THE gift of life—in effect, “partaking of the divine nature” —is the beginning of blessing for one who is dead in trespasses and sins, and is the common blessing of all who believe on the Son of God (John 3:3636He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. (John 3:36)). We may be in different degrees of advance in it, but we are one in the possession of it; and there is a moral necessity that this should be a primal blessing. Without life there could be no enjoyment of the kindness and love of God in the gift of His Son, and of communion with them: no love for Christ or obedience to Him, and no affection for each other: our Christianity would be mere formalism. It is true that, while we are here, Satan, by stimulating the flesh, works to prevent the expansion of life in us. Hence, that the path of life is through tribulation is a truth that was constantly insisted on at the beginning. That it is not so now is to our loss. Still, where there is life, the chastening hand of God goes on with the lesson (Heb. 12).
Are we not conscious, however, that this truth, so contrary to nature (Job 19:2121Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me. (Job 19:21)), is carried more effectually home to our hearts by a history, like that of David or of Peter, than by the simple declaration of it? The blessing of having inspired biography is seen in this, that we have living men in the hands of the Living God, Who “searcheth all hearts and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts “; so that we get, if needed, the workings within them as well as that which comes out; and there is no coloring: all is divinely and infallibly perfect. In no other biography can this be. The mind that records the incidents of a life knows but little of their source, and invariably tinges them with its own thoughts and feelings. Inspired biography also is given to man not for his blessing only, but for God's glory; and this calls for becoming reverence in studying it, and forbids all self-confidence in dealing with it. Let the student in reading it never forget the Author.
If this be true of inspired biography generally, it is so in a very especial way in that of Peter. What more accelerated the ruin of the church than reasonings on the answer of the Lord to him on his confession (Matt. 16:18, 1918And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. (Matthew 16:18‑19))? And how has the tendency to dwell on his failures to live out that confession obscured the personal greatness to which the hand of the Lord raised him! It is surely not to interest the mind or gratify curiosity that we see him rebuked, humbled, disgraced, brokenhearted, withstood to the face and blamed. There must be some spiritual truths that concern us, some principles of eternal moment which the Spirit would teach us; and infinite wisdom has chosen this way of revealing them. We must read all with faith—faith that acknowledges the need on our part of the truth to be found in it, and that counts on God to enable us to profit by that truth.
It is readily admitted that we shall not find much of doctrine in biography; but scripture is profitable not for doctrine only, but for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. Do we not need faithful dealing as to conduct, as well as knowledge of doctrine? Have we not consciences? We have, of course, sound doctrine in Peter's writings; but they are intensely practical. They grapple with us as to “what manner of persons we ought to be in all holy conversation, and godliness;” and we are conscious that he realized what he wrote, that there is no mere “trafficking in unfelt truth,” that his whole heart and soul were engaged in all that he was inspired to write.
And who so able to strengthen his brethren as one who had experimentally proved his need of divine strength, and, when he wrote his Epistles, was a blessed example of the sufficiency of it? Now, in the simplest language he makes known to us the power that can keep us, the mighty power of God through faith, so that all adverse powers and adverse circumstances, however great and many, may be regarded by us without amazement or timidity. If there are some saints who have fallen on easy times, there are still many in the flock of God who are accounted as sheep for the slaughter; and who of us can say, We need him not? Every recorded incident of his life gives weight to his writings, and the study of his writings gives an interest to his life.
As Simon Bar-jona, a man among men, his character would be in many respects attractive. He valued their good opinion, and men are pleased with this. Outspoken and impulsive, of an ardent temperament, and at times very impetuous, we are startled by the contradictions of his course. Uncalculating as he was as to the results of his conduct, the flesh in him was not imperious and cruel, as in Saul of Tarsus; yet when conscience awoke, there was no difference: they alike judged themselves as sinners, though Saul might add— “of whom I am chief.”
In John 1:4242And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone. (John 1:42) we have the interesting record of the beginning of that work in his soul which, being carried on in patient grace, eventually made him the honored servant and martyr of the Lord Jesus Christ his Savior. The gracious reception which the Lord had granted to Andrew, and the blessing which he had received, constrained him to do the work of an evangelist before he was chosen as an apostle. Simon was his own brother; and he sought him first, and succeeded in leading him to Jesus, Who said to him— “Thou art Simon, the son of Jona; thou shalt be called Cephas.” These words so closely personal, telling him how his present condition and future history were perfectly known, Simon received in silence; but when next he saw the Lord, he was obedient to His every word (Luke 5)
From earliest times minds have been exercised as to what is implied in the name Cephas, as thus bestowed on Simon. From his own writings and conduct there would appear to be nothing to favor the exalted claims to official importance that have been made for him because of it. On more than one occasion we read of the apostles reasoning among themselves as to which of them should be accounted the greatest; but there is not a hint that Peter claimed to be this, or that the question was ever settled in his favor. In his writings, all that have obtained like precious faith with him are addressed as “living stones;” and as to office in the church he pointedly describes himself as a “fellow elder” with other elders (1 Peter 5:11The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: (1 Peter 5:1), R. V.). The truth would appear to be, notwithstanding all that has been written about it, that the change from Simon Bar-jona to Cephas—a change of nature answering to the change of name being implied thereby—was unspeakably more precious to him than from the position of a fisherman to that of an apostle. It carried with it moral qualities; it implied the partaking, by grace, of life of which he writes so fully in 1 Peter 1:2323Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. (1 Peter 1:23) to ii. 5; and it is clear from the case of Judas Iscariot that apostleship does not necessarily do this: but we need not further anticipate thoughts on Matt. 16.
One thing however it is important to observe. When God gives names to men, His power makes good what His grace bestows, as when Be changed the names of Abram and Sarai to Abraham and Sarah. So when Jesus, Who is God blessed forever, ordained the twelve, and sent them forth to preach, He gave to Simon the name Peter—a stone—and to James and John the name Boanerges the sons of thunder. Of the ministry of James we have no record. That it was in power, we may infer from Herod seeking to ingratiate himself with the Jews by killing him. Of Simon, whose weakness even to denying his Lord is narrated in every Gospel, we know that, by grace, he became His boldest and most uncompromising witness, establishing and strengthening his brethren also, to set their faces as a flint in following Christ, their blessed example. To John, a quiet and retiring man, was given a testimony of extraordinary power, suited “for the last time “: the grandest and most sublime unfolding of the glory of the Son of God by one who had seen it, and knew that “his witness was true.” And this was accompanied by authoritative and awe-inspiring vindication—as became a “son of thunder” —of the sacredness of His Person against every attempt of deceivers to profane it.