Chapter 21. What a character grace takes in the case of the restoration of Peter! At the moment the saints would have, so to speak, the greatest value in Jesus' eyes, if change there could be, when He had just redeemed them, He confides them to him who had just denied Him. How the very extent and perfectness of this grace was the spirit in which Peter had to watch over them! Grace produces thus what it seeks in affection. Being what it is towards the heart, it produces in it the conscious feeling of what it is; that is, it creates the affection by its manifestation. It was this grace of which Peter had to be the instrument. And, further, the Lord promises to Peter that he should do the very thing which he (failing in will and human strength) had failed in doing; so that the very bitterness of having failed is taken away; for he would do, not by his own will, what he had failed in doing, and so glorify God in it. How perfect this grace is!