1 PETER 1
FER I think Peter carried out the special charge that was laid upon him by the Lord, as given in John 21; it must have remained with him and given a character to all his service. “Feed my sheep”; “Shepherd my sheep”; would I suppose have special reference to the Jewish sheep. The Lord prepared Peter for His service; his weak point was discovered to him. It is an instance of the Lord’s love. “As many as I love I convict and discipline”; he was convicted, and then there was discipline; it was shown to him what the end of his course would be. Morally, discipline follows conviction; the latter is the discovery of the defect, and discipline is the Lord’s grace in some way to help the man. Peter, I suppose, gave himself credit for having more affection for Christ than any of the others.
The burden of the prophets had been the sufferings and the glory of Christ, but Peter was a witness of the sufferings of Christ and a partaker of the glory to follow. God has allowed an interval of testing to come in between the two, and Peter takes up that interval; as Paul puts it: “the testimony to be rendered in its own times, to which I have been appointed a herald”. In reading the prophets, we could not have had much idea of an interval between the sufferings and the glory, but seeing an interval of testing intervening helps to the understanding of the character of Peter’s writings. We get in Peter what comes in between the sufferings and the glory. In a scene from which Christ has suffered, there can be nothing for God except what is in the sanctification of the Spirit.
We get in Peter’s writings what is more limited than in Paul’s. We do not get the presentation of the grace of God in the same universal application as in Paul’s — the righteousness of God unto all. There is not the presentation of Christ in the same way that Paul presents Him, the grace of God bringing salvation to all men; what Peter presents is more limited, it is more to the Remnant. One side of the truth is the thought of God in regard of man as presented in Christ; the other side is the work of God in souls who are drawn and attached to Christ. It is Paul who presents the former. The tendency in Christendom has been to take up one side or the other unduly. The one must not be taken up to the exclusion of the other. No one writer even in the Old Testament presents the whole of the truth.
There is a striking contrast between the beginning of this epistle and that to the Ephesians. In the latter we are chosen in Christ to be holy and without blame before God in love, to be before Him in the divine nature, and all is connected with heavenly places and our place as sons. In Peter the election refers to our place of responsibility down here; we are elect unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. It is the greatest contrast possible: one is our place as sons and in connection with heaven, the other is our responsible place down here. There is a purpose of God with regard to us down here, as well as in regard to what we are to be in heaven: the value of the truth is got by seeing each part in its own proper setting. “Obedience and sprinkling of blood” have no connection with our place in heaven. New creation is what fits us for heaven. Obedience can only come in in connection with our place down here.
Ques How does this epistle differ from Hebrews?
FER Hebrews was addressed to Jews at Jerusalem, calling them to go outside the camp; but the object of this epistle is to show that while suffering under [p. 3] the government of God in being scattered abroad, still they could have in a spiritual way all the privileges that Israel had in a national way. They were a spiritual house, a holy priesthood. It is not Jehovah and national separation, but it is the light of Christianity which separates; the sanctification is moral — of the Spirit, not a national separation kept up by a middle wall of partition. The real sanctifying power is within us. The epistle is just as true to Gentiles as to Jews, though perhaps it is somewhat more adapted to the Jewish mind.
It is an unvarying principle in the ways of God that what He has set up on earth can never be set aside. Take the kingdom and the truth of God’s house: they must abide because God has established them here. Their character may change, things may be set aside in an outward material form, but the saints possessed all in a spiritual form. That is what Peter brings out. In reading the Old Testament it might appear that God was defeated. Certain things had been set up and they broke down; we want an answer to that, and the New Testament furnishes that answer. Whatever promises there are, in Him is the Yea. All that in which God has been apparently defeated will be established in Christ. Even in regard of the church, the very book which threatens the removal of the candlestick shows the church displayed in glory.
Peter writes to the elect, not as Paul to “all that be in Rome”, nor yet, as James, to the twelve tribes. It is simply the elect he writes to.
Ques Is the sanctification by the work of the Spirit in us?
FER I should say so.
Ques Why is sanctification put before the sprinkling of blood?
FER It is not exactly the order of the thing, nor the fact in application to us that is given here, but its [p. 4] character; not national sanctification, but by the Spirit. We are sanctified to the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. God can own nothing here now but Christ. If man is owned as such it is a falsification of the cross; there can be no man before God but Christ. It is by the fact of His being before God that God can go on with the world, it is because He is the propitiation for our sins. If only people could be impressed with that idea that there is no man before God but Christ! All else is flesh and has been condemned. I attach great importance to John’s expression that He is the propitiation for the whole world; then what follows on that is that you are to be in Him, and you can only be in Him by the Spirit. There is a people under the eye of God characterised by the obedience of Jesus Christ, and who, through the sprinkling of His blood, are as clear as Christ can make them. We are elect unto the obedience of Jesus Christ, that is the end, but the way of it is by the sprinkling of the blood. One of the most difficult things for us to apprehend is grace. The pleasure of God is in helping a man, not in finding fault with him. It is not the thought of a parent to look for faults and then drop down upon them. If there be a defect, the parent points it out so that it may be removed.
The obedience is of Jesus Christ. The truth is, once Christ has been under the eye of God, nothing inferior can be acceptable to God; all must be of that character. There was no legality in Christ — you could not conceive it. He walked in the light of love, and so it is too in regard of us. There is nothing now for God but the new man; the first man is gone for God though a good deal of it hangs about us. The moment the Spirit came and took possession of the vessel which Christ had prepared, there and then there was the sanctification of the Spirit. There was then a company set apart for God, and the great activity of [p. 5] the Spirit is to put us in the reality of this sanctification. In Hebrews 10 the Spirit comes in as witness, and the sanctification is by the will of God. The Lord was here entirely for the will of God; so a Christian delights in His will. Commandments, to a Christian, are like sign-posts on the road; he is very glad to come to them; they confirm him; they are welcome guides to him for the road, though he may have been pretty sure he was right. If the will is not at work, and you are not quite sure, a commandment comes in very acceptably. I want to go that road, and all that comes in to help me I am thankful for, if my face is Zionward.
The first thing that came into the world was disobedience; the law came to command obedience, but it could not produce it. Then Christ came in with the law of God in His heart, and that brought in the principle of obedience. In the sprinkled blood, you have the value of His death upon you. We must have it in order to be free before God. It is evident that the passage here (verse 2) does not take us beyond the earth, since the sanctification is to obedience. In Hebrews 10 we are sanctified by our extinction. We are perfected for ever, but we are sanctified by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ — that is, we are extinguished. The offering of the body of Jesus did not leave a bit of me, but being sanctified we are perfected for ever. In John 17 sanctification is more practical. The Lord has separated Himself from all here, as a heavenly Man, and that gives us the standard and measure of what our sanctification really is.
Ques How is the sprinkling of blood connected with responsibility?
FER We could not be in the place of obedience until we are free — justified before God. The order in Christ was obedience and sprinkling of blood. Obedience has no place in Christ now. He came into the place of man’s disobedience and in that path He was [p. 6] perfect in obedience, but He did not bring the obedience from heaven; it was incidental to His having taken the place as Man here. What He brought was heavenly grace, love, patience, and everything that was lovely and divine. It has been said: “Obedience was not manna”. If we are not characterised by obedience, we are not here for God’s will. The time past suffices to have lived for the will of man; now we are here for God’s will. The sprinkling of blood is once for all, but the obedience is continuous. We could not be in the will of God unless we were justified — that is, freed from the judgment of God. It is the same principle in Romans: a man must be in righteousness judicially before he can be righteous practically. The obedience must be the obedience of Christ; the motive must be, doing the will of God from the heart. Why does a Christian obey God? Because God has a claim upon him; we are here for His will. Our affections are acted on by the compassions of God, and so we obey (see Romans 12).
Verses 1 and 2 are an introduction; then the subject proper begins in verse 3, with a kind of doxology.
The apostle comes here to the positive work of God in them; God had begotten them to a living hope. It is the sovereignty of God’s work in them, God acting on the ground of His mercy. He is rich in mercy, as we get in Ephesians. It applies to the Gentile equally with the Jew.
In connection with the resurrection of Christ God opened a new scene for men according to His own counsel. It was the purpose of God to set up an entirely new scene in connection with a Man risen from the dead. We are begotten again to a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead: it is according to His abundant mercy.
It is not the faith of the Christian that is here spoken of, but the work of God in him — He has begotten [p. 7] us. It is to a living hope — a hope that death cannot touch, it is quite beyond its reach. The resurrection is the beginning, the moral beginning of everything for God. All was in death, but on the first day of the week God raised Christ from the dead, and that was really the beginning of the creation of God. We look at life too much in a material way, as the life of a beast, but when man was created God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. There is no moral element in mere animal life; the beginning with man had the moral element — God breathed into his nostrils. In the fall, ruin came in in the moral part of man, and then the material part came under it. When God begins to work in him, He begins in the moral part; so we are born again. There is a danger of making two lives. The essence of man’s life is in the moral part. It is very poor to level down man’s life to the mere animal part. People think that when they are born again they have another life. When a man dies, it is the animal part that dies, death is the separation of body and soul. “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” — that is, death came on the actual condition. It is in the moral part God begins to work because there the ruin began; the sentence of death came upon Adam because he had fallen. He was liable to death from that moment; he was in the state that must end in death, and that is physical.
The glory of God is the conciliation of His nature with His attributes; then it is He has a free hand. If God had acted in righteousness and according to His holiness, there would have been nothing but destruction, but in Christ we see the conciliation of His nature with His attributes. In the death of Christ we get the declaration of His righteousness and the testimony of His love. We should not have known God’s attributes had sin not come in. Righteousness is correlative to sin, but the attribute comes into [p. 8] exercise by the fact of sin having come in. Glory is always intended, I believe, to convey a moral idea.
Christ was the Prince of life, He was the Son of the living God. The one who is begotten to a living hope may die, but it is a living hope still, it is not affected by death. It is in the resurrection of Christ we get it; the man after the flesh is gone and therefore the living hope is brought in. Those who are begotten to it, stand on an entirely new ground with God; all who have been brought on to it by believing the gospel, are regarded as the children, the offspring of the gospel. God had begotten them to a living hope by the testimony of the resurrection. The death of Christ revealed God Himself; the resurrection revealed His pleasure in regard of man, which was that man should be before Him apart from all reproach that attached to him as after the flesh — absolutely clear in the eye of God. This is what is set forth in the resurrection of Christ; it was in His death that the veil of the temple was rent in twain. The extent of the justification is that you are clear before God of every reproach that attaches to you as after the flesh. It is in the light of resurrection that we know the value of the blood. Christ entering into death was entirely exceptional; He went into death for the glory of God and to accomplish redemption, and when that was completed He could not be holden of it. With the heart man believeth unto righteousness; but what do we believe? The testimony to the resurrection of Christ.
Everything living connects itself as far as I can see with the world to come. There is the greatest possible interest connected with everything that is living. Those who have received God’s testimony are the only ones who know anything about resurrection, and I fear the mass of people are infidel in regard of it. They may admit it as a creed. Resurrection is the peculiarity of Christianity and Christian testimony. People do not regard death as the moral judgment of [p. 9] God, they do not take in its terrible character; it is a rude shock to the tenderest affections and nothing here can in any way relieve it. It is a comfort to me that people do not die to God; God is not the God of the dead but of the living. He is the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob; they live for God, and hence they must come out in resurrection. It is a great thing to get your thoughts outside a world of death to a scene where all is living. There is a whole system of things in connection with a living God — “a living hope”, “living stones”. When the living God comes out, He will set aside the power of death. Man does not like any interference on the part of God. God says virtually, I leave you alone for a time, but I have interfered, for the kingdom is here, and I shall interfere still more and shall remove all that exists, in order to bring in a scene that is beyond the domination of death.
On the ground of the “living hope” you come into the inheritance (verse 4). The inheritance is, you share the glory of Christ. Christ is Heir of all things and we are joint heirs with Him; it is reserved in heaven for us, for He is hid. The inheritance must take in all that is headed up in Christ as in Ephesians 1 — things in heaven and things in earth. It has been acquired but has not yet been redeemed, and therefore it is reserved in heaven, and we are kept down here by the power of God; that is the peculiar position of things. We are kept by faith; that is, that in the midst of the utmost darkness down here, we have light in our souls. It is in this way faith is spoken of in connection with Christ personally in Hebrews 12. It is really the cross, the darkest moment when we get faith alluded to as regards the Lord; He is spoken of as the “Author and finisher of faith”. Faith is the instrument by means of which we are kept. The mission of Peter was not to develop what has come to pass in the presence of the Holy Spirit. The effect of [p. 10] his testimony and that of the twelve was to get saints to believe in a glorified Christ, really laying the foundation of the heavenly city. Peter bore testimony to the presence of the Holy Spirit here as the proof and consequence of Christ being exalted, but Paul develops what was consequent on that presence. John comes in to confirm Paul. John gives things that are more intensely essential, things more in connection with the nature of God. The loss would be irreparable if John’s writings were taken away. Paul gives more the architecture, but John gives things in their own proper essential character. Paul teaches that God sent His Son that we might receive sonship, but John gives us all as to the truth of the Son.
We are “kept by the power of God through faith” (verse 5); if divine light illuminates your heart, you are kept. What people want is faith. The first ten chapters of Hebrews are objective, but the eleventh is subjective — the heart is full of divine light. If a man’s faith fails he gets into darkness. Faith is operative by love; it is not an intellectual acceptance of things, but a vital principle in man by which his conduct is determined. The power of God at this moment connects itself with the weakest things here; we continue in the faith and are not moved away, the sense of things does not fade away and that is not because of any stedfastness in us, but because we are kept by the power of God: thus His power connects itself with the weakest things here.
“Salvation ready to be revealed in the last time”; as in every other epistle, the Spirit of God has the “last time” in view; it is the day of Christ.
Ques How is “salvation” looked at here?
FER It is the subjugation — the putting down of everything that is contrary to God and to man. Christ is the salvation; it comes in by Him. It will be revealed in the day of Christ. We get salvation now,
[p. 11] morally, but it comes in eventually by power; it is ready to be revealed, but we get at it morally.
We possess nothing except that into which we have entered, else it would become material. Christianity is all moral and you cannot claim to possess salvation save as you have entered into it. I admit it is in Christ Jesus, and what is in Christ is in Him for every one. It is all free for every one to appropriate, but it is useless to claim possession if you have not entered into it; it falsifies the true character of Christianity. It was that that gave rise to the controversy as to eternal life. Many claimed to possess it who had not entered into it.
This epistle contemplates a people who are in expectation of something coming to them here; it is not the idea of a people going to heaven. The general expectation of Christians is going to heaven, but in Scripture the thought is much more what is to be brought to them here: it is “the grace to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ”. Peter takes up the moral government of God and its bearing, and you could not conceive of that without an issue being brought about; the epistle contemplates that issue. We want to get hold more of the whole scheme and system which God has before Him, its breadth, and length, and depth, and height. When we get the great thought before us we shall soon get hold of our own part in it. What is all the moral government of God tending to? It is the final display in which God will be glorified. I do not think that is enough before the minds of people. They are too much taken up with the world. All prophetic scripture looks on to the salvation ready to be revealed.
Ques Is it connected with Christ gone in?
FER Yes, but Christ has gone in to come out, and the end is that all will come forth manifestly from God. The church goes to heaven in order to come forth from there; she comes down from God out of [p. 12] heaven having the glory of God and her light like unto a stone most precious. To “love his appearing” is the description of a Christian. It is a great thing to get an apprehension of the world of which Christ is the centre, Christ dwelling in the heart by faith. The mass of people are too indefinite in their thoughts. What was to be displayed at the coming of the Lord was before the mind of all the apostles. All the writers in Scripture had the coming of the Lord as the goal and end to which they looked. Christ has ascended up far above all heavens that He might fill all things; He is now to dwell in our hearts by faith. I should like to ask people, What is definitely before you? Many would be puzzled to answer. I should answer, I have before me what is before God. It is the whole system of which Christ is the Centre. “We are come unto Mount Zion”; if it is all before God it is what ought to be before us. It is by the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the acknowledgment of Him that we get divine intelligence in these things.
Ques What is the difference between entering into the kingdom and entering into the assembly?
FER The application of the kingdom is to us individually; in entering into the assembly we come into our relation to Christ and to one another.
It is not possible for anyone to get any intelligence in the Old Testament unless he reads it by Christ. He is the Spirit of it.
In verse 15 God has called us; in verse 17 we call on God as Father. Each has its own consequence. That we are called, involves purpose; Peter takes up the saints on that ground, as we get in verse 2, “elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father”. If we entertain the thought of being called of God, immediately the necessity for holiness comes in. Grace having come in, righteousness is incumbent, we come under the obligation to righteousness. So,
[p. 13] being called, the obligation is to holiness. Righteousness is your path; holiness is yourself. People do not much discern the distinction between righteousness and holiness. Righteousness is your way, holiness is yourself. It is so even in regard to God: holiness is Himself; righteousness marks His ways. We are created in holiness. Righteousness is that we travel in an appointed path — within rule — that is to me the idea of righteousness. Holiness is connected with what you are, and lies in nature. You cannot get holiness out of flesh nor can you put it into flesh, but holiness becomes an obligation on us, as having been called of God who is holy. Holiness is only possible to us as being in Christ, though you may get a kind of holiness from association: “else were your children unclean but now are they holy” — that is holiness in a relative way.
Discipline comes in to the end that we may be partakers of God’s holiness. Holiness is an idea entirely foreign to the best man ever born. The natural mind of man does not entertain the thought of holiness, which is the inward repulsion of evil. The natural conscience may reprove gross things, but the subtleties of flesh are not repellent to the mind of man. Even with people who are outwardly blameless, unworthy things sometimes have a kind of fascination. It proves that man is depraved. But from the fact of being called of God the obligation devolves upon us to be holy, and we have to see to it.
Then we come into the place of children (see verses 17 - 19). Invoking Him as Father, involves the relationship of children; we take that place in relation to God. He “judges”, I believe, in the way of discipline; He takes account of people according to their works. If we take the place of being children we come under the discipline of the Father, and in that sense we pass the time of our sojourning here, in fear. We ought to take account of it that God judges according to every man’s work; we do not call upon One who has favourites.
Then another thing comes out here and that is you are taken up on the ground of being “redeemed” (verse 18), and for that reason we have to regard the right of the Redeemer. He redeemed that over which He had the right of inheritance. I do not know if we take in the seriousness of these things. We call on One who judges according to right and wrong, not simply according to the fact that we are Christians. Then again, God Himself is the Redeemer; Christ is, as it were, the redemption price. God is the Redeemer by Christ: “with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish”. The One in whom the redemption has been carried out is Christ, as a lamb pre-ordained. You get the idea of inheritance in the fact of our being elect according to the foreknowledge of God. The inheritance came under liability, and God Himself comes in to take up the liability in order to redeem the inheritance, and so you get Christ as a lamb brought in. The burden which lay upon the elect people of God was really man — flesh. Hence redemption is by the blood of Christ which is the witness that death had come in. Man’s flesh is the burden, and they were redeemed from the vain conversation by getting rid of the man. Christ came into death in order that we might accept death and might live in His life. What marks this passage is an entirely new beginning with God who is holy. It is a striking thing that redemption, as spoken of here, is not from sin but from what is outwardly religious. It is not the idea we associate generally with redemption: it was from their “vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers”. Nothing could be worse than the will of man in divine things. The mystery of iniquity already works — that is, not only in the world but in that which is outwardly religious. The tendency in man is to bring everything down to [p. 15] the human level so that it can be taken up by unconverted people without spiritual power. And people tolerate it, they tolerate everything that is within man’s power. Popery, High Churchism are not beyond the power of man: what is hated is what is beyond man’s power, but they tolerate all that lies within the range of man’s power to achieve. We see in verse 18 what Judaism had come to in the thought of God — “vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers”.
Redemption in Scripture is always from something. “The angel which redeemed me from all evil”. It is taking people out from a false position. Israel could not worship God in Egypt, so God redeemed them that they might be a worshipping people. Redemption also brings in the thought of purpose. God redeems those about whom He has a purpose of blessing, but God never redeems until the pressure of the bondage is felt. Redemption comes in as the witness of God’s love; it is not merely a way of escape from bondage, but a redemption that would bring us to Himself, and that, as He has been pleased to reveal Himself in love. God makes known His love in the work by which we are redeemed. The real foundation of the gospel is, “God so loved the world”.
God has provided Himself a Lamb in contrast to Israel providing themselves each a lamb for a house. The Lamb is a title which belongs to Christ in relation to the earth. The idea associated with it is redemption. Revelation 4 gives His creation title, and the fifth chapter His redemption title to open the book. The great point in John is that he claims the world for God. Christ is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world; He is the bread of God, who gives His flesh for the life of the world.
The Lamb is spoken of here in connection with eternal purpose (see verse 20). It was the purpose of [p. 16] God to put everything on the ground of redemption. It is the only secure ground; there is no security on the footing of man’s responsibility. Evil has come into the responsible system, but it was ever in the purpose of God to put everything on the footing of redemption. Satan is opposed to man getting any light from God — he is deadly opposed to it. He will allow man to be as religious as possible, he himself is transformed into an angel of light, but man must have no light from God. The God of this world blinds the minds of those who believe not; the consequence is that if there is a testimony to the rights and glory of Christ, he does not understand it, but he is conscious that it is light from God, and therefore raises a storm of opposition against it.
There are two sides to redemption. Redemption is complete on the part of God. He takes up His right in regard of man on the ground of redemption. The old-fashioned way of preaching the gospel was that every man was under the wrath of God, but that he could be free of it by faith in Christ. The truth is, that God is favourable to all men, His righteousness is “unto all”. All has been secured on the part of God and redemption is in Christ Jesus. The other side of redemption is when we have it. The present time is a peculiar moment; it is an accepted time, a day of salvation — that is the position of things. The casting off of the Jew is the reconciling of the world. It is as to the Jew that it says: “The wrath of God abideth on him”; they were not subject to the Son. The Jew had been tested by the coming of light into the world. It brought out that men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. Wrath has come upon them to the uttermost; but Christ is God’s salvation to the ends of the earth; He is set to be light to the Gentiles. The great point is to enlighten people as to the salvation. Death and whatever lay upon man is met by redemption, and now God proposes [p. 17] to men that they may be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.
Many people think that when they believe, the attitude of God is altered toward them, whereas there is no alteration at all in God’s attitude, but they have apprehended the attitude and see things as they are. Wrath is stayed and Christ is the Head of every man. When man shows his hand and sets up the lawless one in place of Christ, then God can stay His hand no longer and that brings in the judgment of God. We do not want to falsify the thought of God in the minds of men; we shall do no good at all if we do.
We ought to be deeply impressed with what Christ will bring in at His appearing. The shining out of God in all that Christ will bring in with Him should be what is before our minds. It ought to be of interest to us for I believe the church will be the great vessel through which the grace and the glory of God will come out by and by. We ought for that reason to be well instructed in the ways of God down here. The church is instructed and intelligent in every way of God; she could not be the heavenly city if it were not so. You have only to go to Psalm 132 to see the close connection between the house and the city; they are identified.
It is quite impossible to realise the salvation that is in Christ Jesus save in the Christian circle. It is impossible to realise it in system, for system is part of the world and salvation is outside the world. There is no salvation outside the church, the Christian circle, that is, the circle to which Christ gives character. It is outside all the hatred of man; it is where love is the atmosphere. We are under obligation to “love one another with a pure heart fervently”. The assembly, like Noah’s ark, is the place of salvation. In system they are not on the ground of the Christian circle; if there were any apprehension of Christ, people could not continue [p. 18] in it.
Rem People may know forgiveness in it.
FER In Christ there is forgiveness for all men, but to appropriate that, you must have the Spirit. By faith we apprehend the mind of God towards all men in Christ, but all appropriation is by the Spirit. What is set forth in Christ is true for all men, but to take it home to yourself is by the Spirit.
Ques But if people have forgiveness of sins, have they not salvation?
FER No: they have righteousness; salvation for us, is in coming into the Christian circle. The Christian circle is a great point, it is the answer to Christ in heaven. We cannot attach too much importance to it. I believe what is quite common among us is consent to the truth and retaining as much of the world as possible.
The great thing that Scripture attaches importance to is not going to heaven, but coming out of heaven.
Verse 21 shows us what God can do in man; God raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory. It is the acting of God in regard of man. The purpose of God in the gospel is to gain the heart of man. It is not simply to rescue him from judgment but that his faith and hope might be in God, for if this is so, He has gained my heart. It is a wonderful thing to see that this is God’s intent in the gospel, to reveal Himself to the heart of man so that He might win that heart. In raising Christ from the dead and giving Him glory God is showing us what He can do in a Man. It is the greatest contrast to the first man who dishonoured God and brought in death; but now, in redemption, God shows us what He can do in a Man. Now He raises a Man from the dead and gives Him glory, and this stands good not only for Christ but for every one who by Him believes in God. God has made the greatest possible sacrifice that He might make Himself known in the heart of man. The fact is, man by nature would trust anyone rather than [p. 19] God. If our faith and hope are in God, it means that the living links of the soul are connected with God; it is not merely faith in a testimony. Until we have some appreciation of the love of God we cannot speak much of our faith and hope being in God. The Lamb is the One who comes out to make known the love of God, and the answer to it is that we trust Him. He is worthy to be trusted because He has raised up Christ from the dead and given Him glory. Who is going to fathom the love of God? It says, God is love, but immediately it goes on to say: In this has been manifested the love of God because that God sent His only begotten Son. We cannot fathom the spring, but in this way we know it, it is thus that it has been manifested to us.
We have become partakers of the divine nature. We are born of the word of God, and the word of God is God Himself. The soul is purified by obeying the truth. Whatever the work of grace in you, you are still the same person; though born again, the person is not changed. Being born again is a marvellous change; it is entirely beyond our powers to describe. Faith is its fruit. New birth was the sovereign action of God when there had been no faith at all. You cannot track or define this action. Repentance is the fruit of it. Thou “canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit”. Testimony may be presented to us, but it is no good if there is not that upon which the testimony can anchor. God has to work there first.
The drawing of the Father to the Son is the special grace of Christianity so I should not like to confound that with new birth. There were saints in the Old Testament, and there will be such again of whom it could not be said they are drawn of the Father to the Son.
In Scripture, being born again — begotten again, is usually spoken of a people who were previously regarded as standing in relation to God.
[p. 20] New birth cannot be separated, at the present time, from the testimony of God. We know nothing about people until they become enlightened by the testimony; the Lord knew and therefore could speak about them. He could say: We speak that we do know and testify that we have seen. All we can say is that if a person has accepted the testimony of God it is a proof that he has been born of God, but as to the thing itself no man living can say anything about it. What we do see is, God’s testimony is in the world, and when people become enlightened by it it proves the reality of new birth having taken place. When Israel is revived in the latter day it is not in connection with any particular testimony, but it is all connected with the secret sovereign work of God. In John 3 the Lord is speaking with divine knowledge. We cannot say much about a person until he is enlightened by the testimony. A man may be anxious, but we cannot predicate from that that he is born again, for the anxiety may pass away. In the future in regard of Israel, they are born again without a testimony. In the history of the church I do not believe there ever was a moment when the testimony was not maintained. Verse 23 goes beyond John 3. In 1 Peter 1: 23 you are born of the seed. In John 3 the Lord is not addressing Himself to Christians; He was speaking of what was necessary for the Jew that he might be in the kingdom, but here and in John’s epistle “born of God” describes what takes place in Christians: “His seed abideth in him”. He partakes of the divine nature and therefore he loves the brethren fervently. The “incorruptible seed” is the divine nature.
It is all connected: he had spoken of faith and hope and now love is what he presses, and these three are the elements of Christianity. “Born of God” is applied to Christians only; one who is “born again” is in the road to being a Christian, but John recognises [p. 21] those to whom he wrote as having received the Spirit.
Here (verse 22) the apostle describes the process by which we arrive at unfeigned love of the brethren. It is by obeying the truth, getting the heart freed from all worldly motives, but then he goes on to show what is the real spring of the process, viz., being born again of incorruptible seed. In preaching the gospel the preacher does not know who is born again. Christ died for all. If the gospel were only for those born again, it would hamper; but we are conscious that the proclamation is for every creature. It is many a long day before people are in the good of the gospel.
In verse 24 there is a great sum up of man. It is quoted from Isaiah 40. All flesh is grass, the grass withereth and the flower thereof fadeth away, but the word of our God shall stand for ever. It is the gospel for Israel and I pity the man who does not delight in it! The glory of man is a dead failure, it is all tinsel; the glory of Jehovah is the only true glory. The point is, Israel needs to get rid of the man: they will receive forgiveness but will begin again in a new Head in whom the forgiveness is set out. They take the new covenant from Christ. God is not only revealed, but in that revelation Christ has become the gathering point for the universe. The glory of man will fade under the scorching influence of the judgments which will come in as we get in Revelation. All depends, even for Israel, upon a heavenly Christ.
These verses (23, 24) bring in the certainty of the divine purpose. “The word of the Lord” is strictly the purpose of God in regard to Israel (that is, His utterance). It endures for ever. The “word of God” is God in expression; God has expressed Himself, but the “word of the Lord” is the statement of His purpose, the fiat of His will; as, for instance, “Israel shall be saved ... with an everlasting salvation”. This gives stability to our souls. How many dynasties and kingdoms have passed away, but the word of the [p. 22] Lord — what He utters — endures for ever. No one is established unless he is in the sense of the stability and certainty of the divine purpose. “The word of the Lord” here, is not any particular statement, but in general whatever He purposes. The “word of God” is more moral; by it we become partakers of divine nature.
Ques What is the thought of being “born of water” in John 3?
FER It gives the idea of cleansing. It is not the word of God in the sense of the Scriptures, we could not limit it to that. It might be the thought of God as a Judge. You can place no limit on the Spirit of God. If the Spirit of God works in a man He does bring home what is revealed in Scripture. Many a one has been born again through a dream or some providential thing which brought God home to him.
There are two great principles in God’s way of recovery; the first thing is to bring us into attachment, the next is to bring us out of the world and the circle of hatred into the circle of love. These two principles are equally important. We are brought out of lawlessness into attachment — that is righteousness and it is individual; but we have to be brought out of an atmosphere where hatred prevails into an atmosphere where love prevails. In virtue of redemption we are brought into attachment to Christ; by Him we believe in God; and then it goes on to speak of unfeigned love of the brethren, and that brings in the thought of another circle. The two great principles of departure are lawlessness in regard of God and hatred in regard of man. In Cain the principle of the world came in which is hatred; then the only way of escape from that is to get into another circle. The Christian circle is a new system of divine affections. What God provided from the very outset was a centre and a circle, and they were both provided before the gospel [p. 23] was preached. There was a centre to which men could be attached, and a circle where they could escape the world. Christ was preached, and if attracted and attached to that Centre men would escape lawlessness. But not only that, there was also a circle, and the Holy Spirit came and gave character to it, and those who believed in Christ came into that circle. There could be no more perfect way for us. Only in that way could men escape from lawlessness and hatred. It remains true to the present day: the three measures of meal are leavened, but still the great principles of Christianity remain true and unaffected. God raised Him up from the dead and gave Him glory. His glory is that He became the appointed Sun and Centre of an entirely new moral universe. We are brought out of darkness into His marvellous light, and God’s marvellous light is Christ.
Ques What is the attachment?
FER It is a bond, and the bond is the Spirit. The earth is in attachment to the sun, and the moon to the earth. “Married to another” is the bond. As with husband and wife, all true affections develop after the bond is formed.
Our affection to Christ is proved by the regard we have one for another, it will work out in love one to another.
The “brethren” are those who are born again; we have to recognise them as kindred to Christ. We are born again not ‘by‘ but “out of”. The issue is the divine nature. We are speaking in a moral way. The effect of being born again is, we become partakers of the divine nature. Every Christian is begotten of God directly — no line of succession. As born of Adam there have been intervening generations, but every Christian is directly born again of God. If you know one who is begotten of God and loves God, you love him more than your own kindred. The distinctions of flesh disappear then. The word of [p. 24] God is the revelation of God in a man’s heart. We love Him because He first loved us. We have all been begotten by the revelation of God in our hearts.
Salvation belongs to the Christian circle. In early days the world got no admission into the Christian circle. It was the circle where divine affections were. We cannot return to that but we can see the great principles of it.