THE HOLY SPIRIT IN FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER
[p. 107] THE HOLY SPIRIT IN FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER
1 Peter 1:1,2; 1 Peter 1:10 - 12; 1 Peter 3: 18 - 20; 1 Peter 4: 14
My subject, dear brethren, is the Spirit of God and of Christ, in this epistle of Peter. The understanding of the place He has in each book and epistle helps greatly in understanding the mind of God in it; and whilst references in Peter are not numerous, being covered practically by the passages read, they are very significant, especially as bearing on the government of God, as Peter’s ministry does. In his epistle he directs our minds back to antediluvian times, and onward to the new heavens and the new earth in which righteousness dwells. I hope to show that the references to the Spirit enter into all this instruction; so that we may see that the testimony of God is one whole, and so also the government of God.
I would stress the latter a little, because we are all subjects of it, but not always intelligently so, and thus much disappointment and discouragement enter into our experience. These would be eliminated were we more intelligent as to the government of God with us; for His government, like all else, is the outcome of what He is. Everything related to God proceeds from God, and God is love, so that His government is quite compatible with His nature. But the knowledge of the Spirit, as presented in these scriptures, enables us to link it up, whether it be in the entire extent of God’s universal dealings or within the compass respectively of our own small histories. The knowledge of the Spirit and His part, enables us to understand, and to hear, and to profit, by what would otherwise appear to be against us. Jacob, as you will remember, thought that things were against him which in reality were for him, as intended to work out love in him. He, with certain other servants of whom we have life-sized pictures,
[p. 108] serves to illustrate what we are naturally, and how love is worked out in us, in spite of this. Nothing can be more comforting than that God works out love in us, in spite of what we are, that He does not give us up as incorrigible, but keeps on in His patience and works out His design.
So Peter refers in the opening of his address to the “sojourners of the dispersion” 1 Peter 1: 1. Why should they be dispersed? Why should they be where naturally they would not wish to be? Why should they not be in the land of promise? So it is, that in the government of God, we find ourselves in positions or circumstances contrary to our natural wishes. Perhaps there is not one in this audience who cannot attest to the reality of this. We have to learn from the outset that the government of God will not promote us in our natural thoughts and wishes and aspirations; it invariably cuts athwart these. So here the address is to the “sojourners of the dispersion”. Dispersed where? Abroad among the nations. The land is not mentioned at all. Has then the love of God failed? Have the promises of God failed? Do my circumstances, which seem to be wholly different from my youthful aspirations, or my fondest desires, prove that love in God has failed? By no means! The Spirit of God addresses us in our present circumstances, whatever they may be. If they be such as we have worked ourselves into, by natural effort and manipulation, then the voice of the Spirit would be to leave them for they are not such as love would have me in; but if they be such as naturally I would recoil from, and as to which I have had no option, then evidently, the will of God has placed me in them, and I am safe, and God addresses me as “elect”. Can I be safer, than as addressed as “elect ... of God the Father” 1 Peter 1: 2, although in circumstances which seem to be contrary to God, and to His love and a Father’s best care? The fact is, that these circumstances which apparently are contrary and irksome, are the evidence of God’s love and of His [p. 109] election, they are the best possible for me now, in view of what I shall be.
Then as “elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father” 1 Peter 1: 2, it is not a matter of light merely, precious as is the light of the mind and election of God, and we should be well grounded in the thought of election, but light does not make it consciously certain. Our calling and election, according to Peter, are made sure by certain additions. “Add to your faith virtue” 2 Peter 1: 5 and so on — knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly love, love — these things being in us and abounding, we shall never fail; we shall make our calling and election sure, and so an abundant entrance shall be ministered unto us into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
So here (verse 2), as is usual with Peter, he does not rest in light simply, but in substance. If I am called, foreknown, and elect of God the Father, it is by “sanctification of the Spirit” 1 Peter 1: 2. That is the first thought. If we take the ground, as we should, in the government of God, as being foreknown and elect in Christ, it should not be merely because of light, but because of something tangible. The Holy Spirit is here to make things tangible. Faith indeed is said to be that; it is the “substantiating of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11: 1). But without the Spirit, things can never be permanently real, and what God is forming is substance in His people. Then election is “by sanctification of the Spirit” 1 Peter 1: 2. That is how Peter puts it. And so in his second epistle, if it be a question of what relates to godliness, “his divine power has given to us all things which relate to life and godliness”; and if He calls us, it is “by glory and virtue” 2 Peter 1: 3, and then he goes on to the “exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world” 2 Peter 1: 4.
We see thus, that Peter in opening up to us the certainty of divine life deals in substance, in realities — [p. 110] for these stand by us, if our calling and election are to be made sure to ourselves. And surely that is the point. It is a question of what is sure to us, not simply as a matter of light, but by these substantial things. So here, it is first by sanctification of the Spirit, and what for? “Unto the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ” 1 Peter 1: 2. You see how practical all this is; that the Lord Jesus entered into the sphere of divine government; He, who was ever in the position of command, took up the position of obedience, the position in which the government of God applied and in which the most perfect obedience was displayed in a Man, going on to the sprinkling of His blood, going on to death. That is to say, the Jewish christians are taken out of the realm of types and shadows — “the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of an heifer” Hebrews 9: 13 — and brought into the realm of the obedience of Jesus, and the sprinkling of His blood, and that as the outcome, mark you, of the sanctification of the Spirit. It is not simply that I have the Spirit. Peter, in his early ministry, made it plain that all who obeyed Christ, got the Spirit (Acts 5: 32), but now he is speaking, not of obtaining the Spirit, but of being sanctified by it, to this supreme thought of God, the obedience of Jesus. God has that standard before Him, and the Holy Spirit is operating in the believer so that he might be sanctified “unto the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ” 1 Peter 1: 2.
Now, this is a most important matter, dear brethren. God has given us light (we can praise Him for it) but what He is looking for is substance in answer to it. Wisdom causes those who love her to inherit substance, but it is by the Spirit. What, in this sense, is substantial is by the Spirit, not simply by light. Light goes a long way and causes joy, as we see with Miriam and the women of Israel (Exodus 15). They represent the subjective effect in the believer of light. Miriam dies, according to the record of Numbers 20, and in Numbers 21 the Spirit typically appears as the means of permanent refreshment and support. Miriam’s refrain was very little; it was but the first two lines of the song of Moses and the children of Israel, but it was something. But she dies, and what follows upon that is the recognition typically of the Spirit of God by Israel: “Spring up, O well; sing ye unto it” Numbers 21: 17. The well was dug “by the direction of the lawgiver” Numbers 21: 18. That is to say, it is a question of obedience. The princes digged the well — those who knew the value of the Spirit. As soon as I begin to recognise the Spirit in this way, the sanctification begins to take place unto the obedience of Jesus. That is what goes into the land; it is the result of the sanctification of the Spirit. This is a practical word for the young people, because it is not only that I have the Spirit, but I am sanctified. Much might be said about sanctification, but I confine myself to this: that the Spirit taking hold of the believer inwardly, in his intelligence and affections, separates him from the world and attaches him to Christ.
The next thing, in the order of the scriptures read, is the “Spirit of Christ”, and the Spirit of Christ, not as given at the present time, but as in the prophets. As I have already remarked, I wish to show how the Spirit links us up, in this ministry of Peter, with the past and with the future. Take for instance, “For this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead” (1 Peter 4: 6). Why was it preached to the dead? It was not surely as dead in their graves, but when they were here in responsibility — for that is a feature of Peter’s ministry; he shows that the preaching of Christ extended back, even to antediluvian times. Whoever the persons used in the testimony it was no less than the Spirit of Christ — even Christ Himself, according to 1 Peter 3: 19. The gospel preached to those that are now dead was “that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit” 1 Peter 4: 6. God is a Spirit, and the gospel is preached that men might live in the Spirit. The millennial day will be marked [p. 112] by men living for a thousand years, or more, in flesh and blood; but that is a provisional state of things, to show what God can do, and that Satan is defeated at every point, that God can keep men alive in the flesh even in this world where death reigned once. But what He is concerned with, is a race of men who live in the Spirit. That is why the gospel was preached to them. They will be judged if they refused it; they will stand before the great white throne, but God’s thought was that they should “live ... in the spirit” 1 Peter 4: 6, and it is His thought now. So that, you see, the Holy Spirit is the link right through from the beginning to the end of God’s testimony, and therefore this salvation that we have, was looked on to by men who had the Spirit of Christ. They thought over it; they enquired into it: “Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow” 1 Peter 1: 11. And what did they learn? “To whom it was revealed, that not to themselves but to you they ministered those things, which have now been announced to you by those who have declared to you the glad tidings by the Holy Spirit, sent from heaven” (1 Peter 1:12).
Now we have the Holy Spirit “sent from heaven”, but the preaching went on before, and when we come to chapter 3, we find that Christ, in Spirit, went back even before the deluge. I want to impress upon you, that as we are brought into the realm of divine government, we are linked up vitally, with the whole scheme of divine testimony; that the Spirit that we have, is the Spirit that operated before the deluge and after the deluge — that operates now, and will operate, so that we might make room for Him; and that we might not only be in the realm of God’s government, but the realm of His love, and the realm of the Spirit. See how love enters into all these operations from the very outset, and that in all God’s operations [p. 113] it is a question of the Spirit of Christ, as that in which He has pleasure.
So in chapter 3 you see that the Lord Jesus suffered in the flesh for our sins. We should not suffer for sins; there is no need for that. “Christ also hath once suffered for sins ... being put to death in the flesh” (1 Peter 3: 18). Why therefore should I suffer for sins? We cannot be too much imbued with the thought of Christ’s humanity. How real it was! He was “put to death in the flesh”, but then it adds that He was “quickened by the Spirit” 1 Peter 3: 18. This is the principle of the new order of things, the new life in Christ. And then the apostle links up all this with the past: “In which also going he preached to the saints which are in prison”, 1 Peter 3: 19. But when? “When the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the ark was preparing” 1 Peter 3: 20. What a period of long-suffering. Note that it was the Lord Himself who went and preached through Noah.
Oh! beloved brethren, as in the sphere of divine government it behoves us to be long-suffering. The government of God extends universally today, but it is to make way for the testimony. We must be with God about this; it is the time of long-suffering; it is the time of divine waiting upon men, and it is for us to enter into the long-suffering, and the waiting, which marks the testimony.
It was a wonderful testimony. “My Spirit”, says Jehovah, “shall not always strive with man ... yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years”. Genesis 6: 3. Can we doubt that in every one of those days there was a testimony by the Spirit of Christ to a disobedient people? Noah was the preacher, directly or mediately, and it is very touching that in his second epistle Peter says that God spared Noah, one of eight, a “preacher of righteousness” (2 Peter 2: 5), He was pleased with him. It was a question of a preacher of righteousness, there were seven others, but he is just one of the eight; he is the one that is preserved; the others do not come in for [p. 114] special notice; that is the idea. But let us mark, it was not merely preaching gospel sermons, it was the Spirit of Christ. That is the thought in preaching. The Spirit of Christ preaching, and perhaps no converts! There were none then, as far as we know, but the preaching went on as the ark was preparing. That is what marks these difficult days of ours into which the government of God enters. The Spirit of Christ continues on in patience, in the time of waiting; it is the long-suffering of God, whilst He is waiting upon men.
Well, these are important matters, the sanctification, and the Spirit of Christ in the testimony and in the preaching. As the Lord says, it is “for a testimony unto them” Mark 13: 9. That is important with God. It is not merely the terms of the gospel, but the Spirit of Christ in it. How the prophets of old looked into these things. And the angels desire to look into them. May God arouse us to look more into the gospel! The current testimony and instruction are for us, upon whom as Paul says, “the ends of the ages are come” 1 Corinthians 10: 11. All the education of the ages, is for the assembly, so that we might be fitted for the great service or function that is in the future for us, as “coming down out of the heaven from God, having the glory of God” (Revelation 21: 10).
There is a further thing in 1 Peter 1: 12, and that is “the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven”; not now presented as the Spirit of Christ, but formally, as a divine Person here. Think of the magnitude of the preaching, of “the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven”! 1 Peter 1: 12. And what a word for every one standing up to preach the gospel — whether he does so by “the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven”! The principle of being “sent” enters into the preaching. “How shall they preach except they be sent?” (Romans 10: 15). All this enters into the action of the Spirit in the preaching. As Peter stood upon the day of Pentecost, it was with the eleven,
[p. 115] not with the hundred and twenty. It is a question of the Spirit “sent down”, and of those who are sent ones. Peter was “sent”, and the Holy Spirit operated in him, He Himself being “sent down”. We can understand, therefore, the position the gospel is in. Paul says, “Woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!” (1 Corinthians 9: 16). The Holy Spirit operates in those who are divinely fitted to preach, those who have gift. So the gospel is imperative; it must be preached.
Well now, the final thing is in 1 Peter 4: 14, where it is a question of suffering. It says, “If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you”. It is reproach for the name of Christ. Is there any professed believer here who has never come into reproach — reproach for the name? You will all remember the well-known passage in Hebrews where we read that Moses esteemed “the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt” (Hebrews 11: 26). I believe that thought is implied in the word “Hebrew” in the early part of Exodus. In Egypt, that word implied reproach, and that is what Moses accepted; he identified himself with “an Hebrew, one of his brethren” Exodus 2: 11; he esteemed the reproach of Christ. Did “the Spirit of glory and of God” rest upon Moses? I think so, especially as he came back from Midian complete in identification with the Hebrews.. It was the reproach of Christ, and how the Holy Spirit loves to magnify Moses. “The man Moses”, we are told, “was very great in the land of Egypt” (Exodus 11: 3). God saw to that. We may put it down as a certainty, that where we are reproached, we shall be honoured of God; and what can be greater honour than that the “Spirit of glory and of God” should rest upon us?
Now, note the words “rests upon”. It is akin to the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus. Luke tells us that “the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form as a dove upon him” Luke 3: 22. I suppose there is nothing more sensitive in the whole universe than the Holy Spirit. We are [p. 116] enjoined not to grieve Him; He is very sensitive: and I believe the dove being mentioned means that the Spirit could come upon Jesus, and rest there, without any disturbance whatever. That is a challenge to one’s heart, as to whether the Holy Spirit can rest upon us and abide there. Well, He comes in where we are reproached for the name of Christ. Where we accept that, the “Spirit of glory and of God” rests upon us. What a dignity that is! I know well enough how young people shrink from reproach, for it is hard to bear, but then that is the thing to face. In the book of Numbers we are all enrolled typically as military persons; not necessarily trained, but eligible for military service. The age of twenty is the age for military service in Numbers. It means that every person who believes in Jesus, and who has the Spirit of God, is enrolled for military service, and in all probability the first military action he will be called upon to endure, is the reproach for the name of Christ; the enemy will attack you on this line.
In due course we become trained military men, when we understand the captain of Jehovah’s host, but that is not the book of Numbers; it is the book of Joshua. The book of Numbers, coincides with Romans, in that respect. Romans contemplates the young militarily, and so you do not get the “whole armour of God” Ephesians 6: 13 in Romans, but the “armour of light” Romans 13: 12. You arm yourself with light in Romans and that is armour for the wilderness. It is a question of light, that is to say, you know where you are, and why you are there, and what is involved in your being there. Therefore, Romans says, “if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Romans 10: 9). The confession with the mouth, of Jesus as Lord, and the belief in the heart that God raised Him, means salvation. It is not justification there although it is implied. Justification is chapters 3, 4, and 5, but salvation is chapter 10, and salvation involves what is [p. 117] military; that I have come under the authority of the Lord. He has undertaken to defend me, but I am attacking; I am in the ranks; I confess Him, and the enemy brings the effect of that to bear upon me. My schoolmate, it may be, or my fellow-workman or my employer, or my companion — they are ashamed to walk or to be with me, because of “the name of Christ”. Well, heaven looks down with extreme interest. The enemy would suggest to you not to take your place in confessing that Name; not to say anything about it; to keep it to yourself; that this is not the place for it. These, and others like them, are the remarks heard from the opposers. Well, the “Spirit of glory and of God” will rest upon you as you overcome such reasoning, as you manfully take your stand as a soldier, and confess the Name with all that is involved in it. Noah’s dove did not find any rest for the sole of her foot in the deluge, but on the believer that confesses the name of Christ, and suffers for it, the “Spirit of glory and of God” rests.