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The Significance of the Person and Ministry of the Apostle Peter

by T. Austin-Sparks

First published in "A Witness and A Testimony" magazines, 1966

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2 - The Transition

Chapter 3 - The Lord's Travail

Chapter 4 - The Return of Grace

Chapter 1

"Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken away from you, and shall be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof" (Matthew 21:43).

"Ye are... a holy nation" (1 Peter 2:9).

Reading: 1 Peter 1:1-4.

We are going to be occupied at this time, with the Lord's help, with the significance of the person and ministry of the Apostle Peter. The Apostle Paul occupies such a large place in the New Testament that we are perhaps in danger of losing the great values of the Apostle Peter. This may be partly due to the fact that so little is on record as to the life and ministry of Peter. He passes out of view almost entirely, so far as the history of the Church is concerned, after the council recorded in Acts 15, and Paul seems to eclipse everyone else from that point onward, right to the end of the Book of the Acts, which is the historical record of the growth, the development and expansion of the Church. Peter, while he has not gone by any means, does cease to occupy the place that he had, once Paul comes in.

I must confess that I have often been a little puzzled as to why, seeing that there were twelve Apostles called, appointed and commissioned, only three or four of them are on record. The rest are hardly mentioned at all until you get right to the last chapters of the Book of the Revelation, and then they are only spoken of as the twelve apostles of the Lamb. They are not in view at all in that great gap in the New Testament, and you do not know very much of what is happening to them. You do not know very much, so far as the record is concerned, of what Peter was doing during all that time.

Of course, here, when Peter opens his Letter, he lets us know that he has not been inactive, and the elect in all these parts of the world have come under his influence. However, it is strange, is it not, that the history of the Church, so far as the New Testament is concerned, is very largely confined to Paul.

But we have to think again about this matter, for there are very great values indeed in Peter, and we shall do very well if we give ourselves to a consideration of these values.

Of course, in the first three Gospels, Peter always has the first place, and is the most prominent of the twelve disciples. I have made a list of some thirty-eight incidents in which Peter figured most prominently. I am not going to trouble you with all those thirty-eight, but there they are, and that does not cover the whole ground by any means. I am simply saying that, right up to the time of that council in Jerusalem concerning what had happened over the Gentiles, Peter occupied the foremost place, and it is quite evident from his Letters that something very deep and very real was wrought into this man.

I have been tremendously impressed - I cannot tell you how much - as I have carefully read through this comparatively short first Letter of Peter with my eye on one thing, and that one thing is: Where did Peter get that? How did that come to Peter? Why is Peter saying that? As I have looked I have found that the Lord Jesus wrought Himself into this man, that you can trace the Lord Jesus in this man so deeply and so richly, and I have no hesitation in saying that this first Letter of his is full of spiritual riches. We shall, of course, only be able to touch the surface, but let us begin with some little consideration of the significance and the value of Peter's ministry.

We shall at once discover how Peter has come to understand the Lord Jesus. What was Jesus doing? Peter did not understand in the days when the Lord was present in the flesh, but He was doing something. The wonderful thing is this: that while the Lord Jesus was working, teaching, living and moving right under the eyes of this man Peter, Peter was not grasping it, was not understanding it, was not seeing it, but here in his Letter he has it all. That, I think, contains something we should lay hold of. We can hear, see, have under our eyes and ears even for years, the Lord Jesus in what He is saying and what He is doing, and He being really present, and we not grasp the significance of it all. That is a terrible possibility. It is one of the problems that we may come up against. It is almost disconcerting to see Christians who for years have been receiving all the teaching about the Lord Jesus, before whose eyes and ears He has been brought over a long period, and then, when you really come up to practical matters, they do not know it, they have not got it, it is not in them. Or shall I say: the Lord Jesus is not there in a way commensurate with all that they have heard. They have missed it. That is a possibility, and it is one of the big tragedies in Christianity that it is so, and that, like Peter, at a certain crisis point, after all they have received, it can be demonstrated under trial that they are not really in the good of the teaching. They break down, after all, in the hour of the ordeal.

But that, of course, leads to this: How important it is that what we have heard, what we have seen and what has been brought to us shall be put right into us by the power of the Holy Spirit. Is that not necessary? That we have not only been where it is, but it is in us by the Spirit.

And that is the tremendous change from the Gospels, with all the place and prominence that Peter held there, into his Letter. Something has happened to the man, and that is what it is.

That is the first thing about his significance, his person and his ministry: that he is not retailing things that he has heard. He is not 'dishing up' (if I may use the expression) that which has come to him secondhand. Here is a man who, through a deep crisis and experience, has himself moved right into the spiritual meaning and value of the teaching and the work of the Lord Jesus. That is a very important thing, and it is the first thing about his significance.

The New Israel

But I ask the question: What was Jesus doing when He was here? Of course you would answer: 'Well, He was doing this... that... and a whole multitude of things.' Yes, but what was the comprehensive thing that He was doing? What was it that embodied all His teaching, all His work and activities, signs and parables? What was it that comprehended the Lord Jesus when He was here?

We have answered the question in the passages which we have just read together: "Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken away from you, and shall be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof... Ye are... a holy nation." What was Jesus doing? He was building, constituting a new Israel, a spiritual, heavenly Israel in the place of the old one.

Jesus - The Messiah

Who was Jesus? His name is Messiah, which is the Hebrew form of the Greek 'Christ'. It is the same thing in two languages. It might help you, and throw light on things, and make something quite real if, wherever you find the name "Christ" in the New Testament, you put there "Messiah".

Now think what Messiah meant in the Bible! Both "Messiah" and "Christ" mean 'the Anointed'.

The Old Testament had just one Person in view. It was moving toward, looking for, longing for, the day of the appearing of the Messiah. What was He going to do in their expectation? He was going to save their nation. You remember the words of Simeon, when he took the babe Jesus in his arms? He spoke of Him as being for the salvation of God's people, Israel. Messiah would save the nation. Of course, they had their own ideas as to what that would mean, for their whole conception of the coming Messiah was that He would constitute and establish the Kingdom of Israel. From the beginning of Genesis, right up to the end of the Old Testament, the one Person in view was the One who was coming, whom the Jews called the Messiah.

You remember even the woman of Samaria, when she got to that point of discovering something of the truth of who He was who was speaking to her, went back to the city and said: "Come, see a man which told me all things that ever I did: can this be the Messiah?" (John 4:29). This showed that even in the Samaritans there was this deep-rooted hope and expectation: the coming Messiah, who would establish the kingdom of Israel and save it - and much more, of course.

Well, when He came we know what they did with their Messiah. We can leave that, but Jesus said: "The kingdom of God shall be taken away from you, and shall be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof", and Peter says: "To the elect who are sojourners of the Dispersion... Ye are a holy nation." 'You are the inheritors of the kingdom of God. You are the ones who have taken over from Israel. You are the new Israel.' As you know, the Apostle Paul speaks of "the Israel of God" (Galatians 6:16). This is a new conception.

Here, then, is the Christ, the Messiah. Now, I have said that Jesus was building a new Israel. How was the old Israel built?

You remember that charming little Book of Ruth? At the end of that romantic story of Divine sovereignty, when Naomi has come back and Ruth is married to Boaz, people say to Boaz: "The Lord make the woman that is come into thine house like Rachel and Leah, which two did build the house of Israel." The nation was built upon the twelve sons of Jacob, and was composed of the twelve tribes of Israel.

Now, with Jesus that has passed and been taken away, and He begins with twelve Apostles, building, you see, on the same principle. There are twelve Apostles, of which Peter is the first, and, quite evidently, the most conspicuous to begin with. Twelve! You know what the number twelve means? It is the biblical number of heavenly government and rule - it is the Kingdom number. Well, here you have the twelve Apostles, and to sum it all up you come at last to the new Jerusalem, the heavenly city coming down from God out of heaven. It is a figure, a symbol of the new governmental centre of Jesus Christ in the age of glory. But the characteristic number of the city is twelve: twelve thousand furlongs, twelve foundations, twelve gates, twelve pearls, twelve angels. Twelve is the dominating number of that symbolic representation of the centre of government for the coming age.

Peter is the first in this, and Jesus is very consistent with what is in His mind and in His principles. Peter, on the day of Pentecost, is using the keys of the kingdom, and keys are the symbols of authority, of government, and they are entrusted to Peter to open the Kingdom on the day of Pentecost. It is all so consistent.

A Holy Nation

The point is - without being too detailed - that Jesus was building a new spiritual Israel, a 'holy nation'. You and I belong to that new Israel. We are of that holy nation - but what kind of nation is this?

If you look now at Peter's first Letter, not only verse by verse, sentence by sentence, but almost fragment by fragment, you will see what Peter is doing - he is transferring the old Israel to the new at every point. That is why we read those first four verses.

What kind of 'holy nation' is this? What kind of an Israel are we? Here it is: "Elect... according to the foreknowledge of God the Father." You know those were the words that were used so often in the old dispensation about the old Israel. God chose them, and that is only another word for the same thing - He elected them, or, if you like, selected them. They were an elect people, a chosen people. That is how the old Israel is spoken of even to this day - 'the chosen people'. But here Peter has followed up Matthew 21:43, transferred from the old to the new, and says: 'You believers, scattered abroad throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia, over the world, and over the nations, you are the elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. God has foreseen you before all time. He has had His eye on you, and His hand on you in foreknowledge before ever you were.'

Of course, Paul has much to say about this. "He chose us in him before the foundation of the world" (Ephesians 1:4). Peter and Paul agreed on this, at any rate, and understood the same thing, although Peter did say once about Paul's writings: "Wherein are some things hard to be understood" (2 Peter 3:16). However, that did not apply here. This Israel to which we belong is "elect... according to the foreknowledge of God the Father". That is where the new Israel begins.

But note! I said 'fragment by fragment' ... "into sanctification of the Spirit". What is that? What is "sanctification of the Spirit"? You can put it this way if you like: 'Sanctification by the Holy Spirit'. What is that? What is the meaning of sanctification?

Well, you see, sanctification is just another word for 'separated unto God', and that is the thing that happens in time... 'elect... through the sanctification of the Spirit'. The eternal fact, now the time act of being set apart for God. 'Sanctification' basically means 'set apart', consecrated, given to God. Put it how you will. When we use the word 'sanctification' we usually concentrate our thought upon a condition. That is the working out of the sanctification, but sanctification itself is a basic thing that at a point the life is separated unto God, set apart for God, by the act of the Holy Spirit; made the Lord's - there is a race which is the Lord's, a nation which is the Lord's, a people which is the Lord's of which every unit, individual, is the Lord's.

You get a tremendous amount of New Testament teaching into that! "Ye are not your own; for ye were bought with a price" (1 Corinthians 6:20). You belong to the Lord - not to yourself, or to anyone else. That is the meaning of sanctification: Set apart, made wholly unto God.

This sanctification matter was the real battleground of the Old Testament where Israel was concerned. It does open the door to an immense amount of what happened in the Old Testament, because the one thing, more than anything else where Israel was concerned, was to break down their separation, and in some way bring about a link with what was not the Lord. This is where all idolatry came in and why all intermarriage was forbidden. You know it was a battleground. It was a battleground in Nehemiah, in Ezra, in the Prophets - this broken-down distinctiveness of this people as belonging wholly to the Lord, and the work of the evil powers to make them to belong to someone else. To put it the other way, to take away the absolute proprietorship and possession of the Lord of this people. On that issue there is battle all the time.

You are in it every day, are you not? The real battle is to keep wholly the Lord's and to refuse to compromise where the Lord's rights are concerned. Peter recognizes that battle. "Your adversary the devil as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Peter 5:8). He is all the time taking away from the Lord, drawing away, forcing away, enticing away somehow, and this ground of sanctification in its deepest meaning - being wholly the Lord's - is a battleground.

"In sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood..." - of goats, rams, lambs? No! Peter has transferred from that realm. All that is finished. The old Israel has gone. "Sprinkling of the blood of Jesus the Messiah." And when Peter uses language like this, it is amazing what has happened. When you think that Peter was a Jew, a born, bred, dyed-in-the-wool Jew, with all that Hebrew background of tradition and ritual, sacrifices and all that hope and expectation of the Messiah - and now he says: "The blood of Jesus the Messiah"! The one thing that Israel could not accept about their Messiah was that He had died in this way. 'But', you say, 'what about Isaiah 53?' We all know what is in that, but how does it begin? "Who hath believed our report?" They did not believe that their Messiah was going to be the Messiah of Isaiah 53. They could not. Why, this man hanging on the Cross? No, He could not possibly be the Messiah! His being crucified was full proof that He was not the Messiah. Peter, one of that nation, says: "the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus the Messiah". Is it not impressive? Something has entered into the heart of this man, he has now seen something new - the suffering Messiah! Peter goes on in this Letter to say a lot about the sufferings of Christ. "The sprinkling of the blood of Jesus the Messiah." That is a transfer, is it not, from the old to the new? And that is ours!

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, who according to his great mercy..." We are going to see, as we go on, some of the weight of those words. Peter speaks of "his great mercy". Well, Peter knew something about that! He is the first one of this new Israel, the outstanding one of this holy nation, and he must know, perhaps more than anyone else, His great mercy.

If you and I are members of this heavenly Israel, our membership rests upon this: His great mercy. It will never rest upon anything else - He will see to that.

How do you feel about that? I wonder what your exercise has been about that? I believe, you know, that that is the sort of thing the Lord will do with His heavenly people. He will make them know that mercy is not just a word in the Bible, and they will realize that but for the mercy of God they would be nowhere. That is going to be brought home. But, mark you, there is the other way of looking at it: If you are there, where the mercy of God is your only hope and ground, you are an inheritor of the Kingdom. You are an heir. We come to that almost immediately. Ah, yes, that is safe ground, and Peter is there right at the beginning of his Letter.

"According to his great mercy begat us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus the Messiah from the dead." Did I say that Peter had the whole thing wrought into him? Well, think of him again. Cast your eye back to that episode down there in the lower hall, when the accusing finger of the servant maid pointed at him and she said: 'Thou art one of them', and he denied it: 'I know Him not'; a second time, more vehemently; and a third time, with his fisherman's old bad language, oaths and curses, he denied it. Then Peter went out and wept bitterly. It was this that necessitated the angel sending a special message through Mary: 'Go to his disciples, and Peter, and tell them...' That man is in despair. He has come out into the dark, he is smashed, desolated, devastated, hopeless. Perhaps his thoughts at that time were: 'What a hopeless, hopeless fellow I am!'

"Begat us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus the Messiah from the dead." That man knows what he is talking about! He has been through it - and he is the first of the heavenly Israel.

Do we know it like this? We go on: "The resurrection of Jesus the Messiah from the dead, unto an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you." Here is another point of the great transition. The old Israel had an inheritance, which was the land of promise, the land of Canaan. It was defiled, corrupted and faded away. They lost it. It is not theirs now in fullness, and for many centuries they had little place in it. You know the Book of Joshua, when their inheritance was divided up, apportioned and made over to the tribes. There is a lot about it, but they lost it all. It faded away and was corrupted and defiled. That is why they went into Babylon, and why they went under Roman domination. They defiled the land. That is the whole accusation of the Prophets, is it not? It was lost... "unto an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away" ...but now not on this earth, subject to all the changes and influence of a world like this... "reserved in heaven for you." A wonderful nation, is it not? Well, this is the kind of nation it is.

"Reserved in heaven for you, who by the power of God are guarded through faith unto a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time."

That is only opening the door to Peter's significance in person and ministry. I think it is opening it enough - even if it is still only just open - to see that there is something here of riches, and we are going to agree with Peter when he says: "For you therefore which believe is the preciousness..." Of what? Of Christ, yes, but of the new inheritance, of what He has brought us to, and what He is bringing us to.

May this have a very practical application to us! Go out from this place and say to yourself, if you have never said it before: 'As a member of the new Israel I inherit in Christ all that the old Israel lost through unbelief, through disobedience. I am of the Israel of God.'

Chapter 2 - The Transition

We have already seen that Peter, as the first of the twelve Apostles, represents the link between the former Israel, which forfeited the Kingdom of God, and the new Israel, which inherits the Kingdom. The Lord Jesus said to the Israel of old, in the culmination of that dispensation: "The kingdom of God shall be taken away from you, and shall be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof" (Matthew 21:43). Peter represents that transition, and in a very real way is the link between the two.

In turning to Peter's first Letter we have begun to see something of what this new Israel is: its nature, character, position, function and vocation. All of these are so clearly set forth in Peter himself, both as to his personal history and his ministry. We are not going over the ground again which we have already covered, but will just take the matter up where we left off.

The Transition

I must, however, repeat and re-emphasize one thing which must be kept very much to the fore in our minds in this matter. It is how Peter himself in his own life, in his being, through his experience and spiritual history embodied all that which Jesus came to initiate: this new heavenly and spiritual Israel. It is a matter that has impressed me so greatly, and does so more and more as I read what Peter wrote. At almost every point in his letter, not only in the verses, but in the very clauses, there is something of what the Lord Jesus intended by His teaching and His work, by His coming, in relation to this new Israel. This is very impressive, and I do want you to keep that in mind all the time, because, while it is very interesting to know that one Israel belongs to a past dispensation and another one has taken its place, the important thing is that every one who belongs to this new heavenly nation, this Israel of God, has to embody the truth of that Israel, for that is the first and fundamental thing that Peter says. What Peter went through in order to become a personal expression of this great new dispensation reality! What pains the Lord took with that man in order that he should pass from the realm of mere teaching - though it were the teaching of the Lord Himself - into being that teaching! So that is what we must underline to begin with, and it is the thing that really concerns us. I think you will see how real and true that is, both in Peter's case and in ours, as we proceed.

We have read the first verses of Peter's first Letter and noticed the beginning of this wonderful changeover, this transition, this passage from the old to the new. The wonderful thing, of course, which covers it all, includes it all, is the change from the temporal to the spiritual. It was at that point that Peter, with the others, had his first battle. Don't fail to recognize that! It was just there that the battle began and had to be won before he, and they, could get any further.

You see, right up to the point after the Lord Jesus had risen from the dead and appeared to the disciples during those forty days, coming and going and speaking the things of the Kingdom, their question was: "Lord, dost thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" (Acts 1:6). Their Old Testament ideas about the Messiah and what He would do are still there! They are still there in their own hopes and in their own interpretation of the kingdom, and what a battle it was for them, and no less a battle for you and for me, to make that transition! The most difficult thing for the believers of this dispensation is really to accept and settle down on this: that everything now is spiritual and not temporal.

This is where the battle began. What were they expecting? What were they wanting, hoping for? Just everything, again, in the temporal realm. The temporal kingdom of Israel, an earthly world power - perhaps the world power - with a temple, and everything else that belonged to the old. But all that has gone. All that is finished with, and now there is introduced something that is wholly spiritual. That is one of Peter's words - "a spiritual house... to offer up spiritual sacrifices" (1 Peter 2:5). We read that, we quote it, we use it in our worship, and we know it, but really it represents the battleground of our lives. The Lord is not dealing with us, in the first place, on temporal grounds, of things seen and things that we can handle. He is putting it all away from that realm of our own ability to grasp, to have, to hold, and to understand, and putting it in another realm altogether.

This spiritual life is a very difficult life! Is it not true that it tests us every day? But it is the basic and inclusive thing about this transition, and the marvellous thing that had happened in this man Peter, who, perhaps more than all the others, was out for this temporal kingdom of God. My, he had a great business in letting it go! We will see that as we go on, but here that has happened and he is now altogether occupied with the spiritual side of everything in the Kingdom.

The transition, then, is from the temporal to the spiritual. We noted that Peter says: "God... begat us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto an inheritance". An inheritance! Think back again to the saints of the Old Testament, and their whole mental hope and complexion of their inheritance! A parcel of ground for each tribe in the land of promise. Their inheritance was on the earth, flowing with milk and honey, and every temporal and physical benefit and blessing that heaven could give, and they were saying: 'That is coming back again with the Messiah. That is going to be ours when Messiah comes. That is what we are looking for!'

Peter, however, has gone through something that makes him say: "Unto an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven". It has gone from this earth. It is somewhere else, and if you read through this Letter you will not detect the slightest tone of remorse in Peter. There is no sorrow about this. It is not: 'We have lost something'. Oh, no! "Ye rejoice greatly with joy unspeakable and full of glory." That is the tone of this Letter. It is about the gain of the heavenly, and how superior this inheritance reserved in heaven is to all that the old Israel had.

The Salvation of our Souls

"Who by the power of God are guarded through faith unto a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, ye have been put to grief in manifold temptations, that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold that perisheth though it is proved by fire, might be found unto praise and glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ: whom not having seen ye love; on whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice greatly with joy unspeakable and full of glory: receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls" (1 Peter 1:5-9).

The end, the culmination, the consummation, is "the salvation of your souls". That end is reached through manifold trials, but it is the explanation of the trials, the defining why the trials, and the nature of the trials - "the salvation of your souls".

What has Peter in mind? What is behind this? As we have said, all the way through this Letter, in almost every sentence, there is some reference to something in the past, the old dispensation, which has now been taken over. That is the background.

Look at Hebrews 4:12: "For the word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit..." Do you notice that that verse begins with the word "for"? It is a conjunction and links with what has gone before. And what is that? "If Joshua had given them rest, he would not have spoken afterward of another day. There remaineth therefore a sabbath rest for the people of God." And that throws back to, what? The wilderness, and the intended rest of the land. It is saying: 'In the wilderness the whole nature of things was manifold trials.' Was that true? There were indeed manifold trials in the wilderness, and how many those trials were! They were supremely trials of faith every time. If you saw that wilderness you would understand that from the sheer physical side it could well be a place of manifold trials. I have crossed it quite a number of times by air, and have looked down and said: 'My word, forty years in that!' That could put you to the test even physically, and to be tried in relation to God in an arid, desolate desert like that for forty years was something! But what was happening? It was a battle with their souls through the trials. You know what the soul is! It was a battle with their minds; their minds about God, their thoughts, their ideas, their reasoning, their judgments, and all that goes on in the mind. It was a battle with their feelings, and there is plenty of ground for feelings to have a very large place there! It was a battle with their choices: what they would choose. How truly it was a soul battle; whether their souls were going to be saved, that is, delivered, brought out from all this, or whether through their souls they were going to be defeated and lost. And so it proved for that generation - their souls were lost in that wilderness, and not saved.

Peter is referring to this when he says that 'the end of your faith, through manifold trials, is the salvation of your souls.'

Now, you need not go back to Peter, nor to the old Israel, nor to the wilderness. Come back here into yourself. Is it not true, dear friends, that the whole battleground of the spiritual life is here in our minds, in our feelings, and in our choices? Is it not a battle between ours and God's? "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord" (Isaiah 55:8). There is a vast expanse between God's thoughts and ours! "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." There are two kingdoms, the earthly and the heavenly, and naturally we belong to the earthly. And I say that on this side is the mentality that is ours - and that is only another word for one of the three aspects of our souls: the mentality, the thought realm, the reasoning realm, the way we judge things, we interpret things mentally. That alone is a battleground through all trial. Get into trial, be put to it, and see what a battle you are precipitated into as to how you look at it, how you judge it, how you explain it! In the end you simply have to throw it on one side and say: 'If I lean to my own understanding I am lost, for I cannot. I have no understanding here to lean to. I am lost, but either I go out with my inability to understand God's ways with me at this time, or I believe God. I have faith in God where I cannot understand.' Is that easy? Is that a battle? You know it is if you are put in manifold trials!

It is the same over our feelings when we are in the trials. How they get worked up! What we feel about it, about God's ways and dealings with us, and what we would do, how we would exercise our power of choice and volition if it were left with us. Oh, we would quit this to start with, and then we would do a lot of other things rather than this. That is the soul! And Peter says here: 'The end of the manifold trials is the salvation of your souls.'

We must understand this, though it is very difficult. But I am saying this out of a little experience - it is not just theory.

The soul has been the seat of all the trouble since Adam capitulated his soul to Satan. All the way through, in human life and in human nature, the soul has been the seat of all the trouble since the beginning, when Satan made his focused attack upon the soul, the reasoning, the thinking power, and drew Adam out in his mind and upon his desires, his feelings. 'It is good. It will be good for you.' And then, of course, his act, when he captured Adam's soul. Adam capitulated his soul into the power of Satan, and the soul has been under that power ever since and always is in unregenerate humanity. In the believer; the regenerate humanity, the discipline begins here in the soul. The change-over begins here by manifold trials.

The soul is just our selfhood. That is a big word! Selfhood - self-interest... a thousand 'selfs' all in one. Our minds, our feelings, our actions all being governed, controlled by a principle in our human nature which is self.

Now look at what Peter is saying! Does this represent a big conversion in the case of this man? Jesus said to him: "When once thou art converted" (Luke 22:32) - and what a conversion of a disciple who had had all the teaching, and seen all the works of Jesus, but who had not yet been converted in the real sense. The translation says: "When once thou hast turned again", but that is the same word. It is conversion, and a tremendous conversion had taken place in this man. Now he is on the other side of it, but he is still in the battle and is telling the believers that this is the nature, the meaning of the manifold trials. What is it? Every trial in some way raises this selfhood, this 'I' of ourselves, and it takes so long for us to get to the point where in trial, under the testing, we can really say: 'It does not matter to me. It is not what I feel about it at all, but what the Lord is after.' That is growing in grace, as we shall see. 'It is not what I think about this at all. The Lord has another mind altogether from mine. It is not what I would do or will. The Lord is after something else in this trial.' I say that it takes a long time to get there, but, you see, that is the nature of things, and that is what is meant by the salvation of the soul, because in every one of the manifold trials, in some way, this selfhood gets up. It is a battle again: 'Not my will, but thine. Not my way, but thine. Not my thoughts, but thine.' That is the battle all the time in any time of trial.

Now you see that Peter says that this is the deepest, the profoundest work of salvation, the salvation of the soul. How does he say that? "Which things angels desire to look into" (verse 12). Angels are not human beings, and they do not understand what is the salvation of the soul because they are not soul beings. But they are able to discern, as spiritual beings, that there is something here which embraces all between that first act of capitulation to Satan and this last act of the salvation of every human soul in Christ, that right down deep there in human nature something is going on. They cannot enter into it in experience, but it is something immense which even "angels desire to look into". It is something beyond them, for it is so deep. The deepest, profoundest work of salvation relates to this recovery of the soul entirely and finally, and this salvation of human nature and for human nature is the battleground between heaven and hell. There is no doubt about that. That is where all the battle rages: around our souls.

Well, that is why Satan attacked the soul of the Lord Jesus, and Peter has come to understand something about that. Oh, it is impossible to say it all, but listen:

A little later on (in chapter 5:8) Peter says to these believers: "Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour", and he has preceded that statement by saying: "Be sober, be watchful!" Peter, where did you learn that? Where did you get that from? Listen to a voice coming from afar: "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan asked to have you, that he might sift you as wheat." Why? Because of Peter's soul! 'No, I will not forsake Thee. Though all the others forsake Thee, I will not. I will go with Thee to death.' This was the asserting of Peter's own self-hood, his self-confidence, his self-assurance, his self-sufficiency. Right in the face of that outburst of that man's soul Jesus said: "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan asked to have you" ... (literally that is: 'Satan hath obtained you by asking') ... "that he might sift you as wheat." And so Peter says: "Be sober". He has learned his lesson! 'Be sober, be watchful... be careful about this self-sufficiency, this self-strength, this self-assertiveness. Be sober. Don't get exalted ideas of yourself and what you can do. Be sober, be watchful!' And he is only saying - as he could have said in more words - 'I have been through this and am saying to you something that brought devastation to my soul. Satan was allowed to sift me as wheat because of my selfhood, but I have come through. But you be watchful against any strength of selfhood of any kind, the rising up, the asserting itself of human nature. That happens in the time of trial, of manifold trials.'

Now I said that the trials explain the salvation, define the salvation. Why are they? What are the trials for? Well, on the one side they do precipitate this whole question of whether we are going to stand on our own ground and have it our own way, or whether we are going to let go our souls, deny ourselves and stand on the ground of the Lord's will and thoughts.

You see by this what a tremendous thing had happened to this man! What a tremendous thing had been done in him! There is more to see yet, but here is this and our point, dear friends, is just this: that Peter is Number One in the new heavenly Israel. He is the most prominent of the twelve who are the foundation of the Kingdom, which is what the new Israel is. It is not a temporal thing, but a spiritual thing, and we are tested all the time by the spiritual nature. Oh, if only we could let ourselves go and fight back all the opposition, fight back in the flesh, using carnal weapons, we think that perhaps we would come out on top. At least we would die in the effort! But the Lord says: 'Not a bit of it!', and Peter says: 'You will be treated wrongfully. Your reactions must not be: Wrong for wrong, and flesh for flesh. No! Take it patiently.' That is something for our human nature, is it not? When we are being thoroughly wronged our human nature does not take it patiently!

May the Lord give us understanding.

Chapter 3 - The Lord's Travail

We continue our consideration of, and meditation concerning, the significance of the Apostle Peter and his ministry. As we have seen, and shall continue to see, he was the one who introduced the new dispensation, and fulfilled in himself the work of the Lord Jesus in laying the foundation for the new spiritual, heavenly Israel which was to supplant and take the place of the old Israel, according to the word of the Lord. Peter, as we have said, is himself a representation of that spiritual Israel, which we are, and in his own person and life he so clearly sets forth the nature of this new Israel.

There is one thing that I think will be very helpful to us, and we will mention it here, before going further.

The Lord's Travail with Peter

I have already said that I have collected some forty instances in the life of Peter when he was with the Lord Jesus, and in many of those instances he did not show up very well. It was only just occasionally that he came out brightly. So often he emerged rather - perhaps it is a strong word to use - dishonourably rather than honourably. I will not take you through all those forty instances, but if I put my finger upon a few examples, you will see what I mean.

Take the first, a quite simple one: Peter coming in from a fishing expedition, and the Lord standing on the shore, commanding him to let down the net for a draught. It was the Lord who said that, but Peter immediately answered: "Master, we toiled all night, and took nothing" (Luke 5:5), implying, of course, that it would be altogether contrary to an experienced fisherman's reputation to let down a net in broad daylight, for it was night when they did their business. So, although he subsequently obeyed, he did so with a question, and with some reserve - almost as though he said: 'All right, you want me to do it, so I will do it'. And no one was more surprised at the result than Peter was! There is some weakness here in his attitude.

Then on the lake again, during the storm, with Jesus asleep in the boat, it is Peter who comes to Him and wakes Him, saying: "Master, carest thou not that we perish?" (Mark 4:38). The Lord's answer indicates that here again Peter has failed to grasp the real significance of the Lord Jesus: "Have ye not yet faith?"

Again on the lake: Jesus coming out in the night, walking on the water. This time Peter seems to begin well: "Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee upon the waters" (Matthew 14:28), and he stepped out. But then, seeing the big waves and the wind, he began to sink... "Lord, save me!" He has broken down again in the middle.

The Lord Jesus is rebuking the Pharisees, and Peter as good as rebukes the Lord for doing it. He is dismayed that the Lord Jesus should rebuke the Pharisees. Why? Well, obviously, if He gets into the Pharisees' bad books, it will go ill both for Jesus - and for Peter. 'Keep on good terms with these people!' You see the principle that is governing him? He is quite annoyed with the Lord Jesus for taking this attitude toward the Pharisees.

Then again: Jesus speaks of His going up to Jerusalem and of what is going to happen to Him there. He would be betrayed into the hands of wicked men and crucified. Peter takes Him and begins to rebuke Him: "Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall never be unto thee" (Matthew 16:22). Again there is this whole idea of self-preservation, and Jesus rebukes him: "Get thee behind me, Satan; thou art a stumblingblock unto me."

Once more: on the Mount of Transfiguration, with all the wonder of it. Poor Peter! "Lord, it is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, I will make here three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah" (Matthew 17:4), putting them all on to an equal basis. Evidently the voice out of heaven which rebuked him made that point; "This is my beloved Son... hear ye him" ... 'He cannot be put on a level even with the greatest men of the old dispensation. You hear Him!' Peter is rebuked, for here is presumption. Yes, he is failing all the way along.

Peter had a quarrel with the other disciples as to who was to be the Primate, the principal man in the Kingdom. They were quarrelling for primacy, showing lack of humility, and, again, ambition. He had a wrong, false idea of the Kingdom.

On we go. Jesus said: "All ye shall be offended in me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad" (Matthew 26:31). Peter said: "If all shall be offended in thee, I will never be offended." ... "Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice." ... "Even if I must die with thee, yet will I not deny thee." The point, of course, is so obvious that we need not mention it: Peter's self-confidence, his pride, his boasting as to what he could do.

In the Garden Jesus said: "Abide ye here, and watch with me" (Matthew 26:38). He went a little way away, prayed His great travail prayer, and then came back - and they were asleep. He said to Peter: "Could ye not watch with me one hour?"

Then came the arrival of the mob and the soldiers, and Judas. That was Peter's rash hour - out with his sword and off came the ear of Malchus, the high priest's servant. Rebuked again! Then in the hall, denying Jesus. Jesus emerging from the trial - so-called - and they all forsook Him and fled.

Even that was not the end of things with Peter. We meet with something afterward. You will remember that Paul had to say: "I resisted him to the face, because he stood condemned" (Galatians 2:11).

Now why all this? You say: 'It is a pity to point out the man's faults. Is it fair to talk about him in this way? Would the Lord Jesus do what you are doing, pinpointing all these breakdowns in this man's life?' Well, dear friends, that is not quite the point.

The point is a very glorious, blessed one. I feel sure, and have no question whatever, that when the Lord Jesus bent down (if we may speak in this way) and saw Peter writing his first Letter, and saw what he was writing, sentence by sentence, and clause by clause, He said: 'It was not in vain. My patience, forbearance, and longsuffering in all that I had to put up with in that man, and My loving him unto the end, were not in vain. This is worth all, and more than what I suffered from that man.'

When I thought of that, one little verse of a hymn that we sometimes sing floated into my mind:

"And oh, that He fulfilled may see

The travail of His soul in me,

And with His work contented be,

As I with my dear Saviour."

I am quite sure that the Lord was contented, and satisfied, as He saw the fruit of His travail in this man.

Now, why? Why, for you and for me. I think that again and again, in those three years of Peter's life with the Master, you and I would have said: 'It is no good! That man is no good. He is a failure, and it is no good expecting or hoping anything from him. You had better give him up!' I think that is how we would have felt - for we do feel like that about people, when they repeatedly behave like this. We say: 'Well, they are no good. What do you expect? Don't reckon on anything from that man or that woman!'

Look at Peter now! My, he has really imbibed the Lord Jesus. All that we have in this first Letter of his says: No one is hopeless. If such a man can come through to this, there is hope for me, and for anyone. Is that not true? Pick out only one of Peter's great failures - and that is enough to take the heart out of us! - his denying the Lord three times. If you had done that as vehemently as he had done (and it is amazing that a man who had been on the Mount of Transfiguration, and seen all the miracles and wonders, could say so vehemently: 'I know not the man, I tell you!'), you would say: 'That is the end. There is nothing possible beyond that.' But no: here he is.

Is that not a word of encouragement? We sometimes despair of ourselves, but that is in order that we may learn that our Lord does not despair of us, nor of any man. And here is such a man inaugurating the new Israel on the basis of the life, work and teaching of the Lord Jesus - not as a blueprint, nor as a blue-book of instructions, doctrines and techniques - but on the basis that that life, work and teaching have come right into this man's very being.

The Manner of Life in the New Israel

Now we can, perhaps, go on a little further with this matter of the new Israel, what it is and what is its nature. We will read from chapter one of this Letter, verses 13 to 17, for it seems to me that the next thing that we should look at is here:

"Wherefore girding up the loins of your mind, be sober and set your hope perfectly on the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as children of obedience, not fashioning yourselves according to your former lusts in the time of your ignorance: but like as he which called you is holy, be ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living; because it is written, Ye shall be holy; for I am holy. And if ye call on him as Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to each man's work, pass the time of your sojourning in fear."

The two clauses for the moment are: "all manner of living" and "the time of your sojourning". Peter is now referring to the new realm, and the new manner of life which the new Israel occupies. He is saying: 'We, this new Israel of God, are in a new realm altogether, and therefore in that realm there is a manner of life which belongs to it - the manner of life which belongs to the time of our sojourning here. The manner of life, or manner of living, in this time of our sojourning.' And then, on to the end of the Letter, he touches upon many practical points in the manner of life.

I imagine that some of these points may not apply to anyone here, but I am going to mention them for one reason: to show how practical is the manner of life in this new Israel. I used the phrase: 'a new Israel', 'a spiritual Israel'. That to you, perhaps, is something objective, something out there, an idea, a conception, as so much teaching is, but Peter does not leave it there. He brings it right down to the most practical points in our lives. He makes this new Israel business relate to so many things which he calls, in this inclusive phrase, "all manner of living". What a comprehensive phrase that is!

First of all, you will notice that he has something to say about women who have to live with unsaved husbands. I do not know whether that applies to anyone here. It may be that someone has to live with a not altogether saved husband - a difficult man. But Peter is speaking about a marriage relationship which was contracted before one of the partners was saved, and then the question arises: What should the woman who has been saved since her marriage do? Because she is saved, and her husband is not, ought she to get a separation? Should she find some ground of divorce? Should she live a separate life altogether and isolate him? What is she going to do? That is a practical problem, you know. It may not be in your life, and it is not in mine, but I am constantly presented with that very problem. I have met it only in recent days - a really serious case of this very thing: the difficulty in a marriage relationship because one is going on with the Lord and the other is not. It sets up complexes, strains and difficulties for the one who is. So what are you going to do?

Now Peter says that in the new Israel that saved woman has to live with her husband, and before her husband, in the grace of God, so that he may be won by her very manner of life; not driven away from the Lord because she isolates him, or nags him, or constantly tries to get at him, letting him know that he is not saved, but just living. Oh, this is a practical problem, for it is not easy to live before such a man in such a way that if ever he is going to come to the Lord, he will do so on this ground: 'Why, I have seen what God can do. He has done it in my wife. The conviction of my sinfulness has come by the purity, the patience and the goodness of my wife.'

Now, as I say, that may not apply to you, but what I am saying is this: This new Israel is no mere myth, idea or abstract thing. It is very practical, and comes right down here.

Then Peter goes on with this marriage relationship, but this time he is not speaking about unconverted husbands and wives, either or both. He is saying another thing: 'Husbands, give honour to your wives, as unto the weaker vessel.' Now, of course, the wife may not think that she is the weaker vessel. That is the trouble so often! But how does Peter cover that? He does so in a very beautiful way. You must know that at the time Peter was writing there was a very big difference in this relationship between husbands and wives, wives and husbands, socially, and the wives were looked down upon as an inferior class, and were not honoured by men. How does Peter bring in this matter? "As being joint-heirs of the grace of life." I am always sorry that our English translation so often fails to give us the real meaning of the original words. Again and again you just cannot translate, and that is why we have so many versions. We have a Phillips, an Amplified, and a Modern English, and so many others - a whole bookshelf full of translations. Why? To try to get the real meaning over from the original, and I do not know that they have succeeded yet.

"Joint-heirs of the grace of life." The compound Greek word just means: 'Because you husbands and wives, wives and husbands, have both received the life of the Lord in your salvation, there is no discriminating in that life. You are on one basis, one level. You are fellow-heirs. There is a perfect oneness in life which has been constituted basically, and to despise one is to despise the life of the Lord and say that it is lower in one than it is in the other.' Do you see the point? How impossible it is to put that into English! It is translated 'joint-heirs' here. Peter is saying a beautiful thing, and it meant very much in those days with the strong social differences, especially in the domestic circle. This is a new realm of things, a different manner of life altogether, that husbands should honour the wife as the weaker vessel, recognizing that, after all, whether the man is stronger and the woman is weaker, they both share one life and have to live on the basis of that one life which they share. That is beautiful, is it not? But is it not very practical?

Peter goes on, and our next point again may not apply to you, but it does apply very much in Christianity. He has something to say about how the women get themselves up, and dress. Now, of course, you here are not going to come under any condemnation about what I am saying: but how does Peter put it? What a pity that our English fails so utterly at this very point! Notice that it says: "Whose adorning (speaking of Christian women) let it not be the outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing jewels..." You will see that the word "adorning" is in italics, and in this case it does not mean that there is no word there in the original, as italicized words usually do. It means that the translators do not know what to do with the word! You will see their difficulty at once if I point it out. What was the original word there? 'Kosmos', the Greek word. 'Whose kosmos let it not be the plaiting of the hair, and the wearing of jewellery...'. What is 'kosmos'? 'Whose world - the world in which you live.' What is your world? Peter is not saying that it is wrong to plait your hair, and I do not know that he is saying that it is wrong to wear some adornment. That is not the point. He is saying: 'Is your hair your world in which you live? Is this jewellery your world?' Is this not a propos to our time? My word - hair! Well, the least said the better, I think! And the adornments, the get-up, the make-up, the what-not in these days! That is the world of many people. They spend so much of their time on that - how they look, what impression they make, and so on. Now do not believe that Peter is saying: 'Be slovenly in your appearance. Be careless about how you dress.' God forbid! A lot of women, I am afraid, do go to the other extreme in this matter and let the Lord down by carelessness, but Peter is saying: 'What is the world you live in?' 'Kosmos' has several meanings, and one of them is 'manner of life', the world that occupies you and takes you up. Is this your world?

Peter says that in the new Israel you are in another realm, and are not living in that world. That is the world of the world, and where others outside of Israel live all the time. I sometimes think that if only some of these people in our time who get themselves up as they do could have a look at Jezebel, the wife of Ahab, they would get scared. And yet they are copying Jezebel, with their eyelids, eyelashes, and everything else. Oh, it is frightening, for it has come from there. It is that world. Peter knows all about that and says: 'Dear sisters, don't let that be your world! The holy women of old who hoped in God did not do that. They did not behave like that'; and he cites Sarah. The beauty of life is not the beauty that we try to make. Peter says: 'The ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is priceless.' That is the world of the new Israel.

When Peter has pinpointed these various matters (I assume that he takes it that it is not necessary to distribute his exhortations over a lot of other practical points), he gathers them all up and says: 'And all of you.' Whether it be husbands, wives, servants and masters, in particular, and these relationships in particular, their particular problems, and their particular manner of life, behaviour and conduct before the world... he says 'all of you'. All husbands, all wives, all servants, all masters, all of you, whatever you are, you all belong to a new realm with new behaviour and a new manner of life.

Peter gathers it all up in this way with, mark you, another allusion to the old Israel which failed and now has to be taken up in the new: "That ye may shew forth the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light." That is the all-inclusive object that God has in view, for which the Israel of old was brought out of Egypt's darkness into the light of God - to show forth the excellencies of Him who brought them out. So Peter gathers everything up into this: We have been brought out of all this darkness into light with one purpose and one object - as the new Israel which makes good what the Old Israel lost, fulfils what the old Israel failed to fulfil - showing forth the excellencies of Him.

This is very exacting and very testing, is it not? 'I have to be careful how I live in my home before my family, in the midst of the Lord's people, and before this world as I pass the time of my sojourning here, in order that the excellencies of Him who called me out of darkness into light should not be veiled, not be beclouded, but be seen. That those with whom I live shall not see too much of me, naturally. They are bound to see a little before I am perfected, but not obtruding itself, or forcing itself, so that it is the thing that they meet, and they say: "That is just her - or him. She has made up her mind to do that and nothing will stop her" ... thus veiling the excellencies of Him who called me out of darkness into His marvellous light.'

I hope there is nothing depressing about this, but, you know we have to stand up to our teaching. We have really had so much teaching, and it is necessary for us to measure up to what has been shown to us. It is very practical in everyday life and everyday relationships, and it all amounts to this: 'Are those who are observing me seeing me naturally, or - if they are at all sensitive to spiritual values and have eyes to see - are they able to discern the grace of God in me, neutralising me and making Christ in His preciousness manifested?' If something of this emerges from our little time together we shall not have met in vain - it will have been worthwhile. The Lord make it so!

Chapter 4 - The Return of Grace

We proceed to a further small fragment in this great matter which has been opened to us concerning the change from the old Israel to a new Israel, which was declared by the Lord Jesus Himself when He said to the leaders and representatives of the old Israel: "The kingdom of God shall be taken away from you, and shall be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof" (Matthew 21:43). This actually has taken place. As the last many centuries of history have made perfectly evident, the Kingdom of God has been taken away from that former Israel, and they are without it all through this present dispensation. It has been transferred to a new Israel - "a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof".

We have been seeing how Peter is the bridge between the two Israels, standing in the gap between the old and the new, and how by him the old passes and the new is established, both in his own person, and what was done in him by the Holy Spirit, and in his ministry. The fruits of a nation, of the kingdom of the new Israel, are manifested, and we have been looking at some of the fruits as seen in and through the life and the ministry of this first of the twelve, the Apostle Peter.

If you have any doubt whatever about the truth of this, you only have to look at his first Letter again. We have said a lot of things, which are true, but there is that which gathers it all up and presents it to us concretely. You will find it in his first Letter, chapter 2, verses 4-10:

"Unto whom coming, a living stone, rejected indeed of men, but with God elect, precious, ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Because it is contained in scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be put to shame. For You therefore which believe is the preciousness: but for such as disbelieve, The stone which the builders rejected, the same was made the head of the corner; and, A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence; for they stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed. But ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that ye may shew forth the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: which in time past were no people, but now are the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy."

(Note in verse 9: "But ye..." There is the transition to the new.)

That section does not leave us in any doubt that the old has been transferred to the new, but in a different realm and with a different nature. Peter, who had all the tradition of the former Israel, has come to see that now all that was there in a temporal way has been passed over to a spiritual realm. Now all is of a spiritual, and not of a temporal, character.

There are many things here that would be helpful for us to dwell upon. We could take up this whole paragraph bit by bit, for there is so much wealth in it. I am not intending to do that, but I want to point out one thing in that connection before passing on to the thing which I feel is the Lord's word for this time.

The Location of the New Israel

Here the Apostle says: "Ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that ye may shew forth the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light." Do you notice that is all in the singular? "An elect race, a holy nation, a royal priesthood."

In the old dispensation that was all concentrated in a place on this earth: in the temple at Jerusalem. That Israel had its focal point, its unity, in that geographical centre. The elect race was represented, gathered into, Jerusalem, and its focus was there. The holy nation was synonymous with Jerusalem, whither the tribes went up. The royal priesthood was centred in Jerusalem. That was where Israel went to see the priesthood, for it functioned in the city of the great king. They were 'a people for God's own possession': one thing, with that focal point in the nations.

Now, how does Peter begin his first Letter? "Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the elect" ... who are centred in Jerusalem? No, not at all! ... "who are the sojourners of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia" - and anywhere else you like to mention. Do you see the point? Wherever this people is there is a representation of all this. If it is anywhere in the world, dispersed amongst the nations over the earth, there it represents, or is intended to represent, all that is here about the new Israel.

An Elect Race

If we were to dwell upon that it would take a long time, but there is one thing that we will say.

You know that the elect is something very, very precious to God, so precious that it is going to be saved (Matthew 24:22). It says that at the end "there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect" (Matthew 24:24 - AV). Logically, of course, the elect is not going to be deceived. It is something very precious to God, wherever it is, but it is no longer something concentrated in some place on this earth, whether it be Rome, or Jerusalem, or anywhere else, but it is scattered abroad in the nations. Not only is it representative of the new Israel, but it is called upon, and expected, to function there in this capacity.

A Royal Priesthood

The priesthood in the new Israel is not a cult of men wearing certain kinds of robes, performing a certain ritual, and going through a certain performance of religion. There are no outward robes on the royal priests in the new Israel. You, dear friends, if you are in this, are as much a priest as ever there was a priest in the Israel of old, and your function as such, therefore, is to "offer up spiritual sacrifices" to be a sacrificing priest in union with the King. A royal priesthood is a priesthood of kingship, of Divine rule, authority, majesty, and united with the Throne, to function as such.

A Holy Nation

Do you remember what we have said about holiness? 'Holy' in the Bible means being completely separated from all that is not God to all and only what is God, being separated unto God. 'Holy' and 'sanctified' are the same word, with the same meaning - completely God's, with every other link severed. God's holy people are a holy nation among the nations, but different from the nations, a holy nation in the world, but different therefrom. Peter says: 'You are not now a temple made with hands, built with stone, after the old order, but you are a spiritual house, wherever you are scattered, and God only sees one. However so many parts there may be, with very many miles between, God only sees one spiritual house, composed of spiritual stones. Jesus Christ is not so many corner stones, but one corner stone of the whole.'

There is here another one of these remarkable allusions to Peter's former life in the days of Christ's flesh, and it is more than interesting. I sometimes feel that these allusions almost touch a vein of humour as Peter in his mentality is picking it all up and transferring it. He says here about this new spiritual house that is being built in this dispensation, that this is the fulfilment of the Old Testament statement: "I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious...", and then he goes on: "A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence; for they stumble at the word."

'Peter, I am going up to Jerusalem, and there I am going to be delivered into the hands of wicked men. They will crucify Me...' 'No, Lord, never! This shall never come to Thee!' "Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art a stumblingblock unto me." "They stumble at the word." This is wrought into the very fibre of Peter's spiritual life. How the word of the Cross was a stumblingblock to Peter! What Paul said about the Jews was true of him: "The word of the cross is to them that are perishing foolishness... we preach Christ crucified, unto Jews a stumblingblock" (1 Corinthians 1:18,23). It was an offence to them, and the word 'offence' is, as you know, the same word in the original as 'stumblingblock'. The Greek word is 'scandal', 'offence' or 'stumblingblock'. Peter fell headlong when the Lord Jesus spoke of the Cross, and He said: 'You are an offence, a stumblingblock. You are a scandal to Me. Get thee behind Me!' Ah, Peter has pulled over here, and to the unbelieving people he says: 'This whole new spiritual house, and all to do with it, is not believed and therefore you stumble at the word. You go headlong over this. It is a rock of offence. The word of the Cross is an offence. But to you who believe is the preciousness.' That is the difference between the old and the new.

Well, I have said that we could see so much more about this change from the old to the new - the new house, the new sacrifices - but I want to give the short remaining space to one special thing in this Letter.

The Return of Grace

First, we note how Peter himself represents this new Israel in the transition, and the tremendous thing that had to be done to make that transition from the one to the other. We have been seeing what a transition it was in Peter's case. We have really only been glimpsing it, but it was a tremendous thing that happened in this man! Look again at the former Peter, the Simon Peter before what the Lord Jesus referred to as his conversion - "when once thou hast turned again" (Luke 22:32) - and remember the fulness of selfhood, and his assertiveness. If anyone is going to speak first, it will be Peter, and if anyone is going to speak loudest, it will be Peter. If anyone is going to take the floor before anyone else, it will be Peter. He was asserting himself all the time. "Thou shalt never wash my feet" (John 13:8), and then, seeing that there is a possibility of losing something and that by changing his attitude he would get something more: "Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head." ... 'I will have all that I can get.'

You see this strength of self-assertiveness, his self-sufficiency all the time: 'I will never forsake Thee. Though all men forsake Thee, I will never do so. I will go even unto death with Thee.' Such self-sufficiency: and we could enlarge upon this side of the man - how full he was in himself! Then see this man being undone, really taken to pieces and emptied. It was a terrific thing! You would hardly believe that in so short a time after making these assertions, these bold, self-confident assertions, this man should be found totally unable to carry out what he said he would do. He was stripped, emptied of it all, undone; and the last word of that scene is: "And he went out, and wept bitterly." He was broken, shattered, desolated and emptied. But that was necessary for this passage through into the new realm, this new Israel, this new spiritual position. And so I say Peter himself is a representative of the kind of thing that has to be done to make the transition from one Israel to the other.

With you and with me it may not all happen between the morning and the evening, and it may not ever go like that in one day, but, believe me, the principle holds good. Dear friends, it is going to be just in the measure in which you and I are emptied of ourselves that we know the meaning, the power, the glory and the preciousness of the new Israel and of the Lord Jesus. That is why the Lord takes pains to empty us. It may be spread over many years. Indeed I think that when it starts, and we do not so rebel that we bind the Lord's hands so that He cannot go on, it goes on until the end of our lives. On the one side making us say 'NO!' to our own weakness and our own foolishness after all, to our own emptiness and undone state. That is on the negative side, but on the positive: our utter dependence upon the Lord, so that if it were not for the Lord the situation would be hopeless. That is Peter, representing this new thing that has come in.

That leads me to the thing that I want particularly to emphasize at this time, in the light of what I have just been saying, and in that setting - the undoing of this man.

What is Peter's characteristic word in this Letter? I have no doubt that Bible students would give it to me at once! It is the word 'grace'. It does not take more than about ten minutes to read this Letter, and when you have done so you have read the word 'grace' twelve times. Unfortunately it is not always translated as 'grace'. I do not know why the translators changed the same word into another English word. Twice they have translated this same word into 'acceptable', but, including those two occasions where the original word is still the same, the Apostle uses the word 'grace' twelve times in this very short Letter.

You know how he begins his greeting: "According to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied" (1 Peter 1:2).

Then in verse 10: "Concerning which salvation the prophets sought and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you." The prophets looked forward to what we have, and there it is: the grace purposed for this new Israel. It is the inheritance of this new Israel, and the prophets prophesied about it long before.

We turn to chapter 2, and here we come upon the other unfortunate translation, but in putting it right we have something very rich:

"For this is acceptable, if for conscience toward God a man endureth griefs, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it, if, when ye sin, and are buffeted for it, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye shall take it patiently, this is acceptable with God" (verses 19,20).

Now put it right:

"For this is grace, if for conscience toward God a man endureth griefs, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it, if, when ye sin, and are buffeted for it, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye shall take it patiently, this is grace with God" (RV margin).

You will see at once that Peter uses the word 'grace' in an altogether different way from Paul. Paul uses this word tremendously; indeed, it is almost a characteristic word of his, but his use of it is always 'God's grace toward us'. We call it 'unmerited favour', justifying us, who are not just at all. "The riches of his grace, which he made to abound toward us" (Ephesians 1:7,8).

Peter has a different angle on this matter. Of course, he would agree with Paul, for this whole experience of his is based upon God's favour toward him. Just think of the grace of God toward this man! But what is he saying? 'Out of the grace which has been so marvellously shown in my case, I have to show grace from myself outwardly in this world of difficulty and of suffering. That grace has to have a reaction toward people and toward things. That grace which God has shown to me I have got to show now when I am under stress, trial and difficulty, buffeted for being right and doing the right thing, and unjustly accused and made to suffer. There must be no retaliation. I must endure patiently.' That is the return of grace - the grace of God in us as a return action, in order to 'show forth the excellencies of Him'.

That is a wonderful way of using the word 'grace'! But it is very practical - Peter is very practical. He says: 'Look here, you are being treated unfairly, unjustly, and you do not really merit what you are having to put up with. It is not because of wrong in you. You can be bitter, rebellious, resentful, if you like. You can give as good as you get. You can retaliate.' But Peter says that is a breakdown of grace. If, when things are like that, you take it patiently, then that is grace. You see, this word 'acceptable' is quite a good word: "acceptable with God". The meaning is there, but it is not so apparent, is it, as when it is translated correctly? 'This is grace with God: suffering wrongfully and taking it patiently.'

Now we are all put on the spot over this! This human nature of ours is not like that! Mine is not, at any rate. Is yours? Have you got any fighting nature? Have you any self-strength? Have you any soul strength? Do you say: 'I am not going to take that lying down'? Well, that is just what is here. Grace is: Taking it lying down and letting them go on.

This is a new order of things, is it not? So different from the old Israel! It is a new realm: grace in its reactions to persecutions, misrepresentations, slanders and everything that is unfair and untrue, keeping your tongue still, your lips closed and refusing to vindicate yourself. This is grace with God.

In the last chapter I mentioned one other thing and I am not going to return to it in detail - the relationship between husbands and wives and wives and husbands when the situation is difficult because either may be having to put up with something difficult from the other. The Apostle, as you remember, said (in chapter 3:7) that the basis of that relationship is that they are 'fellow-heirs of the grace of life'. If they are true, both of them being born again, they have a common ground - Divine life, the grace of life, and they must always seek to react to one another upon the common ground of what is of the Lord in each other. It is not always easy, but it is a very different kind of life from the old realm.

We just mention that, and pass on into chapter 4:10: "Good stewards of the manifold grace of God". Here we are again on very practical ground. The Lord has given you a gift of some kind. It may be a gift of a temporal kind, such as means, or a gift of influence, or it may be that you have a spiritual gift of some kind. Whatever it is, you have, by the grace of God, some resource, something in your hand, something that you possess. It is something that the Lord has given you, and He has given it to you to use. Whatever it is, it is a stewardship that has been committed to you, and that stewardship has to be exercised upon the principle of grace. Grace does not mean keeping to yourself what you have, and withholding from others what you could give. It does not mean letting others suffer loss when you could do something to meet their need, whatever it may be, spiritual or temporal. Grace in us demands that we do all that we can to see that others are ministered to. That is grace - 'as good stewards of the many-sided grace of God', which just means that to one the grace of God has given this, and to another that. It is not the same to everyone, but everyone in this new Israel has something to give.

I could take you back to the Old Testament and illustrate that. What about the building of the tabernacle? Everyone had to give something - gold, silver, wood, fabric. Everyone had something to contribute, and they were called upon to minister what they had. Now we have passed over into this new spiritual Israel, and what have we got that others would benefit by? It is a violation of the principle of grace to keep it to ourselves and not let others have it. Well, perhaps that is too self-evident to need emphasizing, but you see that Peter uses the word 'grace' in this connection, meaning that every member of the spiritual Israel should be a contributing member in some way or other, and not just a receiving one. There are far too many passengers in the Church, far too many who just sit with open mouths, taking it all in, and never giving anything. I hope that does not apply to anyone here. Grace means that we are a giving people. We have something to give, and we are giving it, and we ought to have something to give.

"Likewise, ye younger, be subject unto the elder. Yea, all of you gird yourselves with humility, to serve one another: for God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble" (v. 5). I like this very much! You would miss it very largely, except for the obvious surface statements and words, unless you knew exactly what lies behind this in the original language, and then you would see at once what Peter is talking about. Supposing I give it to you: "All of you gird on the apron of humility to serve one another." Now where are you? You are back in John 13, where Jesus laid aside His robe and put on the apron of the servant - girded Himself with the apron of the servant. Peter has not forgotten that! "Now all of you put on the apron of the servant to serve one another; for God resisteth the proud." Peter was very, very near to that at that time: "Never wash my feet!" Why not? Peter was too proud. "God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble." Grace is donning the servant's apron to serve one another. Need we say anything more about that? This is the true grace of God.

"And the God of all grace, who called you unto his eternal glory in Christ, after that ye have suffered a little while, shall himself perfect, stablish, strengthen you. To him be the dominion for ever and ever" (v. 10,11).

Grace triumphant through suffering. Peter is at the end of the Letter now and is only going to have one more use of this word. But he has said a lot in this Letter about suffering - the sufferings of Christ being shared by the members of this new Israel... "Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial among you, as though a strange thing happened unto you" (4:12). Yes, he has a lot to say about sufferings, and they were sufferings! You do not perhaps know that when he wrote this Letter the great persecution under Nero had broken out. Paul was beheaded, and how long there was between that and Peter being crucified we do not know, but he remembered and mentioned it here, in 2 Peter 1:14, that he was to put off his tabernacle even as the Lord had shown him. And where did the Lord show him that? In John 21:18: "When thou wast young, thou girdest thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. Now this he spake, signifying by what manner of death he should glorify God." Although it is not recorded in the New Testament, the tradition is quite strong that Peter was crucified. The difference between Paul's death and Peter's was this: the Romans could not crucify a Roman citizen, and Paul was a Roman citizen, so he could not be crucified. But anyone of another nation could be crucified, so Peter was crucified and Paul was beheaded.

So now it was the time of suffering. Paul meets the ultimate of that suffering and Peter is about to meet it. It was a time when all the Christians everywhere were being terribly persecuted, but here Peter says: 'Through the suffering of this little while there will be grace sufficient to make us triumphant.' Grace triumphant in suffering! I would say that we are not always overwhelmingly conscious of that triumphant grace, but what I could say is this: After a fairly long life, and knowing a little bit about this, the marvel of the triumph is that we are still found going on with the Lord, when a hundred times, if it had been left to us, we could have gone out. It is a terrible thing to say, but it is possible to come to such a place that you would wash your hands of Christianity altogether when you come to know the real state of things in the realm of Christendom. Well, that is a shocking thing to say - but for the grace of God where would we be through all the sufferings? However, here it is: "After that ye have suffered a little while, shall himself perfect, stablish, strengthen you."

Now, with all this about grace in this Letter, what is the final word? "Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:18). 'Grow in your patience, in your forbearance, in your being silent under provocation, in your enduring suffering, in the difficulties of your relationships - let it be growing in grace.'

You will see how hurried one has had to be and how much one has had to leave out, but that is enough! I can say more in an hour than you can fulfil in a lifetime!

Let us go away and ask the Lord for grace, that the word which He has spoken to us shall really be, as with this man, in our very being, and that this shall be the kind of people that we are.