thoughts and aspirations in the Psalter felt that the history of the
chosen people was from first to last a grand parable (Psalm lxxviii.
2), and that the present could always be learning from the leading and
discipline of the past. The miracles and the chastisements which they
recite were all tokens of the sure promise, tokens that the people
were not forgotten, but constantly aided by instruction, warning, and
reproof. So that another psalmist, though still searching for the
fuller meaning of the parables and dark sayings through which he was
conducted, could sing, "God shall redeem my soul from the hand of the
grave, for He shall take me" (Psalm xlix. 15). There is a confidence
in the words, a confidence enough to sustain amid many trials. To such
a man the present was not all. There was a life to come where God
should be and rule, and his heart had not seldom gone forth to the
questioning _at what time and in what form_ the promises should be
fulfilled. Like Abraham, such men had seen the day of Christ in vision
and rejoiced over it, and the _Spirit of Christ was within them_ to
sustain them. But the things which they had heard and known, and of
which their fathers had told them, supplied cause for deep searchings
as _to the time and the manner of time unto which the Spirit
pointed_. The strength of the Lord and His wondrous works were to be
rehearsed to the coming generations, that among them the hope might
live, by them the searching be continued. And as time went on the
vision was widened, for in no small number of the Psalms we find the
promised blessedness described as the portion not of Israel only, but
through Israel grace was to be extended to the ends of the earth.
"Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands," is no solitary
invocation.
And when we turn to those prophets whose writings we possess, we
recognise that in them the Spirit of Christ was working and pointing
forward to the coming redemption. But long before the days of Isaiah
and Micah the Spirit of the Lord had come mightily upon His servants,
and that picture of a glorious future which both those seers have
given to us was not improbably the utterance of some earlier servant
of the Lord: "It shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain
of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains
and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto
it" (Isa. ii. 2; Micah iv. 1). Thus far had they attained, but the
search was not ended. "The last days"! When these should come was
known to God alone; and they spake only as they were moved by Him,
standing on their towers of spiritual elevation, hearkening what the
Lord would say to them, and delivering His message with all the
fulness they could command. But they were sure of the final bliss.
Of the same character are those words of Joel, which St. Peter quoted
in his sermon on the day of Pentecost, "It shall come to pass
_afterward_" (ii. 28). Beyond this was not yet revealed. But it was
the voice of God which spake through the prophet: "In those days I
will pour out My Spirit." And the Divine voice spake of visitations of
another kind. It _testified beforehand of the sufferings of Christ and
the glories that should follow them_. We feel sure that here St. Peter
had in mind Isa. liii., which the New Testament has taught us to apply
in its fullest sense to our blessed Lord.
But the language of St. Peter in this clause deserves special notice.
He does not use the ordinary words by which the personal sufferings of
Christ would generally be expressed, but he says rather, "the
sufferings which pertain unto Christ." And here we may well consider
whether the variation of phrase be not designed. St. Paul uses the
simple direct expression (2 Cor. i. 5), and so does St. Peter himself
(1 Peter iv. 13); and in those passages the Apostles are speaking of
the sufferings of Christ as shared by His people. It would almost seem
as if St. Peter's phrase in the verse before us were intended to
convey this sense more fully. The sufferings pertain unto Christ, were
specially borne by Him; but they fall also upon those who are, and
have been, His people, both before and after the Incarnation.
Those prophecies of Isaiah which speak of the sufferings of the
servant of the Lord had long been expounded as meant of the Jewish
nation, and with such interpretation St. Peter was doubtless familiar.
Hence may have come his altered phrase, capable of being interpreted,
not only of Christ Himself, but of the sufferings of those who, like
these Asiatic converts, were for the Lord's sake exposed to manifold
trials. This double application of the words, to Christ and to His
servants also, explains, it may be, the unique use of the word
"glories" in the clause which follows: the sufferings of Christ and
the _glories_ that should follow them. For the glories may be taken to
signify not only that honour and glory which the Father has given unto
Christ, but also the glory in which they shall share who have taken up
their cross to follow Him. Nowhere else in the New Testament does this
plural word occur. To draw a sense like this from it would minister no
small comfort to the Christians in their trials; and just before St.
Peter has described the joy which they should experience as
"glorified," or "full of glory" (ver. 8). In like manner St. Paul
speaks (Rom. viii. 18) of the sufferings of this present time as not
worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us in
the resurrection.
It would also serve as consolation to the sufferers, who were thus
pointed on to the future for Christ's best gifts, to know that a
similar forward glance had been the lot of the prophets under the
ancient dispensation. One here and there had felt, as Malachi (iii.
1), that the Lord whom they were seeking was soon to come; but we know
of none before the aged Simeon to whom it had been made known that
they should not die till they had seen the Lord's Christ. To the
former generations _it was revealed_, says the Apostle, _that not unto
themselves, but unto you, did they minister these things_. They beheld
them, and greeted them, but it was afar off. They spake often one to
another of a bliss that was to come; yet though praying, longing, and
hoping for it, they saw it only with the eye of faith. The psalmists
supply many illustrations of this forward projection of the thoughts
which dwelt on the Messianic hope. Thus in Psalm xxii. 30, 31, while
rejoicing over his own rescue from suffering, the speaker recognises
that this is but a foreshadowing of another suffering and another
deliverance, even the sufferings of Christ and the glories that should
follow. "It shall be told of the Lord unto the next generation. They
shall come; they shall declare His righteousness to a people that
shall be born, that He hath done it," and again in another place,
"This shall be written for the generation to come, and a people which
shall be created shall praise the Lord" (Psalm cii. 18). And these
anticipations are ever coupled with the thought of the wider extension
of the kingdom of God, with the time when "all the ends of the world
shall remember and turn unto the Lord," "when the nations shall fear
the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth His glory."
But the things which prophets and psalmists ministered _have now been
announced unto you through them that preached the Gospel unto you_.
You, St. Peter would say, are now not heirs expectant, but possessors
of the blessings which former ages of believers foresaw and foretold,
just as in his pentecostal address he testifies, "This is that which
was spoken by the prophet Joel." And those who have preached these
glad tidings unto you, he continues, have not done so without warrant.
They are joined by an unbroken link to the prophets who went before
them. In those the Spirit of Christ wrought at such times as He found
fit instruments for raising a little the veil that lay over the
purposes of God. The preachers of the Gospel have the same Spirit, and
speak unto you _by the Holy Ghost sent forth from heaven_. These (and
of St. Peter is this specially true) had witnessed the sufferings of
Christ, and been made partakers of the glories of the outpoured
Spirit. The promise of the Father had been fulfilled to them, and they
had received a mouth and wisdom which their adversaries were not able
to resist. The risen Lord, the assurance of a life to come, the
guidance by the Spirit into all truth--these were now realities for
them, and were to be made real for the rest of the world by their
testimony.
And that he may further magnify that salvation which he has been
describing as published in part under the Law and now assured by the
message of the Gospel, he adds, _which things angels desire to look
into_. Of the whole Divine plan for man's redemption the angels could
hardly be cognisant. Of God's love for man they had been made
conscious, had been employed as His agents in the exhibition of that
love, both under the old and under the new covenant. Their ministry,
we know, was exercised in the lives of Abraham and Lot; they watched
over Jacob and over Elijah in their solitude and weariness. One of
their host was sent to deliver Daniel and to instruct the prophet
Zechariah. At a later day they, who stand above mankind in the order
of creation, and are pure enough to behold the presence of the Most
High, were made messengers to announce how the Son of God had deigned
to assume, not their nature, but the nature of humanity, and would by
His suffering lift up the race from its slavery to sin. They
proclaimed the birth of the Baptist, and brought the message of the
Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin. They heralded the birth of Christ
to the shepherds of Bethlehem, and a multitude of their glorious
company sang the song of glory to God in the highest. They tended the
God-Man at His temptation, strengthened Him in His agony, were present
at His sepulchre, and gave the news of the Resurrection to the early
visitants. Nor were their services at an end with Christ's ascension,
though they were present on that occasion also. To Cornelius and to
Peter angels were made messengers, and our Lord has told us that
their rejoicing is great over even one sinner that repenteth.
These immortal spirits whose home is before God's throne, and whose
great office is to sing His praise, yet find in those ministrations to
mankind in which they have been employed matter for admiration, matter
which kindles in them fervent desire. They long to comprehend in all
its fulness that grace which they are conscious God is shedding forth
upon mankind. They would scan[4] all the workings of His love and His
forbearance towards sinners. These things are to them a subject of
admiration, even as was the empty tomb of Jesus to the disciples after
the Resurrection; and from their high estate the angelic host would
fain stoop down to gaze their fill upon what God's goodness has
wrought and is working out for mankind. They feel that this knowledge
would add a new theme to the songs around the throne, would give them
still greater cause to extol that grace which manifests its noblest
features in showing mercy and pity.
[4] παρακύψαι is the word employed to describe the stooping
of the disciples and Mary that they might look into the grave of Jesus
(Luke xxiv. 12; John xx. 5, 11).
And if such be the aspiration of angels, sinless beings who feel not
the need of rescue, shall the tongues of men be dumb, men who know,
each from the experience of his own heart, how great is the evil of
sin in which they are entangled, how hopeless without Christ's death
was their deliverance from its thraldom; who know how constant and how
undeserved is the mercy of which they are partakers, how true to
Himself God has been in their case? "I am Jehovah; I change not:
therefore ye children of men are not destroyed."
IV
_THE CHRISTIAN'S IDEAL, AND THE STEPS THEREUNTO_
"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:
knowing that ye were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with
silver or gold, from your vain manner of life handed down from
your fathers; but with precious blood, as of a lamb without
blemish and without spot, _even the blood_ of Christ: who was
foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but was
manifested at the end of the times for your sake, who through Him
are believers in God, which raised Him from the dead, and gave
Him glory; so that your faith and hope might be in God."--1 PETER
i. 13-21.
The Apostle, who has set forth the character of the Christian's
election, who has given to the converts large assurance for the hope
which he exhorts them to hold, who has proclaimed the exceeding glory
of their inheritance in the future and how its nature had been
foreshadowed in type and prophecy, now turns to those practical
lessons which he would enforce from the doctrines of election and of
the future glory in heaven. Such glorious privileges cannot be looked
forward to without awakening a sense of corresponding duties, and for
these he would not have them unprepared. _Wherefore_, he says, because
you have the assurance of what the best men of old only dimly foresaw,
_girding up the loins of your mind, be sober_. The Apostle has in mind
the words of his Master, "Let your loins be girded about, and your
lamps burning; and be ye yourselves like unto men looking for their
lord" (Luke xii. 35, 36). The advent of the bridegroom may be sudden;
those who would be of his train must be prepared for their summons. To
be girt in body is a token of readiness for coming duty. And St.
Peter's figure would speak more forcibly to Eastern ears than it does
to ours. Without such girding the Oriental is helpless for active
work, the encumbrance of his flowing robes being fatal to exertion.
The heart of the Christian must be untrammelled with the cares, the
affections, the pleasures of the world. He must be free to run the
race which lies before him, as was the well-girt prophet who ran
before the royal chariot to the entrance of Jezreel.
And the Christian life is no light care, as St. Peter pictures it.
First, he says, _Be sober_. To train the mind to exercise
self-restraint is no easy duty at any time, but specially in a season
of religious excitement. We know how converts in the very earliest
days of Christianity were carried into excesses both in action and in
word; and in every age of quickened activity some have been found with
whom freedom degenerated into licence, and emotion took the place of
true religious feeling. The Jewish converts in the provinces of Asia
might be tempted to despise those who still clung to the ancient
faith, while some of those who had been won from heathenism might by
their conduct alienate rather than win their brethren in Christ. We
gather what was the nature of the peril when we find the Apostle (iv.
7) urging this sobriety as a frame of mind to be cultivated even in
their prayers, and St. Paul in his advice to Timothy combining the
exhortation to sobriety with "Suffer hardship; do the work of an
evangelist" (2 Tim. iv. 5). It is the frame of mind meet for the
maintenance of sound doctrine, utterly opposed to those itching ears
which are only satisfied with teaching according to their own lusts.
Fitly therefore does our Apostle add to his first exhortation a second
which will make the believers steadfast: _Set your hope perfectly on
the grace that is to be brought unto you_. In those early days this
counsel was not always easy to follow. There were many enticements to
wavering, many trials which made the firm hold on strong faith
difficult to maintain. And with the "perfectly" must be combined that
other sense of the word "to the end." The hope must be perfect in its
nature, unshaken in its firmness, persuaded of the certainty of the
future grace, and strengthened in that persuasion by the experience of
the present working of the Spirit. But the language of the Apostle
almost anticipates the future. He says not so much that the grace is
"to be brought," but rather that it is even now "being brought" near
and coming ever nearer; for the revelation of Jesus Christ is
progressive. Though we learn something, it is only so much as teaches
us that there is more still to learn of the boundless stores of grace.
But as in a former verse he spake of believers as having already by
faith their salvation in possession, even such is his language here.
And mark his lesson on the free gift of God s grace. It is not a
blessing to which the believer can attain of his own power. He can
hope for it; he can feel assured that God in His own time will bestow
it. But whenever it comes, either as present grace to help in trial,
or future grace which shall be revealed, it is given, brought,
bestowed; and its full fruition will only be reached _at the
revelation of Jesus Christ_. But assuredly these words may be applied
to this life as well as to the next. He who said, "The Holy Spirit
shall take of Mine and declare it unto you," designs to be ever more
and more revealed in the hearts of His followers. His grace is being
brought to them day by day, and trains continually unto obedience
those who have been sprinkled with His blood.
And this obedience is the next precept for which they are to be made
ready by the girding up of the loins of their minds, _as children of
obedience_, the obedience not of slaves, but of sons. Children they
are become by virtue of the new birth, and obedience it is which gives
them a claim upon God's Fatherhood. They must seek for the docility
and trustfulness of the childlike character; they must accept a law
other than their own wills, having taken upon them the yoke of Christ
and aiming, in the light of His example, to become worthy of being
reckoned among His true followers.
When they contemplate their own lives, they must feel that a mighty
change is needed from what they were aforetime. St. Peter's words mark
the completeness of the needed change: _not fashioning yourselves
according to your former lusts_. In time past they had sought no
further for a guide and pattern than their own perverted desires; now
they must school themselves to say, "Do with me as Thou wilt, for I am
Thine." And He whose grace has begotten them again will help them to
frame their lives by His rule, will have them learn of Him. But while
the Apostle dwells on the difference which must come over the lives of
these converts, mark the wondrous charity with which he alludes to
their former life in error. _In the time of your ignorance_, he says.
Even here he follows the example of the Lord, who prayed in His agony,
"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Sin blinds the
moral and the mental vision too, and men so blinded sink deeper and
deeper into the slough, while he who has learnt Christ has gained
another source of light. But, to raise the ignorant, they must be
taught; and tenderness makes teaching most effective, and charity
dictates the apostolic words. So St. Paul at Athens to those who
worshipped an unknown God offered instruction to win them from their
ignorance, and pointed them to a God whose offspring they were, and to
whose likeness they might be conformed.
Just so does St. Peter; _Like as He who called you is holy, be ye
yourselves also holy in all manner of living_. This has been God's
call from the first day until now, but what a hopeless height is this
for the sinner to aim after, holy as God is holy! Yet it is the
standard which Christ sets before us in the Sermon on the Mount: "Be
ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." And
why does He propose to us that which is impossible? Because with the
command He is ready to supply the power. He knows our frailty; knows
what is in man both of strength and weakness. At the same time He
proclaims to us by this command what God intends to make of us. He
will restore us again to His own likeness. That which was God's at
first shall be made God's once more. The marred image, on which not
even the superscription can be traced, shall again be revealed in
full clearness, and the believer purged from all the defilements of
sin by the grace and help of Him who says, "Be ye perfect," because He
loves to make us so.
_Because it is written, Ye shall be holy; for I am holy._ This command
comes down to us from the earliest days of the Law. But in those old
times it could not be said, _in all manner of living_. These words
betoken the loftier standard of the New Testament. The patriarchs and
prophets and the people among whom they lived were trained, and could
only be trained, little by little. Even in the best among them we
cannot hope for holiness in all manner of living. It was only by the
types and figures of external purification that their thoughts were
directed to the inner cleansing of the heart, and long generations
passed before the lessons were learnt. The full sense of the
Fatherhood of God was not attained under the Law, nor did men under it
learn fully to live as children of obedience, children of a Father who
loves and will succour every effort which they make to walk according
to His law. The Incarnation has brought God nearer to man, and on this
relationship of love the Apostle grounds his further exhortation.