We could not close this series of papers without glancing, however cursorily, at the way in which our apostle discharged his various commissions. We see him “catching men”; opening the kingdom of heaven to the Jew and to the Gentile; and, finally, feeding and shepherding the lambs and sheep of the flock of Christ.
Elevated services these, for any poor mortal to be called to, and more especially for one who had fallen so deeply as Simon Peter. But the remarkable power with which he was enabled to fulfill his blessed service, proved beyond all question, the reality and completeness of his restoration. If, at the close of the gospels, we see Peter, restored in heart and conscience; in the Acts and in his epistles, we see him restored to his work.
We cannot attempt to go into details; but a point or two must be briefly noticed. There is something uncommonly fine in Peter’s address in the third chapter of Acts. We can only quote a sentence or two. “The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified His Son, Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied Him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go. But ye denied the Holy One and the Just.”
What a splendid evidence we have here of Peter’s complete restoration! It would have been utterly impossible for him to charge his audience with having denied the Holy One, if his own soul had not been fully and blessedly restored. Alas! he, too, had denied his Lord; but he had repented, and wept bitterly. He had been down in the depths of self-judgment, just where he desired to see every one of his hearers. He had been face to face with his Lord — just where he longed to see them. He had been given to taste the sweetness, the freeness, the fullness of the pardoning love of God, to prove the divine efficacy of the atonement and the prevalence of the advocacy of Christ. He was pardoned, healed, restored; and as such he stood in their presence, a living and striking monument of that grace which he was unfolding to them, and which was amply sufficient for them as it had proved for him. “Repent ye therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out.”
Who could more distinctly and emphatically utter such precious words than the erring, restored and forgiven Peter? If any one of his audience had ventured to remind the preacher of his own history, what would he have said in reply? Doubtless, he would have had little to say about himself; but much, very much to say about that rich and precious grace which had triumphed over all his sin and failure — much, very much about that precious blood which had canceled forever all his guilt, and given perfect peace to his conscience — much, very much about that all-prevailing advocacy to which he owed his full and perfect restoration.
Peter was just the man to unfold to others those glorious themes in which he had so thoroughly learned to find his strength, his comfort and his joy. He had proved, in no ordinary way, the reality and stability of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. It was no mere empty theory; no mere doctrine or opinion with him.
It was all intensely real to him. His very life and salvation were bound up in it. He knew the heart of Christ, in a very intimate way. He knew its infinite tenderness and compassion — its unswerving devotedness, in the face of many stumbles, shortcomings, and sins; and hence, he could bear the most distinct and powerful testimony to the whole house of Israel, to the power of the name of Jesus, the efficacy of His blood, and the deep and infinite love of His heart. “His name, through faith in His name, hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know; yea, the faith which is by Him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.”
What power in these words! How refreshing is the testimony to the peerless Name of Jesus! It is perfectly delightful at all times; but specially so in this infidel day in which our lot is cast — a day so marked by the determined and persistent effort of the enemy to exclude the Name of Jesus from every department.
Look where you will, whether it be in the domain of science, of religion, of philanthropy, or moral reform, and you see the same sedulous and diligently pursued purpose to banish the name of Jesus. It is not said so in plain terms, but it is so, nevertheless. Scientific men — the professors and lecturers in our universities talk and write about “the forces of nature” and the facts of science in such a way as practically to exclude the Christ of God from the whole field of nature. Scripture tells us, blessed be God! that by the Son of His love, “All things were created that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him and for Him: and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.” And again, speaking of the Son, the inspiring Spirit says, “Who being the brightness of [God’s] glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high” (Col. 1; Heb. 1).
These splendid passages lead us to the divine root of the matter. They speak not of “the forces of nature” but of the glory of Christ — the power of His hand — the virtue of His Word. Infidelity would rob us of Christ, and give us instead, “the forces of nature.” We vastly prefer our own beloved Lord. We delight to see His Name bound up, indissolubly, with creation in all its vast and marvelous fields. We vastly prefer the eternal record of the Holy Spirit to all the finely-spun theories of infidel professors. We rejoice to see the Name of Jesus bound up in every department of religion and philanthropy. We shrink, with ever increasing horror, from every system, every club, every order, every association that dares to shut out the glorious Name of Jesus from its schemes of religion and moral reform. We do solemnly declare that the religion, the philanthropy, the moral reform which does not make the Name of Jesus its Alpha and its Omega, is the religion, the philanthropy and the moral reform of hell. This may seem strong, severe, ultra and narrow minded; but it is our deep and thorough conviction, and we utter it fearlessly, in the presence of all the infidelity and superstition of the day.
But we must return to our apostle’s discourse which has wakened up those glowing sentiments in the very depths of the soul.
Having charged home their terrible sin upon the consciences of his hearers, he proceeds to apply the healing, soothing balm of the gospel, in words of marvelous power and sweetness. “And now, brethren, I wot [know] that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers. But those things, which God before had showed by the mouth of all His prophets that Christ should suffer, He hath so fulfilled.” Nothing can exceed the grace of this. It recalls the words of Joseph to his troubled brethren. “It was not you that sent me hither, but God.” Such is the exquisite grace of our Lord Jesus Christ — such the infinite love and goodness of our God.
“Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the time of refreshing shall come from [or by] the presence of the Lord. And He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you; whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began. For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me; Him shall ye hear in all things, whatsoever He shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people. Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel, and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days. Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Unto you first, God, having raised up His Son Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.”
Thus did this dear and honored apostle, in the power of the Holy Spirit, throw wide open the kingdom of heaven to the Jews, in pursuance of his high commission as recorded in Matthew 16. It is what we may well call a splendid testimony from first to last. Most gladly would we linger over it; but our limited space forbids. We can only commend it to the earnest study of the reader, and pass on, for a few moments, to the tenth chapter of Acts which records the opening of the kingdom to the Gentile.
We assume that the reader understands the truth in reference to the keys of the kingdom of heaven being committed to Peter. We shall not therefore occupy his time or our own in combating the ignorant superstition which attributes to our apostle what we may rest assured he would have rejected with intense and holy horror, namely, the power to let souls into heaven. Detestable folly! which, while it obstinately refuses Christ, who is God’s only way to heaven, will blindly build up on some poor sinful mortal like ourselves who himself was a debtor to the sovereign grace of God and the precious blood of Christ for his entrance into the church on earth and into heaven above.
But enough of this. All intelligent Christians understand that the Apostle Peter was commissioned, by his Lord and ours, to open the kingdom of heaven to both Jew and Gentile. To him were committed the keys — not of the church, nor yet of heaven; but of “the kingdom of heaven”; and we find him, as it were, using one of those keys in Acts 3 and the other in Acts 10.
But he was by no means so alert in taking up the latter as he was in taking up the former. Prejudice — that sad hindrance, then, now, and always — stood in the way. He needed to have his mind enlarged to take in the divine purpose in respect to the Gentiles. To one trained amid the influences of the Jewish system, it seemed one thing to admit Jews into the kingdom, and quite another to admit Gentiles. Our apostle had to get further instruction in the school of Christ before his mind could take in the “no difference” doctrine. “Ye know,” he says to Cornelius, “how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company or come unto one of another nation.” Thus it had been in days gone by; but now all was changed. The middle wall was broken down — the barriers were swept away; “God hath showed me that I should not call any man common or unclean.” He had seen, in a vessel which came from heaven, and returned thither, “all manner of four-footed beasts,” and a voice from heaven had commanded him to slay and eat. This was something new to Simon Peter. It was a wonderful lesson he was called to learn on the housetop of Simon the tanner. He was there, for the first time, taught that “God is no respecter of persons,” and that what God hath cleansed, no man may call common.
All this was good and healthful for the soul of our apostle. It was well to have his heart enlarged to take in the precious thoughts of God — to see the old barriers swept away before the magnificent tide of grace flowing from the heart of God over a lost world — to learn that the question of “clean” or “unclean” was no longer to be decided by an examination of hoofs and habits (Lev. 11) — that the same precious blood of Christ which could cleanse a Jew could cleanse a Gentile also, and moreover, that the former needed it, just as much as the latter.
This, we repeat, was most valuable instruction for the heart and understanding of Simon Peter: and if the reader wants to know how far he took it in and appreciated it, he has but to turn to Acts 15 and read the Apostle’s own commentary upon the matter. The church had reached a solemn crisis. Judaizing teachers had begun their terrible work. They would fain bring the Gentile converts under the law. The occasion was intensely interesting and deeply important, yea, solemnly momentous. The very foundations were at stake. If the enemy could but succeed in bringing the Gentile believers under the law, all was gone.
But, all praise to our ever gracious God, He did not abandon His church to the power or wiles of the adversary. When the enemy came in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord raised up a standard against him. A great meeting was convened — not in some obscure corner; but at Jerusalem, the very center and source of all the religious influence of the moment — the very place, too, from whence the evil had emanated. God took care that the great question should not be decided at Antioch by Paul and Barnabas, but at Jerusalem itself, by the unanimous voice of the apostles, elders, and the whole church, governed, guided and taught by God the Holy Spirit.
At this great meeting our apostle delivered himself in a style that stirs the very deepest springs of our spiritual life. Hear his words, “And when there had been much disputing” — Alas! how soon the miserable disputing began. “Peter rose up and said unto them, Men, brethren, ye know how that a good while ago, God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe. And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Spirit, even as He did unto us. And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now therefore, why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers, nor we were able to bear? But we believe that by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved, even as they.”
This is uncommonly fine. Indeed it is morally grand. He does not say, “They shall be saved even as we.” No; but “We shall be saved even as they” — on the same ground, after the same model, in the same way. The Jew comes down from his lofty dispensational position, only too thankful to be saved, just like the poor Gentile, by the precious grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
How those words of the Apostle of the circumcision must have refreshed and delighted the heart of Paul as he sat at the marvelous and never to be forgotten meeting! Not that he sought in any way, the countenance, the support, or authority of man. He had received his gospel and his commission, not from Peter but from Peter’s Lord; and from Him, too, not as the Messiah on earth, but as the risen and glorified Son of God in heaven. Still, we cannot doubt that the testimony of his beloved fellow-laborer was profoundly interesting and cordially welcome to the Apostle of the Gentiles. We can only say Alas! alas! that there should have been anything in the after course of that fellow-laborer, in the smallest degree inconsistent with his splendid testimony at the conference. Alas! that Peter’s conduct at Antioch should vary so much from his words at Jerusalem. See Galatians 2.
But such is man, even the best of men, if left to himself. And the higher the man is, the more mischief he is sure to do if he makes a stumble. We shall not however dwell on the sad and painful scene at Antioch, between those two most illustrious servants. They are both now in heaven, in the presence of their beloved Lord, where the remembrance of past failure and sin only enhances the value of that blood which cleanseth from all sin, and of that grace which reigns through righteousness, unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord. The Holy Spirit has thought proper to record the fact that our apostle failed in frankness and integrity at Antioch; and further, that the blessed Apostle of the Gentiles had to withstand him to the face; but we are not going to expatiate upon it. We would profit by it, as well we may, for it is full of deep instruction and solemn warning. If such an one as the Apostle Peter, after all his experience, his fall and restoration, his long course of service, his intimate acquaintance with the heart of Christ, all the instruction he had received, all his gifts and knowledge, all his powerful preaching and teaching — if such an one as this could, after all, dissemble through fear of man, or to hold a place in man’s esteem, what shall we say for ourselves? Simply this:
“Ο Lamb of God, still keep me close to Thy pierced side;
’Tis only there in safety and peace I can abide.
When foes and snares surround me, when lusts and fears within:
The grace that sought and found me alone can keep me clean.”
May the Lord greatly bless to our souls our meditation on the history of Simon Peter! May his life and its lessons be used of the Holy Spirit to deepen in our souls the sense of our own utter weakness, and of the matchless grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.