Now let us consider the aspects of Christ ministered by Peter for the dispensing of God into us. First of all Peter also ministered Christ as God. Second Peter 1:1 has the phrase, “In the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” This indicates that Jesus Christ our Savior is God. He is our God-Savior. He is our God to become our Savior. The main purpose of God being our Savior is so that He may dispense Himself into us as our life.
Peter also ministered Christ as the Son of God (Acts 3:13; 2 Pet. 1:17). Acts 3:13 refers to Christ’s resurrection, and 2 Peter 1:17 refers to His transfiguration. Both are for Christ’s glorification. Christ was glorified in His transfiguration on the mount, and Christ was glorified in His resurrection. On both occasions it was made clear that He was the Son of God. Such a Son of God is for the dispensing of God’s life. The New Testament tells us that if you have the Son of God, you have life. If you do not have the Son of God, you do not have life (1 John 5:11, 12). God gives His Son to us that we may have life. John 3:16 reads, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that every one who believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” The reason the Son of God has been given to us is to dispense the eternal life of God into us.
Peter said that the Jewish leaders had killed the Author of life, but that God had raised Him up (Acts 3:15, lit.). Eventually their killing of the Author of life helped God’s dispensing. If the Author of life had not died, He could not have been released in resurrection for the dispensing of God into His chosen people.
In Acts 2:36 Peter said that God had made Jesus both Lord and Christ. Then in Acts 10:36 while Peter was speaking in the house of Cornelius, he said, “The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of all:).” While Peter was speaking in the house of Cornelius, the Gentile ruler, he saw that the Lord Jesus is not only the Lord of the Jews, but also the Lord of the Gentiles. So Peter said He is Lord of all. In this verse the stress is not that He is the Lord of all things, but that He is the Lord of all people. He is the Lord of all people so that He might give eternal life to them. John 17:2 says, “Even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that He may give eternal life to all whom You have given Him.” To have the authority over all flesh means to be the Lord of all the people so that He might give eternal life to them. If Christ is not the Lord of all of us, He has no position to give us eternal life. But He is the Lord of all of us, so we are under Him. He has the position to dispense the eternal life to whomever God has chosen. The term “the Lord of all” indicates the dispensing of God’s life into God’s chosen people.
Because the title Christ is so familiar to us, we may miss its real significance. In Greek Christ is Christos which means the anointed One who anoints. He is the anointed One of God who anoints us. The anointing is for life giving, for God’s dispensing. Actually Christ is the agent of God’s dispensing, who carries out God’s dispensing by being the anointed One to anoint every one whom God has chosen. He anoints us with the Spirit of life so that we may have the divine life dispensed into us. By getting into the meaning of this title, you can see that Christ is for God’s dispensing.
The Savior is also for the dispensing of the divine life (2 Pet. 1:1; 3:18). Jesus is our Savior, not just to save us from our sins, but also to dispense the eternal life into our being for our subjective salvation. He is our Savior for us to have life. So the Savior is for God’s dispensing to bring God into us.