2 PETER 1
The difference between Peter’s first and second epistles is that the first connects itself with the truth of the church built by Christ according to Matthew 16, while in the second, what is prominent is the kingdom, which connects itself with Matthew 17. The first is the place of the church — the saints — in relation to God’s moral government down here, but in the second epistle the apostle seeks to establish the hearts of the saints in the certainty of the kingdom. Scoffers would discredit this, and that on the ground of the stability of creation; but it is monstrous to refuse all save natural laws, as though God could be bound by His own works. I do not believe that death is due to natural laws, I believe it is the judgment of God on account of sin.
The kingdom will go on after Christianity is over. Christianity will be judged, but the kingdom will be purged. He will gather out of His kingdom all things that do offend. The kingdom is grace acting in power for the subjugation of every enemy. This is what is set forth in David; it is in him you get the first beginning of the kingdom. The kingdom will not tolerate evil, it will have righteousness. All that is hostile is put down. Grace will not allow evil; grace reigns through righteousness. Christ brings in the sway of grace, but not at the expense of righteousness, for righteousness will be maintained.
The “heavens do rule” does not refer to the kingdom of heaven, but to that which was and is always true. God may allow a man (as Nebuchadnezzar) to be lifted up, but when he transgresses he is brought down. God can set up one and put down [p. 101] another; if He sees fit He can set up the basest of men.
Peter’s two epistles are analogous to the two epistles to Timothy, but Peter speaks in his own peculiar way. When Christianity as a professing system has failed, there is nothing left but for the kingdom to be brought in in power, which is God’s public assertion of Himself. The outward system of profession is that which fails. What Christ builds — the church in its own proper character either as the house or the body — never fails. The failure comes in in connection with the system where man builds. It is important to make a distinction between what the church is in its own proper character and what the professing system becomes. In the parable of the ten virgins it is evident that the mixture of wise and foolish began very early.
There is a remarkable expression here in verse 1. The apostle does not address himself to the Jews of the dispersion, but to those who “have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God” — not through the grace of God. It is wonderful that we get the righteousness of God in favour of man. So it is in Romans 3. Man being what he is, you would have thought that the righteousness of God was antagonistic to him. The pivot upon which everything turns is the introduction of a Man, a new Head. God has asserted Himself in that Man, the Head, the righteous One. The effect of it is that He gets His own proper place in the affections of man. The Man, the new Head, is the expression of the righteousness of God. The righteousness of God is God’s rights; well, He has not these rights properly until man’s heart recognises the supremacy and rights of God. It all hangs on the introduction of a Man, a Head. God has been justified in regard of the judgment that lay upon man, and by that Man, the new Head, God gets His own proper place in the hearts of men. That Man is the testimony of God, and all depends on how [p. 102] that Man is received. The law witnessed the righteousness of God, but did not secure it. It is by that Man that God secures it. “What the law could not do ... God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh”; and the object was that man might be subdued to righteousness, and thus God might have His rights in man, the righteous requirements of the law being fulfilled in us. All is given by God on the ground of righteousness. The cross was all righteousness; the One who suffered there was the righteous One, and God’s righteousness was declared. There was nothing of sin in it except the sin that was borne vicariously. The cross was the righteous One bearing the righteous judgment of God. God has found a way, in spite of things being what they are, by which He could approach man in testimony; He did it in the fact of that Man coming in and taking up the liabilities that lay upon man. We have obtained like precious faith through the righteousness of God. If God has brought in a Head, you may be quite sure He will take care to see that that Head is accepted.
“Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord” (verse 2). People do not realise the gain of the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. We need to get the gain of it, and it is that grace and peace are multiplied. One single figure stands out through all Scripture, and that is Christ. In Genesis God said, “Let there be light”, and then you get the appointed light. The two things run through Scripture. We get light, that is the revelation of God, the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, and then too the appointed Light — light to rule. But light to rule is rather a different principle from God being revealed. Christ is the Light, the appointed Light. He is the Sun of righteousness, who will rule everything on earth according to the revelation of God. Christ will rule [p. 103] the day, there will be public light then. Christ will be the Centre of all right affection, and in that way He will rule the day, and it will be a long day too, “for there shall be no night there”. There will be a principle of attraction with Christ then just as with the sun now.
The passage in verses 3 and 4 is a difficult one, but if we have difficulties in Scripture, it is because we are not up to it; the difficulties are not in Scripture but in us, and if we were bigger and higher up the difficulties would vanish. “His divine power hath given [p. 109] unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness”. That is, everything has been given to us, and the way it works is through the knowledge of Him that hath called us. We begin with the clear knowledge of God. God has His own purpose in the gospel, and that is not merely to confer a benefit on us, but that we may know the Benefactor. The woman with the issue of blood was content to get the benefit, but the Lord was not satisfied with this.
Glory is the conciliation of divine attributes with God’s nature. Virtue is the excellence of the thing. They go together. If you apprehend the glory you will soon come to the sense of the moral excellence of it. The disciples came in contact with glory and virtue when they were with the Lord. We see all now in the face of Jesus Christ. These promises never came out before. God has been glorified, and His glory is set forth in the face of Jesus Christ, and God is perfectly free to carry out all His pleasure. God is not compromised in giving exceeding great and precious promises.
There is a way in which grace and peace can be multiplied to us, and that is in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. We ought to be more occupied with it. It would be largely experimental. “Every one that loveth ... knoweth God”, 1 John 4: 7. You cannot know God as a mere question of intelligence;
[p. 104] you can only know God as you are akin to God in nature. The moment the question of the knowledge of God arises, it involves the work of God in us. I go with the presentation of the grace of God to every man, for Christ is the Head of every man, and yet when the question of knowing God comes in, the originating work of God comes in too. When you appreciate the moral excellencies in Christ you come to God. So we cannot separate the knowledge of God from the knowledge of Jesus our Lord. Man is responsible in respect of the testimony which God presents to him, but at the same time, if it is a question of capability for the knowledge of God, you must bring in the work of God. Man has responsibility to listen to what God has to say to him in testimony, yet the capability of knowing God depends upon the work of God in us.
God has called us by glory and virtue, and by the same calling, great and precious promises are given to us. The divine nature is bound up in the great and precious promises, and for this reason, that all the promises are expressions of divine love, and as we enter into the exceeding great and precious promises, we drink into the nature of God, and so we become partakers of the divine nature. The promises all centre in Christ, in the Person through whom God has brought in glory and virtue. We get the force of this passage explained in the prayer in Ephesians 3. All centres in Christ — length, breadth, depth, height — and in this way we are filled to all the fulness of God.
The divine nature is involved in every promise of God, and as we enter into this and see the spirit and spring of the promises, we become partakers of the divine nature. There could be no greater privilege than that we who have been slaves of lust should become partakers of the divine nature. It is a great change to come to pass in a man. I have been much interested in seeing, in John 5, John 6 and John 7, the three great [p. 105] standing evidences of Christianity. The first is the work of God in a man (chapter 5); then there is bread (chapter 6); and then there is living water (chapter 7). There are those who have heard the voice of the Son of God and who live; there are those who are satisfied, and then, too, there are those who have rivers of living water flowing out from them. These things cannot be gainsaid. They are standing evidences of Christianity — living evidences. We read books giving proof and evidence of Christianity; I do not care for them. I see evidences to Christ here which cannot be gainsaid. I see people who live, having heard the voice of the Son of God, and I see thousands of people who are in a wilderness with but little here, and yet they are satisfied, and more than that, there are rivers of living water flowing out. What Jerusalem will be in the last days the belly of the believer is to be now. Bread is what we appropriate continually, we get rivers of living water once for all. In the latter day, all the literature which is right and morally refreshing will go out from Jerusalem. All now centres in the inward parts of the believer. “Living water” is health-giving influence.
“Glory and virtue” stand in contrast to the pollution and corruption of the world. It is the effulgence of God coming out — all moral excellence in it. The testimony of God has come in on that line, it has reached us by glory and virtue. “Glory and virtue” may be an allusion to the sufferings of Christ. Nowhere do glory and virtue shine out as in the death of Christ. The woman who anointed the Lord for His burial had apprehended glory and virtue in Christ. The world is filled with corruption through lust, and evil is painted up to appear fascinating. If they had a representation on the stage of what was morally right, it would not have any interest at all. People are not attracted by good. Recovery does not fascinate as does the fall.
[p. 106] Glory is effulgence, the shining out of what is there. In the garden of Eden you do not see glory. It was all there, but what was there was not effulgent. The circumstances of an innocent creature did not give occasion for the shining out of all that God is. When evil comes in, then God becomes effulgent, all that is there shines out. The glory of God is essentially that He triumphs over evil.
Peter’s second epistle is rather a contrast to the first. In the first epistle he speaks of what is collective, a spiritual house, a chosen generation, and salvation is a prominent thought connected with the house of God. In the second epistle the sense of salvation had been largely lost, and the house of God had become obscured. Hence, what is pressed is what is individual. It is the same thing in the epistles to the seven churches; Revelation 2 and 3. “He that hath an ear, let him hear”. Great stress is laid upon the kingdom in the second epistle, and of course that connects itself with what is individual. There has been a thought with us of setting up something, on a small scale, of what was the original, but it is not the divine way to establish again what has broken down.
Ques Do we find the thought of a “remnant” in connection with this?
FER Well, it is a dangerous thought; you have to be careful as to it. In Israel the remnant came in as the nation. That principle will not apply in regard to the church. The thought of a remnant is that God maintains what is for Himself, but it is very difficult to apply that to the church.
When the thought of the house of God became obscured and the sense of salvation lost, then great importance is attached to what is individual. “An entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom”, is all individual. The kingdom referred to [p. 107] is the great display.
Ques Is the entrance into it a present one?
FER I should hardly think so.
Ques Why is it the “everlasting” kingdom?
FER It is in contrast to what is temporal and has passed away. It is the fulfilment of what the prophets spoke of. They did not look on to the kingdom in mystery, but to its public glory and display. This chapter connects itself with Matthew 17, which certainly looks on to the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. If we become partakers of the divine nature then we shall be resplendent in glory when Christ appears.
I do not think we can attach too much importance to what is individual. We have been accustomed to talk a good deal of what is ecclesiastical — “the ground of the one body” — but it has not come to much. If you attach importance to what is individual (that is, what regards yourself), you will not be indifferent to your obligation to others. We are not to be drawn together ecclesiastically, but if we follow righteousness, piety, faith, love, then in that line we shall walk together. But to attempt to set up a little pattern of the church is the greatest mistake that could be. Righteousness is doing what is right morally. It is remarkable that righteousness is the great principle that runs through this epistle. The kingdom is the assertion of God’s rights, and the thought of righteousness is carried on in this epistle to the new heavens and the new earth “wherein dwelleth righteousness”. The second chapter is occupied with departure from the way of righteousness. There is no hope of the restoration of the house of God. The great thing then is to go on individually, to pay attention to what is individual, and to look forward to the kingdom. If you go on, you are sure to find others going on too. It has always been the case that when there is any recovery, the Spirit of God works in different people.
[p. 108] The movement is not confined to one individual, therefore we are sure to find others.
We have become a little big, and there is a great disposition to imitate what is going on around — Sunday schools, prayer meetings and the like, and many come to a prepared service.
Ques What would you arrange as to coming together for prayer?
FER I do not object to a few coming together for prayer.
Ques If people were disposed to stay away, would you not encourage them to come?
FER Well, if they have the heart for it. But have you not heard people speak of “the assembly prayer meeting”? What does that mean? It is a bit of “brethrenism”. God looks for fidelity in the individual. The house of God is obscured, and you cannot restore it; but if that is come to pass there is nothing left but fidelity individually. I repudiate all association with any company ecclesiastically.
Ques But you must have a time fixed to come together?
FER That is secondary. If people wanted to pray they would come together with one accord. The point with me is, what is in the mind when people do come together.
Ques You want to do away with formalism?
FER I want to do away with “brethrenism”. If we have been made to drink into one Spirit, then it is not very likely we shall keep apart. People come to a meeting and seem to be casting about as to what to pray for; they have nothing to say. When we come together we ought to come prepared.
Ques Do you not think that sometimes we have not courage to go away when the meeting is over?
FER Yes.
In the first part of this chapter we get God’s ordering, “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness”, i.e., all that is brought to light of God. Then from verse 5 we get our side, where diligence has place. We get all things through the knowledge of Him who has called us, and then when we are on the line of diligence it is, “If these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ”. On the divine side, all is put within your reach, and there is no stint. We get all through the knowledge of Him who has called us by glory and virtue. God has shone out in that way, but “besides this” we have our side where the line is all moral. We begin with faith and the chain terminates with love. The one line is from God to us, but the other is from faith to love — it is from faith to God. One quality is to temper another. The Christian career is begun by faith, but we are to have along with it virtue, i.e., courage, in virtue knowledge, and so on. You do not begin with love, you come to it; you are put to school, and you have to learn the lessons in moral sequence; this schooling has to go on. “Love”, is a more holy thing than “brotherly love”. There may be brotherly love without much sense of the holy love of God. We want brotherly love tempered by the holy love of God.
I suppose many a one begins by faith, but does not go much farther. I think the way we go on in these things is through exercise; they are supplied to us through exercise. It is difficult to me to understand a Christian not going on with these things. It is really the test of vitality. The end of the Christian course is love, and you cannot go beyond that. Many stop at faith. God has done everything and given everything that we may be partakers of the divine nature, but we make our calling and election sure, on our side, by following up these things. It is a great thing to be in faith, but you want all these moral elements in you;
[p. 110] they tend to form the heart of the Christian. Christianity is not holding certain doctrines, but the heart being formed of God according to God.
Knowledge is to be tempered by temperance. The Corinthians needed temperance; knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. Piety — “godliness” is extremely important; you need it if you want to go on with divine things. I do not think you find in newspapers what is commendable in the eye of God.
What we get in this passage is enlargement of heart; the world does not tend in this direction. You could not exaggerate the importance of piety. I think it is just the opposite of worldly prudence. Circumstances test us, adversity tests us, prosperity tests us; the poor man wants piety as much as the rich, and the rich as much as the poor. Holding the truth does not test us; it is circumstances which test how far we trust God. Love will regulate all the other features; they are all permeated by what you come to, i.e., love.
The effect of these things is that we shall not be barren in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. We begin with the knowledge of God, but the effect of learning these lessons is that we are not unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. We begin by faith, and end with being in accord with God’s own order. We could not have known any of these qualities except in Christianity; they came to light then. In heathendom there was no light of such qualities. You may get the names, but the qualities themselves belong to Christianity. What would “piety” mean to a poor heathen? Christianity has brought to light things which we never could have had but by the knowledge of God. We need to confirm our calling and election to ourselves. If we are going on with these things we confirm our own election, both to ourselves and to every one else who has eyes to see it. The absence of these things means that the man is blind, and forgets that he was purged from his old [p. 111] sins. It indicates to me that all had passed away from him. It really contemplates a mere professor, an extreme case. He might have been purged from his sins in the sense that he had been baptised. See the prominence that is given to the individual; it is “he that lacketh” (verse 9). It speaks of one who had come to the place where purgation was, but was never really purged; it was outward purgation merely. Individual fidelity will have its answer in the kingdom; our place in the kingdom will be in accord with our diligence here. It is a great thing to have the kingdom in view. It is true that God has translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, but we still have the display of the kingdom to look forward to.
“Wherefore, I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things” (verse 12). The apostle had a keen sense of his responsibility, and he had the consciousness that his time was limited; he expected shortly to put off his tabernacle, and meanwhile he was diligent in the interests of the saints. It is quite possible to know certain things, but we have to be kept in mind of them; it is a great thing to have the reality of things maintained in divine power in the mind. The same things may be presented in a little different light; we can never wear divine things out. The more we go on the more we find they can be looked at in different lights. Peter was going on in the consciousness of having a cruel death before him; it had been made known to him. He had nothing to gain in this world, and yet divine things were so real to him that we see him going on with the utmost diligence that the saints might have these things always in remembrance. I think all this is morally excellent. The truth makes qualities known that never could have been known otherwise: righteousness, peace, truth, holiness, grace, love. Philosophy never could bring these things to light, for it did not possess them. Patriotism and stoicism might be found [p. 112] in it, but not the qualities that are morally excellent. I would rather have philanthropy than patriotism; the latter is indefinite, it is love of your country. Philanthropy is love of the species, but loving God is better than all. It is well known that philosophy produced no effect morally. The “present truth” is the truth of Christianity.
Peter kept to his own special ministry, which was the kingdom. The church was not properly his; he recognises it, but the kingdom is what was given to him to minister.
It is “the everlasting kingdom” because there is nothing to succeed it.
The heavenly kingdom will be a kind of sway of God even in heaven. The “world to come” is the habitable world to come; it is put under the Son of man. A great deal is connected with the world to come; it embraces more than the thought of the kingdom. The system of worship, the service of God, what was prefigured in the tabernacle, is connected with the world to come. The first tabernacle has no standing now, but what was shadowed by the table of shewbread and the candlestick has to be fulfilled, for Israel has never yet been connected with Christ. They have been under law and Christ has been presented to them, but what was prefigured in the first tabernacle is Israel in connection with Christ. The first tabernacle is the holy place.
In connection with the kingdom, the church will come down from God out of heaven; it will bear the glory of God and the earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord.
The kingdom is connected with the wilderness, but the idea of the wilderness is that there is no water and no way, and you have to learn dependence upon God, and the Holy Spirit is given to conduct you through, and to be in you a well of water springing up. The coming of the Holy Spirit is all connected with the [p. 113] kingdom. The great point in Acts is the kingdom, though the existence of the church is recognised. The kingdom of God is made good down here in the present power of the Holy Spirit, while as to actual circumstances we are in the wilderness. “Mystery” is something set forth here in testimony before it is displayed in power; therefore we get the “mysteries of the kingdom”, the “mystery” of the church.
Paul’s ministry was to develop all that was consequent upon the presence of the Holy Spirit here, i.e., the house of God and the body of Christ. We are here in a wilderness where there is no way and no water, but that does not alter the fact that we are in our hearts under the sway of God.
The church is reached through the kingdom. If a man who has been away from God is converted, it becomes necessary that the moral sway of God should be established in his heart. God is first made known to him in grace, and then he comes under the teaching of grace. God has tried man under law and under the prophets, but it did not answer, so he is now put under the sway of grace. It is being in the kingdom that gives man an opportunity of learning his contrariety. The old man wants to connect the light and blessing of Christianity with divine institutions — the old order. It is what the Galatians did. But God’s way is that they are not to be connected with the old order. Even as to justification, a man is justified for a dispensation in view, that is, of the world to come. Now, we are justified by faith. Nothing is more important than to see that if a man is justified, he has to leave the world, that is, he must leave the dispensation in which he sinned.
The kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God have both their own proper moral character. To enter the kingdom of heaven, a man must be converted and become as a little child; to enter the kingdom of God, a man must be born of water and of the Spirit.
[p. 114] They are the two sides of the same thing. What is true on the one side is true on the other. The kingdom of heaven presents more what is external; it represents authority in heaven. The kingdom of God represents the internal, and is connected with the power of the Holy Spirit. The kingdom of heaven is connected with the authority of the Lord; the kingdom of God, with the presence of the Holy Spirit. It is one kingdom, but there are two phases of it, and each is spoken of in Scripture according to its own proper character, and also as to the character it assumes in connection with profession and in the hand of man. The kingdom is set up here to be a restraint on evil.
People nowadays are selling their birthright for a mess of pottage. Christianity is the birthright, but the apostate gives it up, and he does so because he has something else in view, something to gratify the flesh. People who turn infidel are not honest; the infidel does not like restraint, so he gives Christianity up. God foresaw all as far back as Esau. Look at Jacob at the end of his path; he blesses both the sons of Joseph, and worships, leaning on the top of his staff. People deceive themselves, and they think they deceive others; they are not honest, and that is what stirs me!
Ishmael is another feature of the flesh; he sets forth rebellion against the sovereignty of God, he has to be cast out, for Isaac is the man of promise. It is most beautiful to see the unvarying principle through Scripture — the one man rejected, and the man whom God approves coming forth, bearing some feature of Christ. We get the same in Cain and Abel. Do you think God will not be sovereign? He will be sovereign, and that is all about it!
We see that in God’s kingdom, all the honour and glory come from above. To be eye-witnesses of His majesty, the disciples had to be above and outside all [p. 115] here. The scene on the mount of Transfiguration was a confirmation of the voice of the prophets who had witnessed to the kingdom. No one understands the law and the prophets unless he knows Christ; Christ is the key to it all. If you knew Christ you would be an expert in the law and the prophets.
It is striking that the only one of the four evangelists who witnessed the Transfiguration, John, is the only one who does not record it. John takes up His personal glory, not the kingdom glory which was conferred. The only glory that could be conferred upon Christ was the public recognition of who He was. The three disciples got on the mount the opportunity of witnessing His glory; they were eye-witnesses of His majesty. It is a great point to get honour and glory from above. David received his from above.
For us the day has dawned, and the Day-star has arisen in our hearts. All became dark for man when he was turned out of Paradise, the scene which God frequented. Man went into darkness, he lost God and went into complete night, at least so far as the Gentiles were concerned. God allowed streaks of light to come in to special ones from time to time, but man as man was in the night. The Christian is now light in the Lord.
Prophecy is referred to in a very interesting way. It is spoken of as a light shining in a dark place. Until the day dawn and the Day-star arise in the heart, we do well to take heed to prophecy. The Day-star ushers in the day; hence prophecy has not quite the same place after the Day-star has arisen. Christ in the heart is the key by which to understand prophecy. It is true the prophets sought to bring the people back to allegiance to God, but the great thought in prophecy was the kingdom, and that thought was confirmed to the apostles by the vision on the holy mount. Christians have got the light of the glory above — the glory of Christ ascended far above all heavens. We have the [p. 116] witness of all that by the Holy Spirit. The kingdom is very small in the light of all that. The Day-star includes it all. The apostles had the recollection of Christ here, I admit, but as to the light of His glory they had no more than we have; they had it by the Spirit, and so have we. Christ is the light; the Spirit of God has brought us the report of Christ. He has ascended up far above all heavens that He might fill all things. If that is so, then He must come out in power and glory. The Day-star in that way is the pledge of the day.
Redemption has come in, and as a result the darkness is passing and the true light now shines. When Christ comes again, then all the darkness will go. The light shining is God having come out in redemption light. The darkness is passing, it is not yet past, but it will be, and must be entirely dispersed, and then all will come into the light of God. The light now comes out to us in the way of testimony, and so Christians have the light, but the darkness will have to disappear entirely in order that Christ may fill all things; all the moral darkness will have to disappear, and He, like the sun, will fill all with light and warmth. The Day-star in our hearts is the pledge that all the darkness will disappear.
Ques What is the difference between the revelation of God and the light of redemption?
FER The former is what God is, and redemption is God come in to assert His rights, and in doing so He comes out in grace.
Ques In John’s epistle, is not light the revelation of God?
FER Yes, it is, but it is the revelation of God in its application to man; it is the assertion of His redemption right, and that is grace. God has come out in revelation, and that in a way adapted to our state. That brings in of course the thought of redemption and grace. Grace is the adaptation of what God [p. 117] is to my state. If there had been sinless beings, there would have been no opportunity for man to learn grace. I do not see how God could reveal Himself to an innocent being. The way in which God presented Himself to Adam innocent was suited to his condition, and it could go no further. Sin and liability having come in, necessitate God coming out as a Redeemer. We never know God strictly in His being, apart from what has come in. The way in which we know Him is in His adaptation to our state, and that is grace, and therefore grace tempers all our knowledge of God.
Rem It is affecting to our hearts that God should so adapt Himself to our state.
FER Christ came, and He was full of grace and truth.
Ques Has what God is in His nature not been declared?
FER No created being ever knew God strictly and purely in Himself. God has revealed Himself in suitability to the creature. It is not a revelation absolutely of what God is, but a revelation suitable and adapted to man as fallen. So we know God through redemption, and all our knowledge of Him is thus tempered with grace. When Christ was here upon earth He expressed God, but how did He do it? In suitability to man’s state of misery.
Rem Even the apostles did not comprehend all that He presented to them.
FER The apostles saw One who was entirely exceptional, “As an only begotten with the Father”. We see the Father as Christ has revealed Him.
We are only fit for grace and mercy, and our knowledge of God is all tempered in that way.
We have the kingdom now in a moral sense; we have been translated into the kingdom of the Son of His love; that is all true, but the kingdom is to come in power. What comes out in the third chapter is that you can look on through the kingdom and all [p. 118] dispensations to the great end which is before God, new heavens and a new earth wherein righteousness dwells. It will not then be a state of things like the millennium, when all will be held in check by the presence and power of Christ. The kingdom is a means to an end, to bring about a final solution of the great question of righteousness and lawlessness. Right is going to gain the day, for God is God; so the final issue is that righteousness will dwell. It will bring in the triumph of God; all evil will be put down. There will be no lawlessness in the lake of fire; that is why it is a “lake”. Man’s will will not have any scope. The great question ever since sin came in is whether righteousness or lawlessness shall prevail. Righteousness will prevail, for God is God.
Verse 20 is a very strong statement. In order to understand each prophecy, you have to view it as part of one complete scheme. Even the prophets who were contemporary do not seem to have had any knowledge of one another.
Prophecy was not an intelligent man giving a forecast as the result of his observations, but he received it from God. A piece of diabolical wickedness attempted in the present day is to shut out the prophetic element from Scripture, and to accept only the historical. It is to shut God out of His own word.