First Peter 5:10 says, “The God of all grace, who called you into His eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will Himself perfect, establish, strengthen, and ground you.” According to what Peter says here, our sufferings are only for a little while, but God’s glory is eternal. After we have suffered a little while, the God of all grace will personally perfect, establish, strengthen, and ground us.
The word “Himself” in this verse indicates God’s personal activity in the work of grace. The Greek word rendered “perfect” literally means restore. It implies repairing, adjusting, putting in order again, mending, perfectly joining together, thoroughly equipping, well furnishing, and thus, perfecting, completing, educating. In Greek the word “establish” literally means to set fast, to confirm. The same word was used by the Lord in His charge to Peter in Luke 22:32. The meaning of “strengthen” is very close to that of establish. Literally, the Greek word rendered “ground” means to lay a basis for. It is a derivation of the word that means foundation. Hence, it is to ground solidly, as in Matthew 7:25, Ephesians 3:17, and Hebrews 1:10.
There is a progress in these four divine acts of grace. Perfecting leads to establishing, establishing to strengthening, and strengthening to grounding in the God of all grace-the Triune God in His dispensing as the solid foundation. First God perfects us. Through the suffering of persecution we are perfected. Then after perfecting us, God establishes us. When we are established, we no longer wander, and we are no longer changeable. After God establishes us, He strengthens us, empowers us, and, eventually, grounds us in Himself as the Triune God.
Romans 16:25 tells us that it is according to the gospel and the preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept in silence in times eternal, that the God who is of power establishes us. This indicates that God’s establishing of us is a great matter. It is according to the preaching of Christ according to the revelation of the mystery hidden in times eternal.
Ephesians 3:16 is another verse that speaks of God’s strengthening the believers: “That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man.”
The word “strengthened” is modified by four phrases: “According to the riches of His glory,” “with power,” “through His Spirit,” and “into the inner man.” First, we are strengthened according to the riches of the Father’s glory, and then we are strengthened with power, the resurrection power referred to in Ephesians 1:19-20. Furthermore, the Father strengthens us by the indwelling Spirit. This does not mean that the Spirit is not with us, or that the Spirit will come down from the heavens to strengthen us. The strengthening Spirit has been with us since God regenerated us. He is still within us now. Through this indwelling Spirit the Father strengthens us from within. According to verse 16, we are strengthened into the inner man. The inner man is our regenerated spirit with God’s life as its life. It is our spirit regenerated by the Spirit of God (John 3:6), indwelt by the Spirit of God (Rom. 8:11, 16), and mingled with the Spirit of God (1 Cor. 6:17). In order to experience Christ unto all the fullness of God, we need to be strengthened by God into the inner man.
Referring to the Hebrew believers’ suffering of persecution, Hebrews 12:5-11 considers the persecution as God the Father’s discipline of the believers who are God’s genuine sons (v. 7). It says, “Whom the Lord loves He disciplines and scourges every son whom He receives” (v. 6), and all the believers as God’s sons have become partakers of the Father’s discipline (v. 8). It charges that we as sons of God do not make light of God’s discipline (v. 5), but rather respect the Father as a discipliner and be much in subjection to Him who is the Father of our spirits, that we may live (v. 9). The Father disciplines us for our profit that we might partake of His holiness (v. 10) which is the very characteristic of His holy nature. This is God our Father’s finer work in dealing with us as His sons. His work of making us holy is related to the Spirit’s transformation work (2 Cor. 3:18), which is carried out through the divine dispensing inwardly and the environmental dealings outwardly.
Hebrews 12 goes on to tell us that “indeed all discipline for the present does not seem to be a matter of joy but of grief; but afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been exercised by it.” (v. 11). God’s discipline not only makes us to partake of His holiness but also yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness. Peace is the fruit of righteousness (Isa. 32:17). Holiness refers to the inward nature, whereas righteousness refers to the outward behavior, that is, to make us right outwardly both with God and man, that in such a situation of righteousness, we may enjoy peace as a sweet fruit, a peaceable fruit of righteousness.
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