It has been of old noticed how Peter and John are ministerially brought forward in John 21, Paul's ministry being of course omitted. But I want to inquire more into the two former, and first John. The main teaching of the Spirit of God by him is the person of the Lord as come from heaven, bringing life; and after having His sheep and His heavenly care, after being owned in His three characters, His sending of the Holy Ghost. In his epistles eternal life in Him become our life, and its characteristics, with one remarkable statement of the love of God. But dispensationally he has to do with earth, as Peter, that is, Christianity as developed on earth. In chapter 6 the Lord is owned prophet, refusing to be king, and goes up on high as to the priestly place; but His going up on high only just alluded to in His discourse, the disciples having the character of the Jewish remnant when He rejoins them, whereupon they come to land. Our individual place in Him we have fully, but the church never; rarely what is heavenly: what is divine manifested here, but not man in heaven. Literally in the former chapter (17.) we have the whole time skipped over, from the Jerusalem church to appearing in glory (only in ver. 24 coming to what is heavenly), in verse 21 the immediate converts of the twelve; in verse 22 the glory. The Jews are set aside from the first chapter, and Christ is the true vine on earth. As a general truth the Spirit replaces Him. In chapter 20:17 is the Christian's individual place by redemption. The Lord is then in their midst on earth. From that place He sends them, and, as risen, confers the Holy Spirit in the power of the breath of life, and gives the title of administering forgiveness of sins. This is the remnant, there as Thomas, when they hereafter see and own Him. Personal revelation, then, three times, and the case of the remnant committed to Peter as his present service.
John's ministry reaches mysteriously over till the Lord comes. And this we have with warning in the epistle that the last time was come already in apostasy and Antichrist; and in the Revelation the judicial account, first of the church, then of the world, the Christian's place being found in chapter 1: 5, 6; but all an earthly Christ, though what He has made us in it; and chapter 22: 17, where the whole circle of their affection as on earth is described. The church formed on earth is unnamed by Peter and John. We have sheep and a flock, one flock and one shepherd, children and family unity, but no body. Then Christ builds His church: the living stones come to the Living Stone. It grows to a holy temple, but there is no present body or present house. Peter has the keys of the kingdom entrusted to him, and what he bound on earth was bound in heaven (so of the two or three in Matt. 18; cf. 2 Cor. 2:1010To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ; (2 Corinthians 2:10)). In the kingdom I get conferred authority and administration, and I think in this Jerusalem church sphere, administrative forgiveness, as distinct from redemptional forgiveness (though founded on redemption), which is eternal. But this administrative forgiveness, as a present dealing, is very important; only there is another and greater redemption through His blood, and consequently no sin imputed to us at all, no more conscience of sins. Redemption and salvation of the soul we have in Peter (and in his sermon baptism to the remission of sins), but not peace (save salvation), nor completeness in Christ. In John we have believers in Christ, and as He is so are we in this world, personal standing in Him. We have cleansing by Christ's blood and propitiation. But all this was in this world—blessing enough too.
But Paul's ministry was wholly apart. He was delivered from Jew and Gentile, united to a glorified Christ, and thus witnessed of our sitting in Him in heavenly places, and of a new creation. The foundations were all the same, but the distinct heavenly position as entered into now was his alone to tell, death being on all the past, and so the church's place. Christian and apostolic forgiveness he could speak of down here, but administered forgiveness of past sins, a reception of it, as to the past, is not his affair. He is not an administrator with authority from heaven, as in Matt. 16, but one who brings us there. The nearest to it, “ye are washed, ye are sanctified, ye are justified.” But this just shows the difference: it is not forgiven. If there is forgiveness, it is identical with imputing no sin. There may be no government, as in James. So that the forgiveness in John 20. is a wholly inferior thing. He could bind and loose, his orderings were the commandments of the Lord, but with him all this was church detail. What he had was a new dispensation, an οἰκονομἰα, dating from Damascus, not Antioch, though formally in mission inaugurated at Antioch, showing its second great proof, the power of the Holy Ghost present down here, as the glorified Christ was the basis and starting-point of it. Hence He owns no apostles before the ascension of Christ. It started entirely anew, independently and directly from Christ, though recognizing, and, in one sense, tacked on through Ananias to the old thing; for he washed away his sins in baptism, but not sent, therefore, to baptize at all. The basis of the mission of the twelve, as in John, not merely in Matt. 28, is resurrection, which is indeed the seal of salvation work, but knows no union with Christ—our resurrection with Him leads into it; but even baptism for Paul was not for remission of sins, however true, but to Christ's death, putting on Christ. Hence, of course, with Him alone we have the rapture, not merely the revelation of Christ.
The Peter ministry, then, closed by the destruction of Jerusalem, Jewish restoration by Christianity failed, as by Christ, John's testimony, personal, especially as to Christians, follows the church to the time it would not repent, and judgment came on it, is neither cold nor hot, was spewed out of Christ's mouth (the little flock having kept the word of His patience with little strength), and then going on in judgments to His appearing. Paul takes up what is for heaven from heaven, and gives it by the Holy Ghost its full character. It is a great thing for conscience to have forgiveness presented to it as a present thing here, but it is not our place in Christ nor the Christian. Peter, with a full statement of redemption, puts the believers (Jews) in the wilderness, and suffering with Christ, a hope being laid up for them in heaven, and they awaiting the glory to be revealed, pilgrims and strangers here, and the government of God going on. But you have no Canaan warfare as Jehovah's host. Satan is a persecutor, a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Christ is building a spiritual house with living stones. Believing, they rejoice, receiving the end of their faith, soul-salvation, but they have to hope to the end for the grace to be brought at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Withal the time was come for judgment to begin at the house of God. Peter himself was a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker of the glory to be revealed. Paul looked for the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings. Nor do you ever get in Peter God's love to the world, or God in this outgoing grace, but a people called by redemption under the government of God.
In John, as the revelation is above and beyond dispensation, the revelation of the Father and the Son in the Son, so it is eternal life in the Son manifested in Him, and thus “true in him and in you.” God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in. His Son. He that hath the Son hath life. Thus we have fellowship in the nature we have got with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ; and here the Holy Ghost is not mentioned; it is nature, and so subjected to captivity by it. There is more than this by the Holy Ghost. We know that we are in Him, and He in us, but thus far as to life. Hence we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him, and he that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself as he is pure. Peter was an eye-witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker of the glory to be revealed. Paul says we shall appear with Him when He shall appear; now the power of His resurrection, and the fact of His sufferings: John, we know we shall then be like Him, and so now purify ourselves as He is pure; Paul, we are changed into the same image from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord, and then we shall be ever with the Lord. And “with” is a leading word with the apostle, as John has more “in.”
In Hebrews the same ground is taken as Peter in respect to the pilgrim character; but there we have much more of the person and offices of Christ, and of His present position on high, and consequently the perfect purging of the conscience, and an eternal redemption to enter into the holiest. In this respect it is present approach to God in the holiest.