the work of the Trinity in man's election and salvation; and he
concludes them with a benediction part of which is very frequent in
the letters of St. Paul: _Grace to you and peace_. The early preachers
felt that these two blessings travelled hand in hand, and comprised
everything which a believer could need: God's favour and the happiness
which is its fruit. Grace is the nurture of the Christian life; peace
is its character. These strangers of the dispersion had been made
partakers of the Divine grace. This very letter was one gift more, the
consolation of which we can well conceive. But St. Peter models his
benediction to be a fitting sequel to his previous teaching. _Grace_,
he says, _to you and peace be multiplied_. The verb "be multiplied" is
only used by him here and in the Second Epistle, and by St. Jude,
whose letter has so much in common with St. Peter's.
In this prayer the same thought is with him as when he spake of the
stages of the Christian election. There must ever be growth as the
sign of life. Let them hold fast the grace already received, and more
would be bestowed. Grace for grace is God's rule of giving, new store
for what has been rightly used. This one word of his prayer would say
to them, Seek constantly greater sanctification, more holiness, from
the Spirit; yield your will to God in imitation of Jesus, who
sanctified Himself that His servants might be sanctified. Then, though
you be strangers of the dispersion, though the world will have none of
you, you shall be kept in perfect peace, and feel sure that you can
trust His words who says to His warfaring servants, "Be of good cheer;
I have overcome the world."
II
_THE HEAVENLY INHERITANCE_
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
according to His great mercy begat us again unto a living hope by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto an
inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not
away, 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. 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 i. 3-9.
"Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh," words true of
all this letter, but of no part more true than of the thanksgiving
with which it opens. The Apostle recalls those dark three days in
which the life he bore was worse than death. His vaunted fidelity had
been put to the proof, and had failed in the trial; his denial had
barred the approach to the Master whom he had disowned. The
crucifixion of Jesus had followed close upon His arrest, and Peter's
bitter tears of penitence could avail nothing. He to whom they might
have appealed was lying in the grave. The Apostle's repentant weeping
saved him from a Judas-like despair, but dreary must have been the
desolation of his soul until the Easter morning's message told him
that Jesus was alive again.
We can understand the fervency of his thanksgiving: _Blessed be God,
which hath begotten us again by the resurrection of Christ from the
dead_. No better image than the gift of a new life could he find to
describe the restoration that came with the words of the angel from
the empty tomb, "He is risen; go your way: tell His disciples and
Peter that He goeth before you into Galilee." The Lord forgave His
sinning, sorrowing servant, and through this forgiveness he lived
again, and bears printed for ever on his heart the memory of that
life-giving. The very form of his phrase in this verse is an echo from
the resurrection morning: _Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ_.
Only in a few passages resembling this in St. Paul's epistles[1] is
God called "the God of our Lord Jesus Christ." But Peter is mindful of
the Lord's own words to Mary, "Go unto My brethren and say unto them,
I ascend unto My Father and your Father, and My God and your God"
(John xx. 17); and now that he is made one of Christ's heralds, the
feeder of His sheep, he publishes the same message which was the
source of his own highest joy, and which he would make a joy for them
likewise. That God is called theirs, even as He is Christ's, is an
earnest that Jesus has made them His brethren indeed. To the doctrine
of their election according to the foreknowledge of the Father he now
adds the further grace which couples the Fatherhood of God with the
brotherhood of Christ.
[1] 2 Cor. i. 3, xi. 31; Eph. i. 3, with which may be compared Rom.
xvi. 6.
That these gifts are purely of God's grace he also implies: _He begat
us again_. Just as in natural birth the child is utterly of the will
of the parents, so is it in the spiritual new birth. _According to
God's great mercy_ we are born again and made heirs of all the
consequent blessings. This passage from death unto life is rich, in
the first place, in immediate comfort. Witness the rejoicing amidst
his grief which St. Peter experienced when he could cry to the Master,
"Lord, Thou knowest all things: Thou knowest that I love Thee." But
the new life looks for ever onward. It will be unbroken through
eternity. Here we may taste the joy of our calling, may learn
something of the Father's love, of the Saviour's grace, of the
Spirit's help; but our best expectations centre ever in the future.
The Apostle terms these expectations a lively, or rather _a living,
hope_. The Christian's hope is living because Christ is alive again
from the dead. It springs with ever-renewed life from that rent tomb.
The grave is no longer a terminus. Life and hope endure beyond it. And
more than this, there is a fresh principle of vitality infused into
the soul of the new-born child of God. The Spirit, the Life-giver, has
made His abode there; and death is swallowed up of victory.
In continuing his description of the living hope of the believer, the
Apostle keeps in mind his simile of Fatherhood and sonship, and gives
to the hope the further title of _an inheritance_. As sons of Adam,
men are heirs from their birth, but only to the sad consequences of
the primal transgression. Slaves they are, and not free men, as that
other law in their members gives them daily proof. But in the
resurrection of Jesus the agonised cry of St. Paul, "Who shall deliver
me?" (Rom. vii. 24), has found its answer. Christians are begotten
again, not to defeat and despair, but to a hope which is eternal, to
an inheritance which will endure beyond the grave. And as in their
spiritual growth they are ever aspiring to an ideal above and beyond
them, in respect of the saintly inheritance they have a like
experience. They begin to grasp it now in part, and have even here a
precious earnest of the larger blessedness; they are sealed by the
Holy Spirit of promise and marked as the redeemed of God's own
possession (Eph. i. 13, 14). But that which shall be is rich with an
exceeding wealth of glory; Christ keeps the good wine of His grace to
the last.
How beggared earthly speech appears when we essay by it to picture the
glory that shall be revealed for us! The inheritance of the
Christian's hope demands for its description those unspeakable words
which St. Paul heard in paradise, but could not utter. The tongues of
men are constrained to fall back upon negatives. What it will be we
cannot express. We only know some evils from which it will be free. It
shall be _incorruptible_, like the God and Father (Rom. i. 23) who
bestows it. _Eternal_, it shall contain within it no seed of decay,
nothing which can cause it to perish. Neither shall it be subject to
injury from without. It shall be _undefiled_, for we are to share it
with our elder Brother, our High-priest (Heb. vii. 26), who is now
made higher than the heavens. Earthly possessions are often sullied,
now by the way they are attained, now by the way they are used.
Neither spot nor blemish shall tarnish the beauty of the heavenly
inheritance. It shall _never fade away_. It is amaranthine, like the
crown of glory (1 Peter v. 4) which the chief Shepherd shall bestow at
His appearing; it is as the unwithering flowers of paradise.
Nor are these the only things which make the heavenly to differ from
the earthly inheritance. In this life, ere a son can succeed to
heirship, the parent through whom it is derived must have passed away;
while the many heirs to an earthly estate diminish, as their number
increases, the shares of all the rest. From such conditions the
Christian's future is free. His Father is the Eternal God, his
inheritance the inexhaustible bounty of heaven. Each and all who share
therein will find an increase of joy as the number grows of those who
claim this eternal Fatherhood, and with it a place in the Father's
home.
St. Peter adds another feature which gives further assurance to the
believer's hope. The inheritance is reserved. Concerning it there can
be no thought of dwindling or decay. It is where neither rust nor moth
can corrupt, and where not even the archthief Satan himself can break
through to steal. There needs no preservation of the incorruptible and
undefiled, but it is especially kept for those for whom it is
prepared. He who has gone before to make it ready said, "I go to
prepare it for you." The Apostle has made choice of his preposition
advisedly. He says, ἐις ὑμᾶς[2]--on your behalf; for your
own possession. The inheritance is where Christ has gone before us, in
heaven, of which we can best think, as Himself hath taught us, as the
place "where He was before" (John vi. 62), the Father's house, in
which are many mansions. There it is in store, till we are made ready
for it.
[2] The better reading, looking back to the ἡμᾶς of ver. 3,
appears to be ἐις ἡμᾶ, and it is well supported.
For the present life is only a preparation-time. Ere we are ready to
depart we must pass through a probation. God suffers His beloved ones
to be chastened, but He sends with the trial the means of rescue. They
are _guarded_. The word which St. Peter here uses is one applicable to
a military guard, such as would be needed in the country of an enemy.
God sees what we stand in need of. For we are still in the territory
of the prince of this world. But mark the abundant protection: _by the
power of God through faith_. The Apostle's language sets our
guardianship forth under a double aspect. The Christian is "in"
(ἐν) "the power of God." Here is the strength of our
wardship. Under such care the believer is enabled to walk amid the
trials of the world unscathed. Yet the Divine shield around him is not
made effective unless he do his part also. Through faith the shelter
becomes impregnable. The Christian goes forward with full assurance,
his eyes fixed on the goal of duty which his Master has set before
him, and, heedless of assailants, perseveres in the struggles which
beset him. Then, even in the fiercest fires of trial, he beholds by
his side the Son of God, and hears the voice, "It is I; be not
afraid."
Thus to the faithful warfarer the victory is sure. And to this
certainty St. Peter points as he continues, and calls the heavenly
inheritance a _salvation_. This will be the consummation. "Sursum
corda" is the believer's constant watchword. The completed bliss will
not be attained here. But when the veil is lifted which separates this
life from the next, it is ready to be manifested and to ravish the
sight with its glory. The sense of this salvation ready to be revealed
nerves the heart for every conflict. By faith weakness grows mighty.
Thus comes to pass the paradox of the Christian life, which none but
the faithful can comprehend: "When I am weak, then I am strong"; "I
can do all things through Christ, that giveth me power."
Hence comes the wondrous spectacle, which St. Peter was contemplating,
and which amazed the heathen world, exceeding joy in the midst of
sufferings. _Wherein ye greatly rejoice_, he says. Some have thought
him to be referring to a mental realisation of the last time, about
which he has just spoken, a realisation so vivid to the faith of these
converts that they could exult in the prospect as though it had
already arrived. And this exposition is countenanced in some degree by
words which follow (ver. 9), where he describes them as now receiving
the end of their faith, even the salvation of their souls.
But it seems less forced to consider the Apostle as speaking with some
knowledge of the circumstances of these Asian Christians, a knowledge
of the trials they had to undergo, and how hope was animating them to
look onwards towards their inheritance, which was but a little while
in reversion, towards the salvation which was so soon to be revealed.
Full of this hope, he says, ye greatly rejoice, though ye have had
many things to suffer. Then he proceeds to dwell on some of the
grounds for their consolation. Their trials, they knew, were but for a
little while, not a moment longer than the need should be. Their
sorrow would have an end; their joy would last for evermore.
The form of St. Peter's words,[3] it is true, seems to imply that
there must always be the need for our chastening. And what else can
the children of Adam expect? But it is He, the Father in heaven, who
fixes both the nature and the duration of His children's discipline.
Some men have felt within themselves the need of chastisement so
keenly that they have devised systems for themselves whereby they
should mortify the flesh, and prepare themselves for the last time.
But of self-appointed chastenings the Apostle does not speak. Of such
the converts to whom he writes had no need. They _had been put to
grief in manifold temptations_.
[3]Ἐι δέον ἐστί--if need be, as need there is.
We can gather from the Epistle itself some notion of the troublous
life these scattered Christians had amid the crowd of their heathen
neighbours. They were regarded with contempt for refusing to mingle in
the excesses which were so marked a feature of heathen life and
heathen worship. They were railed upon as evil-doers. They suffered
innocently, were constantly assailed with threatenings, and passed
their time oft in such terror that St. Peter describes their life as a
fiery trial.
Yet in the word (ποικίλος) which he here employs to picture
the varied character of their sufferings we seem to have another hint
that these did not fall out without the permission and watchful
control of God Himself. It is a word which, while it tells of a
countless variety, tells at the same time of fitness and order
therein. The trials are meted out fitly, as men need and can profit by
them. The Master's eye and hand are at work through them all; and the
faithful God keeps always ready a way of deliverance. In this wise
does St. Peter proclaim that the putting to grief may be made unto us
a dispensation of mercy. Himself had been so put to grief by the
thrice-repeated question, "Lovest thou Me?" (John xxi. 17). But a way
was opened thereby for repentance of his triple denial, and that he
might thrice over be entrusted with the feeding of Christ's flock.
Such was the putting to grief of the Corinthian Church (2 Cor. vii.
9) by St. Paul's first letter, for it wrought in them repentance, so
that they sorrowed after a godly sort. And such sorrow can exist side
by side with, yea be the source of, exceeding joy. The Apostle of the
Gentiles is a witness when he says that he and his fellow-labourers
are "sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing" (2 Cor. vi. 10).
The Christian does not allow troubles to overwhelm him. The very
comparison which St. Peter here institutes, speaking though it does of
a furnace of trial, bears within it somewhat of consolation. Gold that
is proved by the fire loses all the dross which clung about it and was
mingled with it before the refining. It comes forth in all its purity,
all its worth; and so shall it be with the believer after his
probation. The things of earth will lose their value in his eyes; they
will fall away from him, neither will he load himself with the thick
clay of the world's honours or wealth. The ties of such things have
been sundered by his trials, and his heart is free to rise above the
anxieties of time. And better even than the most refined gold, which,
be it never so excellent, will yet be worn away, the faith of the
believer comes forth stronger for all trial, and he shall hear at the
last the welcome of the Master, "Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord,"
the joy which He bestows, the joy which He shares with those that
follow Him.
This is the revelation of Jesus Christ of which St. Peter speaks. This
is the praise which through His atonement His servants shall find, and
shall become sharers of the glory and honour which the Father has
bestowed upon Him. To Christ then turns every affection. _Whom not
having seen ye love._ This is the test since Christ's ascension, and
has the promise of special blessing. To His doubting Apostle Christ
vouchsafed the evidence he desired, for our teaching as well as for
his; but He added therewith, "Blessed are they which have not seen and
yet have believed." And their joy is such as no tongue can tell. Not
for that are they silent in their rejoicing; their hearts overflow,
and their voices go forth in constant songs of praise. But ever there
remains with them the sense, "The half has not been told."
For faith anticipates the bliss which God hath prepared for them that
love Him, and enters into the unseen. The Holy Spirit within the soul
is ever making fuller revelation of the deep things of God. The
believer's knowledge is ever increasing; the eye-salve of faith clears
his spiritual vision. The thanksgivings of yesterday are poor when
considered in the illumination of to-day. His joy also is glorified.
As his aspirations soar heavenward, the glory from on high comes
forth, as it were, to meet him. By gazing in faith on the coming Lord,
the Christian progresses, through the power of the Spirit, from glory
to glory; and the ever-growing radiance is a part of that grace which
no words can tell. But so true, so real, is the sense of Christ's
presence that the Apostle describes it as full fruition. Believers
_receive even now the end of their faith, the salvation of their
souls_. So assured does He make them of all which they have hoped for
that they behold already the termination of their journey, the close
of all trial, and are filled with the bliss which shall be fully
theirs when Christ shall come to call His approved servants to their
inheritance of salvation.
III
_THE UNITY AND GLORIOUSNESS OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION_
"Concerning which salvation the prophets sought and searched
diligently, who prophesied of the grace that _should come_ unto
you: searching what _time_ or what manner of time the Spirit of
Christ which was in them did point unto, when it testified
beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that should
follow them. To whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves,
but unto you, did they minister these things, which now have been
announced unto you through them that preached the Gospel unto you
by the Holy Ghost sent forth from heaven; which things angels
desire to look into."--1 PETER i. 10-12.
The message of the Gospel unlocks the treasures of Old Testament
revelation. Evangelists and Apostles are the exponents of the
prophets. The continuity of Divine revelation has never been broken.
The Spirit which spake through Joel of the pentecostal outpouring had
spoken to men in the earlier days, to Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and
David, and was now shed forth upon the first preachers of the Gospel,
and bestowed abundantly for the work of the newly founded Church of
Christ. St. Peter, himself a chief recipient of the gift, here
proclaims the oneness of the whole of revelation; and more than this,
he bears witness to the oneness of the teaching of the whole body of
Christian missionaries. St. Paul and his fellow-labourers had spread
the glad tidings first of all among these Asian converts; but there
is no thought in St. Peter's mind of a different gospel from his own.
Those who preached the Gospel to them in the first instance were, even
as himself, working in and by the same Holy Spirit.
In the preceding verses of the chapter the thoughts of the Apostle
have been dwelling on the future, on the time when the hope of the
believer shall attain its fruition, and faith shall be lost in sight.
He now turns his glance backward to notice how the promise of
salvation has been the subject of revelation through all time. To
those among the converts who had studied the Jewish Scriptures such a
retrospect would be fruitful in instruction. They would comprehend
with him how the truths which they now heard preached had been
gradually shadowed forth in the Divine economy. That first
proclamation of the seed of the woman to be born for the overthrow of
the tempter, but who yet must Himself be a Sufferer in the conflict,
was now become luminous, and in outline presented the whole scheme of
redemption. The study of the development of that scheme would beget a
full trust in their hearts for the future as they contemplated the
stages of its foreshadowing in the past.
_Concerning which salvation_, he says, _the prophets sought and
searched diligently_. The Divine revelation could only be made as men
were able to bear it, and the sentences of old must needs be dark. At
first God's love was set forth by His covenants with the patriarchs.
Then the wider scope of mercy was proclaimed in the promises given to
Abraham and repeated to his posterity. In their seed, it was declared,
not the chosen race alone, but all the nations of the earth, should be
blessed. Here all through the history was ground enough for diligent
searching among the faithful. How could these things be, Abraham
solitary and aged, Isaac's sons at feud with each other, Jacob and his
posterity in captivity? Even at their best estate these seemed little
fitted for the destiny which had been foretold to them. But throughout
the Mosaic history some clung to their faith, and their great leader
foresaw that the promise would be fulfilled in its time through One of
whom he was but a feeble representative. But to so wide a vision only
a few attained.
In the evil days which followed, the hope of the people must often
have dwindled down; but yet at times, as to Gideon's diminished army,
it was made manifest that the Lord could do great things for His
people: and the thought of the seed of the woman promised as a
Deliverer lingered in many hearts, and enabled them to sing in
thankfulness how the adversaries of the Lord should be broken in
pieces, how out of heaven the Lord should thunder upon them, and prove
Himself the Judge of all the ends of the earth, giving strength unto
His king and exalting the horn of His anointed. In such wise the
prophetic teaching, which had advanced from the blessing of an
individual to the choice and exaltation of a chosen family, was
expanded in the noblest spirits to the conception of a kingdom of God
among all mankind, and assumed a more definite form when the promise
was made to the Son of David that His throne should be established for
ever.
But how imperfectly God's design was comprehended by the best among
them we can see from the last words of David himself (2 Sam. xxiii.
1-7). In them we have an instance of the searching which must have
occupied other hearts beside that of the king of Israel. The Spirit of
the Lord had spoken by him, and a promise of future glory had been
made, when all should be brightness, every cloud dispersed. But the
vision tarried. The house of David was not so with God. Yet he still
held firmly to the everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and
sure, a covenant of salvation, though as yet God made it not to grow.
David may be numbered among those _who prophesied of the grace that
should come_ hereafter; and his words are shaped by a power above his
own, to suggest the advent of Him who was to be the "dayspring from on
high."