We have traced the New Testament ministry from its initiation with John the Baptist through its foundation and its major part with the Lord Jesus Himself and on to its continuation and further development with the apostle Paul. In this chapter we come to Peter’s part in the New Testament ministry from his two Epistles and to John’s part from his Epistles and from the book of Revelation, which is the consummation of the entire Bible.
Lord, we thank You for this gathering; we have the assurance that You are with us. Grant us the mercy and the grace, Lord, that we may practice being one spirit with You. We pray that You would be one with us and that we may be one with You, even right now in this meeting, in the sharing, in the testimonies, in the speaking.
Lord, we pray that Your word might be so clear to us, that we may see what is in Your heart, what is revealed in Your Word. Lord, grant us a sober mind, a seeking heart, and an open spirit. O Lord, we need You; we need Your word, and we need Your unveiling. Lord, do unload us, and take away all the veils, all the distractions. We trust in You, Lord, and we trust in Your blessing. Lord, everything is altogether up to You; we are here waiting on You. We pray that You would do something and work upon all of us. Amen.
In such a spirit and with such a prayer before the Lord, we want to continue our fellowship concerning the New Testament ministry. We all need to be clear that the line of Peter’s two books is life, the divine life, the spiritual life, the life that is the very Triune God being imparted into us. Without such a word I am afraid it would be hard for any one of you to tell what the line of Peter’s two Epistles is, even after we have completed our Life-study on them in our training.
The first point that indicates that this divine life is the line of Peter’s two books is the fact that Peter strongly emphasized that we have been regenerated with the incorruptible seed (1 Pet. 1:3, 23). Surely this regeneration is a matter of life. Then in chapter two of his first Epistle Peter tells us that Christ carried up our sins in His body onto the cross in order that we might live (v. 24). Here Peter does not say that Christ died on the cross that we might be forgiven, but he says that we might live. Peter’s word here corresponds to the Lord’s word in John 3:14-15 that says that the Son of Man will be lifted up as Moses lifted up the brass serpent in the wilderness, that we may have eternal life.
Furthermore, Peter even says that the grace we received is the grace of life (1 Pet. 3:7). Even the weaker vessels, referring to the sisters in this verse, are the heirs of the grace of life. The grace of life is God as life and life supply to us in His Trinity—the Father as the source of life, the Son as the course of life, and the Spirit as the flow of life flowing within us with the Son and the Father. All believers are heirs of this grace. In brief, the grace of life is the Triune God processed to become the all-inclusive, life-giving, indwelling Spirit. The Triune God is now within us as the grace of life (See footnote 75 in 1 Pet. 3—Recovery Version and pp. 210-211 of Message 23, Life-study of First Peter.) Paul also touched the matter of the grace of life, but never expressed it in these terms. You cannot find the expression the grace of life in Paul’s writings, but you can see the same thing covered in Romans 5. Paul used these two words, grace and life, in Romans 5:21, but he never composed these two words together into a phrase, the grace of life.
Chapter four of 1 Peter also has some hint concerning life (see vv. 1-2, 6). Then in chapter five Peter’s exhortation concerning the eldership is altogether related to the living of the elders. Surely what Peter presents in these verses is altogether not merely in the realm of teaching or of practice (vv. 1-3). Peter exhorts the elders to live a life, which is their shepherding. The proper shepherding should be the elders’ living. The elders live a life that is an example for the flock and that example is the shepherding of the flock. The example or pattern for the flock is a life (5:3). You can never shepherd a church in a way that is apart from the way you live. If you do not live in a certain way, you can never shepherd the church in that way. This is life. The Epistles of Peter are on the line of life.