state
presented in contrast with the life of the Gentiles.
Christ on the cross (the apostle alludes to verse 18 of the preceding
chapter) suffered in the flesh for us. He died in fact as regards His human
life. We must arm ourselves with the same mind, and allow of no activity of
life or passions according to the will of the old man, but suffer as to the
flesh, never yielding to its will. Sin is the action in us of the will of
the flesh, the will of the man as alive in this world. When this will acts,
the principle of sin is there; for we ought to obey. The will of God ought
to be the spring of our moral life; and so much the more, because now that
we have the knowledge of good and evil-now that the will of the flesh,
unsubject to God, is in us, we must either take the will of God as our only
motive, or act according to the will of the flesh, for the latter is always
present in us.
Christ came to obey, He chose to die, to suffer all things rather than not
obey. He thus died to sin, which never for a moment found an entrance into
His heart. With Him, tempted to the uttermost, death was preferred rather
than disobedience, even when death had the character of wrath against sin
and judgment. Bitter as the cup was, He drank it rather than not fulfill to
the uttermost His Father's will, and glorify Him. Tried to the uttermost
and perfect in it, the temptation which ever assailed Him from without and
sought entrance (for He had none within) was always kept outside; was never
entered into, nor found a movement of His will towards it; drew out
obedience, or the perfection of the divine thoughts in man; and by dying,
by suffering in the flesh, He had done with it all, done with sin for ever,
and entered for ever into rest, after having been tried to the uttermost,
and tempted to all things similarly to us as regards the trial of
faith, the conflict of the spiritual life.
Now it is the same thing with respect to ourselves in daily life. If I
suffer in the flesh, the will of the flesh is assuredly not in action; and
the flesh, in that I suffer, is practically dead-I have nothing more to do
with sins. We then are freed from it, have done with it, and are at
rest.
If we are content to suffer, the will does not act; sin is not there, as to
fact; for to suffer is not will, it is grace acting in accordance with the
image and the mind of Christ in the new man; and we are freed from the
action of the old man. It does not act; we rest from it; we have done with
it, no longer to live, for the remainder of our life here below in the
flesh, according to the lusts of man, but according to the will of God,
which the new man follows.
It is enough to have spent the past time of our lives in doing the will of
the Gentiles (he still speaks to Christians of the circumcision), and in
committing the excesses to which they addicted themselves, while they
wondered at Christians for refusing to do the same; speaking evil of them
for this reason. But they would have to give account to Him, who is ready
to judge the living and the dead.
The Jews were accustomed to the judgment of the living, for they were the
centre of God's government on the earth. The judgment of the dead, with
which we are more familiar, had not been definitely revealed to them. They
were liable nevertheless to this judgment; for it was with this object that
the promises of God were presented to them while living, in order that they
might either live according to God in the spirit, or be judged as men
responsible for what they had done in the flesh. For the one or other of
these results would be produced in every one who heard the promises. Thus,
in regard to the Jews, the judgment of the dead would take place in
connection with the promises that had been set before them. For this
testimony from God placed all who heard it under responsibility, so that
they would be judged as men who had to give account to God of their conduct
in the flesh, unless they came out of this position of life in the flesh by
being quickened through the power of the word addressed to them, applied by
the energy of the Spirit; so that they escaped from the flesh through the
spiritual life which they received.
Now the end of all things was at hand. The apostle, while speaking of the
great principle of responsibility in connection with the testimony of God,
draws the attention of believers to the solemn thought of the end of all
these things on which the flesh rested. This end drew near.
Here, observe, Peter presents, not the coming of the Lord to receive His
own, nor His manifestation with them, but that moment of the solemn
sanction of the ways of God, when every refuge of the flesh shall
disappear, and all the thoughts of man perish forever.
As regards the relations of God with the world in government, the
destruction of Jerusalem, although it was not "the end," was of immense
importance because it destroyed the very seat of that government on the
earth in which the Messiah ought to have reigned, and shall yet reign.
God watches over all things, takes care of His own, counts the hairs of
their heads, makes everything contribute to their highest good, but this is
in the midst of a world which He no longer owns. For not only is, the
earthly and direct government of God set aside, which took place in the
days of Nebuchadnezzar, and, in a certain sense, in those of Saul; but the
Messiah, who ought to reign in it, has been rejected, and has taken the
heavenly place in resurrection which forms the subject of this epistle.
The destruction of Jerusalem (which was to take place in those days) was
the final abolition of even the traces of that government, until the Lord
shall return. The relations of an earthly people with God, on the ground of
man's responsibility, were ended. The general government of God took the
place of the former; a government always the same in principle, but which,
Jesus having suffered on the earth, still allowed His members to suffer
here below. And until the time of judgment, the wicked will persecute the
righteous, and the righteous must have patience. With regard to the nation,
those relations only subsisted till the destruction of Jerusalem; the
unbelieving hopes of the Jews, as a nation, were judicially overthrown. The
apostle speaks here in a general way, and in view of the effect of the
solemn truth of the end of all things, for Christ is still "ready to
judge;" and if there is delay, it is because God wills not the death of the
sinner, and that He prolongs the time of grace.
In view of this end of all that we see, we ought to be sober, and watch in
order to pray. We ought to have the heart thus exercised towards God, who
changes not, who will never pass away, and who preserves us through all the
difficulties and temptations of this passing scene until the day of
deliverance which is coming. Instead of allowing ourselves to be carried
away by present and visible things, we must bridle self and will, and
commune with God.
This leads the apostle to the inner position of Christians, their relations
among themselves, not with God's general government of the world. They
follow because they are Christians, Christ Himself. The first thing that he
enforces on them is fervent charity; not merely long-suffering, which would
prevent any outbreak of the anger of the flesh, but an energy of love,
which by stamping its character on all the ways of Christians towards each
other, would practically set aside the action of the flesh, and make
manifest the divine presence and action.
Now this love covered a multitude of sins. He is not speaking here with a
view to ultimate pardon, but of the present notice which God takes-His
present relations of government with His people; for we have present
relationships with God. If the assembly is at variance, if there is little
love, if the intercourse among Christians is with straightened hearts and
difficult, the existing evil, the mutual wrongs, subsist before God: but if
there is love, which neither commits nor resents any wrongs, but pardons
such things, and only finds in them occasion for its own exercise, it is
then the love which the eye of God rests upon, and not the evil. Even if
there are misdeeds- sins-love occupies itself about them, the offender is
brought back, is restored, by the charity of the assembly; the sins are
removed from the eye of God, they are covered. It is a quotation from the
Book of Proverbs 10:12": Hatred stirreth up strife, but love covereth all
sins." We have a right to forgive them -to wash the feet of our brother.
(Compare James 5:15, and 1 John 5:16.) We not only forgive, but love
maintains the assembly before God according to His own nature so that He
can bless it.
Christians ought to exercise hospitality towards each other with all
liberality. It is the expression of love, and tends much to maintain it: we
are no longer strangers to each other.
Gifts come next after the exercise of grace. All comes from God. As every
one had received the gift, he was to serve in the gift, as a steward of the
varied grace of God. It is God who gives; the Christian is a servant, and
under responsibility as a steward, on God's part. He is to ascribe all to
God, in a direct way to God. If he speaks, he is to speak as an oracle of
God, that is, as speaking on God's part, and not from himself. If any one
serves in things temporal, let him do it as in a power and an ability that
come from God, so that, whether one speaks or serves, God may be glorified
in all things through Jesus Christ. To Him, the apostle adds, be praise and
dominion. Amen.
After these exhortations he comes to suffering for the name of Christ. They
were not to view the fiery persecutions that came to try them, as some
strange thing that had befallen them. On the contrary, they were connected
with a suffering and rejected Christ; they partook therefore in His
sufferings, and were to rejoice in it. He would soon appear, and these
sufferings for His sake should turn to their exceeding joy at the
revelation of His glory. They were therefore to rejoice at sharing His
sufferings, in order to be filled with abounding joy when His glory should
be revealed. If they were reproached for the name of Christ, it was happy
for them. The Spirit of God rested on them. It was the name of Christ that
brought reproach on them. He was in the glory with God; the Spirit, who
came from that glory and that God, filled them with joy in bearing the
reproach. It was Christ who was reproached-Christ who was glorified-
reproached by the enemies of the gospel, while Christians had the joy of
glorifying Him. It will be observed, that in this passage, it is for Christ
Himself (as it has been said) that the believer suffers; and, therefore,
the apostle speaks of glory and joy at the appearing of Jesus Christ, which
he does not mention in chapters 2:20; 3:17. (Compare Matt. 5:10, and ver.
11,12 of the same chapter.)
As an evil-doer then the Christian ought never to suffer; but if he
suffered as a Christian, he was not to be ashamed, but to glorify God for
it. The apostle then returns to the government of God; for these sufferings
of believers had also another character. To the individual who suffered, it
was a glory: he shared the sufferings of Christ, and the Spirit of glory
and of God rested on him; and all this should turn to abounding joy when
the glory was revealed. But God had no pleasure in allowing His people to
suffer. He permitted it; and if Christ had to suffer for us when He who
knew no sin did not need it for Himself, the people of God have often need
on their own account to be exercised with suffering. God uses the wicked,
the enemies of the name of Christ, for this purpose. Job is the book that
explains this, independently of all dispensations. But in every form of
God's dealings, He exercises His judgments according to the order He has
established. He did so with Israel, He does so with the assembly. The
latter has a heavenly portion; and if she attaches herself to the earth,
God allows the enemy to trouble her. Perhaps the individual who suffers is
full of faith and devoted love to the Lord; but, under persecution, the
heart feels that the world is not its rest, that it must have its portion
elsewhere, its strength elsewhere. We are not of the world which persecutes
us. If the faithful servant of God is cut off from this world by
persecution, it strengthens faith, for God is in it; but they from the
midst of whom he is cut off; suffer and feel that the hand of God was in
it: His dealings take the form of judgment, always in perfect love, but in
discipline.
God judges everything according to His own nature. He desires that all
should be in accordance with His nature. No upright and honourable man
would like to have the wicked near him, and always before him; God
assuredly would not. And in that which is nearest to Him, He must above all
desire that every thing should correspond to His nature and His holiness
-to all that He is. I would have everything around me clean enough not to
disgrace me; but in my own house I must have such cleanness as I personally
desire. Thus judgment must begin at the house of God: the apostle alludes
to Ezekiel 9:6. It is a solemn principle. No grace, no privilege, changes
the nature of God; and everything must be conformed to that nature, or, in
the end, must be banished from His presence. Grace can conform us, and it
does. It bestows thedivine nature, so that there is a principle of
absolute conformity to God. But as to practical conformity in thought and
deed, the heart and the conscience must be exercised, in order that the
understanding of the heart, and the habitual desires and aspirations of the
will, should be formed upon the revelation of God, and continually directed
towards Him.
Now if this conformity should so fail that the testimony of God is injured
by its absence, God, who judges His people, and who will judge evil every
where, does so by means of the chastisements which He inflicts. Judgment
begins at the house of God. The righteous are saved with difficulty. It is
evidently not redemption or justification that is here intended, nor the
communication of life: those whom the apostle addresses were in possession
of them. To our apostle "salvation" is not only the present enjoyment of
the salvation of the soul, but the full deliverance of the faithful, which
will take place at the coming of Christ in glory. All the temptations are
contemplated, all the trials, all the dangers, through which the Christian
will pass in reaching the end of his career. All the power of God is
requisite, directed by divine wisdom, guiding and sustaining faith, to
carry the Christian safely through the wilderness where Satan employs all
the resources of his subtlety to make him perish. The power of God will
accomplish it; but, from the human point of view, the difficulties are
almost His judgment conformable to the principles of good and evil in His
government; and who will in nowise deny Himself in dealing with the enemy
of our souls-if the righteous were saved with difficulty, what would become
of the sinner and the ungodly? To join them would not be the way to escape
these difficulties. In suffering as a Christian, there was but one thing to
do-to commit oneself to Him who watched over the judgment that He was
executing. For, as it was His hand, one suffered according to His will. It
was this that Christ did.
Observe here, that it is not only the government of God, but there is the
expression, "as unto a faithful Creator." The Spirit of God moves here in
this sphere. It is the relationship of God with this world, and the soul
knows Him as the One who created it, and who does not forsake the work of
His hands. This is Jewish ground-God known in His connection with the first
creation. Trust in Him is founded on Christ; but God is known in His ways
with this world, and with us in our pilgrimage here below, where He
governs, and where He judges Christians, as He will judge all others.
Chapter 5
The apostle returns to christian details. He exhorts the elders, himself an
elder; for it appears that among the Jews this title was rather
characteristic than official. (Compare ver. 5.) He exhorts them to feed the
flock of God. The apostle designates himself as one who had been a witness
of the sufferings of Christ, and who was to be a partaker of the glory that
shall be revealed. It was the function of the twelve to be witnesses of the
life of Christ (John 15), as it was that of the Holy Ghost to testify of
His heavenly glory. Peter places himself at the two ends of the Lord's
history, and leaves the interval devoid of all except hope, and the
pilgrimage towards an end. He had seen the sufferings of Christ; he was to
share His glory when He should be revealed. It is a Christ who puts Himself
in relation with the Jews, now known only by faith. During His life on
earth, He was in the midst of the Jews, although suffering there and
rejected. When He shall appear, He will again be in relation with the earth
and with that nation.
Paul speaks differently, while at the same time confirming these truths. He
only knew the Lord after His exaltation; he is not a witness of His
sufferings; but he seeks for the power of His resurrection and the
fellowship of His sufferings. Paul's heart is bound to Christ while He is
in heaven, as united to Him above; and, although he desires the Lord's
appearing, for the restitution of all things of which the prophets had
spoken, he rejoices to know that he shall go with joy to meet Him, and
shall return with Him when He is revealed from heaven.
The elders were to feed the flock of God with a ready mind, and not as by
constraint, nor for gain, nor as governing an inheritance of their own, but
as ensamples to the flock. Loving care was to be lavished upon it, for the
sake of Christ, the chief Shepherd, with a view to the good of souls.
Moreover it was the flock of God which they were to feed. What a solemn as
well as sweet thought! How impossible for anyone to entertain the notion of
its being his flock, if he has laid hold of the thought that it is the
flock of God, and that God allows us to feed it !
We may observe that the heart of the blessed apostle is where the Lord had
placed it. " Feed my sheep" was the expression of the Lord's perfect grace
towards Peter, when He was leading him to the humiliating but salutary
confession that it needed the eye of God to see that His weak disciple
loved Him. At the moment that He convinced him of his utter nothingness, He
entrusted to him that which was dearest to Himself.
Thus we see, here, that it is the apostle's care, the desire of the heart,
that they should feed the flock. Here, as elsewhere, he does not go beyond
the Lord's appearing. It is at that period that the ways of God in
government-of which the Jews were the earthly centre-shall be fully
manifested. Then shall the crown of glory be presented to him that has been
faithful, that has satisfied the chief Shepherd's heart.
The young were to submit themselves to those who were older, and all to one
another. All were to be clothed with humility: for God resists the proud,
and gives grace to the humble. These are still the principles of His
government. Under His hand they were therefore to humble themselves; they
should be exalted in due time. This was to commit themselves to God. He
knew what was needful. He who loved them would exalt them at the right
time. He cared for them: they were to rest on Him, commit all their cares
to Him.
On the other hand, they were to be sober and vigilant, because the
adversary sought to devour them. Here-whatever may be his wiles, however he
may lie in wait for Christians-it is in the character of a roaring lion,
one who excites open persecution, that the apostle presents him. They were
to resist him, steadfast in the faith. Everywhere the same afflictions were
found. Nevertheless the God of grace is the Christian's confidence. He has
called us to participate in His eternal glory. The apostle's desire for
them is that, after they had suffered for a time, the God of grace should
make them perfect, complete-should stablish and strengthen them, building
up their hearts on the foundation of an assurance that cannot be shaken. To
Him, he adds, be glory and dominion.
We see that the Christians to whom he wrote were suffering, and that the
apostle explained these sufferings on the principles of the divine
government, with regard especially to the relation of Christians with God,
as being His house, whether those sufferings were for righteousness' sake
or for the name of the Lord. It was but for a time. The Christian's hope
was elsewhere; christian patience was well-pleasing to God. It was their
glory, if it was for the name of Christ. Besides which, God judged His
house, and watched over His people.
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