(4) PAUL'S TEACHING CONFIRMED BY THAT OF PETER AND JOHN
(4) PAUL’S TEACHING CONFIRMED BY THAT OF PETER AND JOHN
1 Peter 2: 1 - 10; 1 John 4: 7 - 21
I desire at this time to show you how the teaching of Peter and of John runs parallel with that of Paul, which came before us last time in connection with Ephesians 2. We find the confirmation of Paul’s teachings (we get further light too) in the writings of Peter and John. We cannot do without any part of the New Testament, we want one part to amplify another. It is something of the same principle that is seen in the Old Testament. “No prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation ... but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit”. Every prophetic writing is part of the system, you cannot understand any part by itself, it has to be viewed in the light of what we may call the prophetic system. People who take up a particular book of prophecy and think they can by study get the meaning of it by itself, are mistaken. So in the New Testament, we want all the writers, not only Paul, but John and Peter, if we are to get anything like a complete thought of Christianity, for they are all employed in setting forth Christianity from some point of view; and the point of view of one can hardly be said to carry completeness — we want the whole system of truth in that way.
I refer back for a moment to what we had before us last time in connection with Ephesians 2, as to the main points. I was showing that the point on which, so to speak, the chapter turns, is salvation; and that salvation is connected with a change of place. The change of place is brought out conspicuously [p. 238] in that chapter; but in order to emphasise the thought of salvation, I sought also to bring before you the object of salvation, that is, that the mind and will of God might find its expression in us down here. It is not enough for us to know that there is such a thing as salvation (I suppose most Christians know that), but that we should be so in the reality of it that the mind and will of God may be set forth in us down here. If we are in bondage to anything that is not of God, that so far presents a hindrance to God’s will being set forth in us; any one can understand that we cannot be here entirely for the will of God, if we are not free of what is unsuitable to God. You cannot serve two masters; the Lord said: “Ye cannot serve God and mammon”. If a man is serving mammon, he does not serve God; I do not say that he is not a believer, that is another point; but if a man is in bondage to the world, he is not free to serve God. God would not be served by the Israelites while in bondage in Egypt; that was what Pharaoh wanted, but God would have the people brought out of bondage, if He was to be served by them, and I think that is always the principle with God.
Now in 1 Peter 2 the apostle exhorts us “As newborn babes to desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby unto salvation” (I add those two words because they ought to be there), “If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious”. We get here (in Peter) the same thoughts practically as in Ephesians 2. To begin with, we get the thought of salvation; then of nearness and access then the thought of a spiritual house. Thus we have mainly the things which are taught in Ephesians 2; that is, Paul and Peter do not teach different things, but practically the same thing. Of course, the truth is spoken here in connection with the Jews of the dispersion, but then what applies to [p. 239] those to whom Peter wrote applies also to us; Paul takes up the same line of thought and applies it to the Gentiles.
I would like to enlarge on salvation so far as I understand it. I think one can see three steps in salvation. The first is, that we are delivered from bondage to one lord by being brought into bondage to Another. That is what I should call the first principle of salvation. Israel was delivered from bondage to Pharaoh really by being brought into bondage to God: that was the power of their deliverance, and the same principle applies to us. We are brought out of bondage to the god and prince of this world and into bondage to Christ. The apostle Paul could propose salvation to the Philippian jailor, and how was it to come to pass? By believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. He had been in bondage to the god and prince of this world, and the apostle spoke to him the word of the Lord; and the practical result was that he became in bondage to the Lord Jesus Christ — in other words, there was a change of master. That is the first principle with regard to the believer — the believer is “delivered from the authority of darkness and translated into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love”. We can see how very real this was in the early days, when we remember that idolatry was the “power of darkness”; when the Colossians and Thessalonians worshipped dumb idols it was not simply dumb idols, but the authority of darkness, and people were “translated into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love”. If you want to understand that expression, I would refer you to what occurred on the mount of transfiguration. Everything there was subdued to the authority of Christ, and Christ was announced to be “God’s beloved Son”. There we get the idea of the “kingdom of the Son of God’s love”. Any one can appreciate the immense moral [p. 240] change which took place, in the fact of people being delivered from idolatry and “translated into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love”. The change was immense, and we see it exemplified in the case of the jailor.
The next stage of salvation is in the question of association. You might look at 1 Peter 3: 21, 22, and at Titus 3: 4 - 7, for in these two passages we get the idea of salvation, that is, in the change of association. You can realise it in some measure, if you go back to early times and contemplate what took place at Jerusalem or among the Gentiles; those who had been affected by the gospel were brought out of unclean and filthy associations into Christian fellowship. I have no doubt it is that to which Peter refers when he says, “Baptism doth also now save us”. People were very much affected by being brought into pure and holy associations. The apostle Paul alludes to the same thing, speaking of the mercy of God, in his Epistle to Titus: “According to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost” the “washing of regeneration” is probably an allusion to baptism, through which those who were converted were brought into Christian associations, and at the same time there was a renewing of the Spirit which fitted them for those associations.
The first step in the Christian course is evidently in the confession of Christ as Lord, so that there is a “change of master”, and the second step is in the “change of association”, that is, that the Gentile was brought out of his heathenism, and the Jew out of his Judaism, and both were brought into associations which took their character from the Holy Ghost. What is the effect in our case? The time was when we were entangled in the great systems of the world — man’s world. You may call them Christian systems; you may call the State church [p. 241] a Christian church; you may call popery a Christian church; or a dissenting body a Christian church; but every one of them is part of the great world system, and it is very difficult for any one in any of these systems to understand salvation, because they are still entangled in the world. I think salvation can only be rightly known in being brought into the reality of Christian association outside of these great systems, where things take their character from the Holy Ghost. It is true of us, as it was at the beginning, that salvation depends upon being brought into the reality of Christian association.
Now I pass on to another step in salvation, that is change of place. I took that up in connection with Ephesians 2. The point there is change of place. Those who had had a place on earth, or even those who had not had it (for the Gentiles have no place on earth), now have a place in heaven. I alluded to what I think is an illustration of this — that the expression of Jonah, “Salvation is of the Lord”, was immediately followed by a change of place: “And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land”.
We have thus three simple thoughts in regard to salvation: namely, change of lord and master, change of association, and change of place; and I think I may say that you will apprehend that salvation is thus in Christ Jesus, because it is only in Christ Jesus that change of place can be realised: God has “raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus”.
Now the apostle says here, “As newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby unto salvation”. All will admit that it is a great thing to be free of bondage to Satan, and from evil and worldly associations, and to be free too even as regards yourself. I think a great [p. 242] many Christians are like the two and a-half tribes, they are delivered from evil associations, but they fall into bondage to a place down here; we want to grow unto salvation for the purpose of God, for He has made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
We will pass on to verses 4 and 5, where it says, “to whom coming as unto a living stone”. I will say a word or two in regard to the “Living Stone”. You see in this passage an advance on the thought, “that ye may grow thereby unto salvation”, it is, “to whom coming as unto a living stone”. Now there are two things spoken of in connection with the Living Stone, that is, that it is “chosen of God”, and “precious”. Previously it said, “Disallowed indeed of men”; men disallowed Christ — they crucified Him. But the point is, that He is “chosen of God and precious”, and later on in the passage we are told that “to you who believe he is precious”. What I make out of it is this, that Christ is the way of access, because it is in Christ that God and believers are really drawn together. If, on the one hand, Christ is a Living Stone, chosen of God: and, on the other hand, to you precious, God and you are really together in Christ. If you approach God by One who is chosen of Him (as Christ is), you have access to Him. Christ became precious to the woman of Samaria. She said, “Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?” But then Christ is the “chosen of God”, and thus in a sense God and she were really brought together. Again, in Mary of Bethany: for the same reason God and Mary were brought together. So it is in regard to us. Christ is precious to us; He took our liabilities, and has given us “living water”, and now through Him we have “access by one Spirit unto the Father”. Christ in that way has become the practical link between [p. 243] God and you or me. Now what I have said is extremely practical; and Christianity does not consist in the holding of doctrine, but in living association with Christ. There is nothing more important than that Christ is chosen of God and at the same time precious to us. He will not be otherwise than precious; if He is not precious to us we are nothing, but if He is precious we have everything in Him. I venture to say that there is only One who is indispensable to us down here, and that is Christ; a man might be bereft of everything down here, but if he had Christ he could get on. If Christ is everything to us, then we have great liberty in approaching the Father. The Lord said, “The Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God”. If Christ is not practically precious, do not let any one be content; but if He is precious to you, He is also the “chosen of God”.
I take up that thought in connection with access, but now we come to the “house”. “To whom coming ... ye also ... are built up a spiritual house”. We are built up a spiritual house, that is, we are of the household of God, and at the same time God dwells in us here — we are “builded together for an habitation of God by the Spirit”; we are builded together thus that God may dwell here. We get these two thoughts realised in the saints. Now it is an immense point to recognise the mind of God in regard to His saints. God cares for His household; it is a privilege for a servant to minister a morsel of meat to God’s household in due season; His household comes under His care and discipline. God takes care to provide spiritual food for the household. The servant of the Lord is to be occupied, when the Lord comes, with ministering to His household in due season. It is a great point to recognise that the saints are built up a spiritual house so that God may [p. 244] abide here. And we need to take that into account, so that it may have a profound effect upon our conduct, ways and associations, and everything else in this world. I do not know any thought that has more impressed me than that God is dwelling here by the Spirit. When one came to realise that, it produced a very profound effect. I do not believe any Christian entangled in the systems of the world can have any real sense that God is dwelling here by the Spirit, for the Lord very distinctly says “Whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you”. And if we have had to leave these great systems, and in leaving them to leave the world, we have had great compensation on the other hand, for we have come to realise that God dwelling here by the Spirit is the basis of all Christian conduct. The apostle exhorts us to walk “with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”: all that is based upon the fact that Jew and Gentile are “builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit”.
We are built up “a spiritual house” — not a material house — “an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ”. We can thus praise God and do good to men, since we are a holy priesthood to “offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ”. I think people sometimes regard sacrifices as being out of their reach, but they are really very simple. You get in the last chapter of Hebrews the sacrifice of praise to God. The very thought of being a holy priesthood is really a basis of practical life down here. James says, “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world”. That is priestly.
I think you will admit that we get, in this chapter of Peter, thoughts which are very much akin to those in Ephesians 2, that is, the thought of access, because the Living Stone is chosen of God and precious to us; and then that we are God’s household and God is dwelling here by the Spirit. If we recognise that God is dwelling here by the Spirit we order our conduct before God, and not with reference to men. The point is, to be acceptable with God and so to be approved to men. The fact of God dwelling here by the Spirit is, so to speak, the first principle of Christian ways and conduct in the world.
Now we get the same thoughts in the first Epistle of John. In 1 John 3: 21, 22, we have access. In 1 John 4: 11 - 14 we get the thought of God dwelling. Verses 12 and 13 appear on the surface contradictory; the first says, “If we love one another”, as though God dwelling were dependent upon our loving one another; and the next verse says, “Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit”. It is true that God has “given to us of his Spirit”, but then it is equally true that it is “if we love one another” God dwells in us. Had there not been those who loved one another, the Spirit would never have been given. There were those who loved one another on the day of Pentecost, the condition was fulfilled, and the Comforter came. And if we are not loving one another, we shall not realise very much that God “dwells in us”. If we love, God abides in us — and His love is “perfected in us”. If you want any sense of the reality of God abiding here, you must have love one for another. The realisation of the presence of God depends very much upon two considerations: one is, our separation from the world, that is, being in [p. 246] the reality of salvation, and the other, our love one towards another. I think we want to pay great attention to this; not to take up the truth of God dwelling in us as a dogma or part of a creed, or a sentiment. To go back to Judaism for a moment — the bond there was in a sense social and national, they were all derived from Abraham; but we are not derived from Abraham, not the sons of Jacob, but the children of God; if we are not the children of God we are nothing, but to be so, we must be in the blessedness of the reality of the commandment to love one another.
We want to be in the reality of salvation — disentangled from the power of evil, from evil associations, and even from attachment to a place down here, in order that the mind and will of God may be realised in us; we are in the place of nearness, and have confidence in God (so affected by the love of God that we have confidence in Him); we are under the care of God, nourished and furnished by the love of God; and at the same time (which is perhaps the greatest thing of all) we realise that God is abiding here. Now that is a very wonderful consideration to my mind. It may be in a very feeble measure that we love one another, but we cannot help loving. You may be confident that the saints will love those who are of God; if I love “Him that begat”, I love those who are “begotten of him”; and if it is true that there are those who love God, it is most surely true that there are those who love one another. And that is what we are here for, that the mind of God might be realised in us, that we might be brought into salvation, so that God’s mind might have expression in us down here.