II. Of St. Peter’s recorded teaching there are two distinct

stages in the New Testament. ‘The first is represented by his missionary sermons in the Acts of the Apostles; the second by his general Epistles.
1. Although Jesus Christ is always the central Subject in the sermons of this Apostle, yet the distinctness with which he exhibits our Lord in the glory of His Divine Nature seems to vary with the varying capacity for receiving truth on the part of his audience. Like Jesus Christ Himself, St. Peter teaches as men are able to bear his doctrine ; he does not cast pearls before swine. In his missionary sermons he is addressing persons who were believers in the Jewish dispensation, and who were also our Lord’s contemporaries. Accordingly, his sermons contain a double appeal ; first, to the known facts of our Lord’s Life and Death, and above all, of His Resurrection from the dead; and secondly, to the correspondence of these facts with the predictions of the Hebrew Scriptures. Like St. James, St. Peter lays especial stress on the continuity subsisting between Judaism and the Gospel. But while St. James insists upon the moral element of that connexion, St. Peter addresses himself rather to the pro- phetical. Even before the day of Pentecost, St. Peter points to the Psalter as foreshadowing the fall of Judasi. When preaching to the multitude which had just witnessed the Pente- costal gifts, St. Peter observes that these wonders are merely a realization of the prediction of Joel respecting the last days*; and he argues elaborately that the language of David in the sixteenth Psalm could not have been fulfilled in the case of the prophet-king himself, still lying among his people in his honoured sepulchre, while it had been literally fulfilled by Jesus Christ !, Who had notoriously risen from the grave. In his sermon to the multitude after the healing of the lame man in the Porch of Solomon, St. Peter contends that the sufferings of Christ had been ‘shewed before’ on the part of the God of
1 Acts i. 16, 20. Cf. Ps. xli. 9, lxix. 25. K Acts ii, 14-21; Joel ii, 28-31. 1 Acts ii, 24-36. [ LECT LECT.
Christ the chief theme of Hebrew prophecy. 295
Israel by the mouth of all His prophets™, and that in Jesus ‘Christ the prediction of Moses respecting a coming Prophet, to Whom the true Israel would yield an implicit obedience, had received its explanation®. When arraigned before the Council 9, the Apostle insists that Jesus is that true ‘Corner-stone’ of the temple of souls, which had been foretold both by Isaiah P, and by a later Psalmist 4; and that although He had been set at nought by the builders of Israel, He was certainly exalted and honoured by God. In the instruction delivered to Cornelius before his baptism, St. Peter states that ‘all the prophets give witness’ to Jesus, ‘that through His Name, whosoever believeth on Him shall receive remission of sins’ And we seem to trace the influence of St. Peter, as the first great Christian expositor of prophecy, in the teaching of the deacons St. Stephen and St. Philip. St. Philip’s exposition of Christian doctrine to the Ethiopian eunuch was based upon Isaiah’s prediction of the Passion’, St. Stephen’s argument before his judges was cut short by a violeft interruption, while it was yet incomplete. But St. Stephen, like St. Peter, appeals to the prediction in Deuteronomy of the Prophet to Whom Israel would hearken t. And the drift of the protomartyr’s address goes to shew,,that the whole course of the history of Israel pointed to the advent of One Who should be greater than either the law or the temple 4, —of One in Whom Israel’s wonderful history would reach its natural climax,—of that ‘Just One’ Who in truth had already come, but Who, like prophets before Him, had been betrayed and murdered by a people, still as of old, ‘stiffnecked and un- circumcised in heart and ears *.’
It is not too much to say that in the teaching of the earliest Church, as represented by the missionary discourses of St. Peter and the deacons, Jesus Christ is the very soul and end of Jewish prophecy. This would of itself suggest an idea of His Person which rises above any merely Humanitarian standard. St. Peter indeed places himself habitually at the point of view which would enable him to appeal to the actual experience of the generation he was addressing. He begins with our Lord’s Humiliation, which men had witnessed, and then he proceeds to describe His Exaltation as the honour put by God upon His
m Acts ili, 18, Thid. iii. 22-24; Deut. xviii. 15, 18, 19.
° Acts iv. II. P Isa. xxviii. 16.
4 Ps, cxviii. 22. Our Lord Himself claimed the prophecy, St. Matt, xxi. 42. τ Acts x. 43. 8 Ibid. viii. 32-35.
Ibid. vii. 37. ἃ Ibid, vi. 13. ® Ibid. vii. 51-53.
vr |
296 Christ sHumanLifesuggestsHis Higher Nature.
Human Nature. He speaks of our Lord’s Humanity with fearless plainnessY. The Man Christ Jesus is exhibited to the world as’ a miracle-worker ; as Man, He is anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power2; as the true Servant of God, He is glorified by the God of the patriarchs?; He is raised from the dead by Divine Power»; He is made by God both Lord and Christ¢; and He will be sent by the Lord at ‘the times of refreshing 4’ as the ordained Judge of quick and dead®. But this general repre- sentation of the Human Nature by Which Christ had entered into Jewish history, is interspersed with glimpses of His Divine Personality Itself, Which is veiled by His Manhood. Thus we find St. Peter in the porch of Solomon applying to our Lord a magnificent title, which at once carries our thoughts into the very heart of the distinctive Christology of St.John. Christ, although crucified and slain, is yet the Leader or Prince of Life— Apynyés τῆς ζωῆς, That He should be held in bondage by the might of death was not possible&. The heavens must receive Him}, and He is now the Lord of all thingsi. It is He Who from His heavenly throne has poured out upon the earth the gifts of Pentecost Κι, His Name spoken on earth has a wonder-working power!; as unveiling His Nature and office, it is a symbol which faith reverently treasures, and by the might of which the ser- vants of God can relieve even physical suffering™. As a refuge for sinners the Name of Jesus stands alone; no other Name has
Υ Actsii. 22: Ἰησοῦν τὸν Ναζωραῖον, ἄνδρα [not here the generic ἄνθρωπον ἀπὸ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἀποδεδειγμένον εἰς ὑμᾶς δυνάμεσι καὶ τέρασι καὶ σημείοις, ois ἐποίησε δι᾽ αὐτοῦ ὁ Θεὸς ἐν μέσῳ ὑμῶν.
2 Ibid. x. 38. ® Tbid. iii. 13. > Ibid. ii. 24, iii. 15, iv. 10, v. 31, x. 40. © Thid. ii. 36. 4 Thid. iii. 19, 20. 6 Ibid. x. 42. f Thid. iii. 15.
® Ibid. ii. 24: ὃν ὁ Θεὸς ἀνέστησε, λύσας τὰς ὠδῖνας Tod θανάτου, καθότι οὐκ ἦν δυνατὸν κρατεῖσθαι αὐτὸν ὑπ᾽ αὐτοῦ. This ‘impossibility’ depended not merely on the fact that prophecy had predicted Christ’s resurrection, but on the dignity of Christ’s Person, implied in the existence of any such prophecy respecting Him,
b Tbid, 111, 21: ὃν δεῖ οὐρανὸν μὲν δέξασθαι ἄχρι χρόνων ἀποκαταστάσεως πάντων.
! Ibid. x. 36: οὗτός ἐστι πάντων Κύριος.
Κ Thid. ii. 33: ἐξέχεε τοῦτο ὃ νῦν ὑμεῖς βλέπετε καὶ ἀκούετε.
1 Thid. iii. 6 : ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ τοῦ Ναζωραίου, ἔγειραι καὶ περι- πάτει.
m Tbid. ver. 16: καὶ ἐπὶ τῇ πίστει τοῦ ὀνόματος αὐτοῦ, τοῦτον ὃν θεωρεῖτε καὶ οἴδατε, ἐστερέωσε τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ. Ibid. iv. 10: γνωστὸν ἔστω πᾶσιν ὑμῖν καὶ παντὶ τῷ λαῷ ᾿Ισραὴλ, ὅτι ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ τοῦ Na- (wpatov, ὃν ὑμεῖς ἐσταυρώσατε, ὃν ὃ Θεὸς ἤγειρεν ἐμ νεκρῶν, ἐν τούτῳ οὗτος παρέστηκεν ἐνώπιον ὑμῶν UVINS.
[ Lect.
Christology of St. Peter's general Epistles. 297
been given under heaven whereby the one true salvation can be guaranteed to the sons of men®. Here St. Peter clearly implies that the religion of Jesus is the true, the universal, the absolute religion, This implication of itself suggests much beyond as to the true dignity of Christ’s Person. Is it conceivable that He Who is Himself the sum and substance of His religion, Whose Name has such power on earth, and Who wields the resources and is invested with the glories of heaven, is notwithstanding in the thought of His first apostles only a glorified man, or only a super-angelic intelligence ? Do we not interpret these early dis- courses most naturally, when we bear in mind the measure of reticence which active missionary work always renders necessary, if truth is to win its way amidst prejudice and opposition? And will not this consideration alone enable us to do justice to those vivid glimpses of Christ’s Higher Nature, the fuller exhibition of Which is before us in the Apostle’s general Epistles ἢ
2. In St. Peter’s general Epistles it is easy to trace the same mind as that which speaks to us in the earliest missionary ser- mons of the Acts. As addressed to Christian believers 9, these Epistles exhibit Christian doctrine in its fulness, but with an eye to practical objects, and without the methodical completeness of an oral instruction. Christian doctrine is not propounded as a new announcement: the writer takes it for granted as furnish- ing a series of motives, the force of which would be admitted by those who had already recognized the true majesty and propor- tions of the faith. St. Peter announces himself as the Apostle of Jesus Christ ; he is Christ’s slave as well as His Apostle. In his Epistles, St. Peter lays the great stress on prophecy which is so observable in his missionary sermons. Thus, as in his speech before the Council, so in his first Epistle, he specially refers 4 to the prophecy of the Rejected Corner-stone, which our Lord had applied to Himself. But St. Peter’s general doctrine of our Lord’s relation to Hebrew prophecy should be more particularly noticed. In our day theories have been put forward on this subject which appear to represent the Hebrew prophetical Scrip-
® Acts iv. 12: οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν ἄλλῳ οὐδενὶ ἦ σωτηρία" οὔτε γὰρ ὄνομά ἐστιν ἕτερον ὑπὸ τὸν οὐρανὸν τὸ δεδομένον ἐν ἀνθρώποις, ἐν ᾧ δεῖ σωθῆναι ἡμᾶς.
° 1 δύ, Pet. 1.1, 2: ἐκλεκτοῖς παρεπιδήμοις διασπορᾶς, .. . . κατὰ πρόγνωσιν Θεοῦ Πατρὸς, ἐν ἁγιασμῷ Πνεύματος, εἰς ὑπακοὴν καὶ ῥαντισμὸν αἵματος ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ. 2 δύ. Pet. i. 1: τοῖς ἰσότιμον ὑμῖν λαχοῦσι πίστιν.
P 1 St. Pet. i. 1: ἀπόστολος Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ, 2 St. Pet. 1. 1 ς δοῦλος καὶ ἀπόστολος ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ.
4 1 5, Pet. ii. 6. Cf Acts iv. 11; Isa. xxviii. 16; Ps. cxviii. 22. v1 |
298 A Divine Christ implied in the Christian life,
tures as little better than a large dictionary of quotations, to which the writers and preachers of the New Testament are said to have had recourse when they wished to illustrate their subject by some shadowy analogy, or by some vague semblance of a happy anticipation. St. Peter is as widely removed from this position, as it is possible to conceive. According to St. Peter, the prophets of the Old Testament did not only utter literal pre- dictions of the expected Christ, but in doing this they were Christ’s own servants, His heralds, His organs. He Who is the subject of the Gospel story, and the living Ruler of the Church, had also, by His Spirit, been Master and Teacher of the pro- phets. Under His guidance it was that they had foretold His sufferings. It was the Spirit of Christ who was in the pro- phets, testifying beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would followt. The prophets did not at first learn the full scope and meaning of the words they uttered 5, but. they spoke glorious truths which the Church of Jesus understands and enjoyst. Thus the proclamation of Christian doctrine is older than the Incarnation: Christianity strikes its roots far back into the past of ancient Israel. The pre-existent Christ, moulding the utterances of Israel’s prophets to proclaim their anticipations of His advent, had indeed reigned in the old theocracy; and yet the privileged terms in which the members of God’s elder kingdom upon earth described their prerogatives were really applicable, in a deeper sense, to those who lived within the kingdom of the Divine Incarnation". Indeed, St. Peter’s language on the nature and privileges of the Chris- tian life is suggestive of the highest conception of Him Who is
¥1St.Pet.i.11: τὸ ἐν αὐτοῖς Πνεῦμα Χριστοῦ, προμαρτυρόμενον τὰ εἰς Χριστὸν παθήματα, καὶ τὰς μετὰ ταῦτα δόξας. Here Χριστοῦ is a genitive of the subject. Olshausen: ‘Christus ist dem Petrus vor seiner Erscheinung ein real Existirender, und wirkt selbst durch seinen Geist in den Propheten die Weissagung von sich.” See Huther and Wiesinger in loc.
5 18t. Pet. 1.10, 11: περὶ ἧς σωτηρίας ἐξεζήτησαν καὶ ἐξηρεύνησαν προφῆται οἱ περὶ τῆς εἰς ὑμᾶς χάριτος προφητεύσαντες, ἐρευνῶντες εἰς τίνα ἢ ποῖον καιρὸν ἐδήλου τὸ ἐν αὐτοῖς Πνεῦμα Χριστοῦ. Ibid. ver. 12: οἷς ἀπεκαλύφθη ὅτι οὐχ ἑαυτοῖς, ἡμῖν δὲ διηκόνουν αὐτὰ, ἃ νῦν ἀνηγγέλη ὑμῖν.
t 2 50. Ῥοῦ. i. 20: πᾶσα προφητεία γραφῆς ἰδίας ἐπιλύσεως od γίνεται, The Spirit in the Church understands the Spirit speaking by the prophets.
a 1 St. Pet. ii. 9, 10: ὑμεῖς δὲ γένος ἐκλεκτὸν, βασίλειον ἱεράτευμα, ἔθνος ἅγιον, λαὸς εἰς περιποίησιν, ὅπως τὰς ἀρετὰς ἐξαγγείλητε τοῦ ἐκ σκότους ὑμᾶς καλέσαντος εἰς τὸ θαυμαστὸν αὐτοῦ pas’ οἱ ποτὲ οὐ λαὺς, νῦν δὲ λαὸς Θεοῦ" οἱ οὐκ ἠλεημένοι, νῦν δὲ ἐλεηθέντες, Ibid. ver. 5: ὡς λίθοι ζῶντες οἰκοδο- μεῖσθε, οἶκος πνευματικὸς, ἱεράτευμα ἅγιον, ἀνενέγκαι πνευματικὰς θυσίας εὐπροσδέκτους τῷ Θεῷ διὰ ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ.
[ LECT.
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as described in St. Peter's First Epistle. 299
its Author and its Object. St. Peter speaks of conversion from Judaism or heathendom as the ‘ being called out of darkness into God’s marvellous light *.” It is the happiness of Christians to suffer and to be reviled for the Name of Christ ¥. The Spirit of glory and of God rests upon them. The Spirit is blasphemed by the unbelieving world, but He is visibly honoured by the family of God’s children”. It is the Person of Jesus in Whom the spiritual life of His Church centres®, The Christians whom St. Peter is addressing never saw Him in the days of His flesh ; they do not see Him now with the eye of sense. But they love Him, invisible as He is, because they believe in Him. The eye of their faith does see Him. The Lord Christ is present in their hearts; they are to ‘sanctify’ Him there, as God was ‘sanctified’ by the worship of Israelb, They rejoice in this clear constant inward vision with a joy which language cannot describe, and which is radiant with the glory of the highest spiritual beauty. They are in possession of a spiritual sense ὃ whereby the goodness of Jesus may be even tasted; and yet the truths on which their souls are fed are mysteries so profound as to rouse the keen but bafiled wonder of the intelligences of heaven4, Such language appears to point irresistibly to the existence of a supernatural religion with a superhuman Founder; unless we are to denude it of all spiritual meaning whatever, by saying that it only reflects the habitual exaggeration of Eastern fervour. Why is the intellectual atmosphere of the Church described as ‘ marvellous light’? Why is suffering for Jesus so much a matter for sincere self-congratulation? Why does the
= Ubi supra.
y 1 St. Pet. iv. 13: καθὸ κοινωνεῖτε τοῖς τοῦ Χριστοῦ παθήμασι, χαίρετε, ἵνα καὶ ἐν τῇ ἀποκαλύψει τῆς δόξης αὐτοῦ χαρῆτε ἀγαλλιώμενοι. Εἰ ὀνειδίζεσθε ἐν ὀνόματι Χριστοῦ, μακάριοι.
5 Ibid. ver. 14: ὅτι τὸ τῆς δόξης καὶ τὸ τοῦ Θεοῦ Πνεῦμα ἐφ᾽ ὑμᾶς ἄνα- παύεται' κατὰ μὲν αὐτοὺς βλασφημεῖται, κατὰ δὲ ὑμᾶς δοξάζεται.
4. Ibid. i. 7, 8: Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ" ὃν οὐκ εἰδότες ἀγαπᾶτε, εἰς ὃν ἄρτι μὴ ὁρῶντες, πιστεύοντες δὲ, ἀγαλλιᾶσθε χαρᾷ ἀνεκλαλήτῳ καὶ δεδοξασμένῃ.
> Tbid. iii. 15: Κύριον δὲ τὸν Χριστὸν ἁγιάσατε ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις ὑμῶν. That Χριστὸν and not Θεὸν is the true reading here, see Scrivener, Introduc- tion to Crit. N. T. p.456. Cf. Isa. viii. 13. Isaiah is quoted again in 1 St. Pet. ii. 8.
ὁ 1St. Pet. ii. 3: εἴπεο ἐγεύσασθε ὕτι χρηστὸς ὃ Κύριος. St. Peter is using the Psalmist’s language in reference to Jehovah (Ps. xxxiv. 8), but the context shews him to be speaking of Christ. Cf. Heb. vi. 4: γευσαμένους τε THs δωρεᾶς τῆς ἐπουρανίου. There is possibly in both passages an indirect reference to sacramental communion.
τ St. Pet. i, 12: eis ἃ ἐπιθυμοῦσιν ἄγγελοι παρακύψαι,
VI
300 (Δ Peter's references to the Passion
Divine Spirit rest so surely upon Christian confessors ? Why is the Invisible Jesus the Object of such love, the Source of such inexpressible and glorious joy; if, after all, the religion of Jesus is merely a higher phase of human opinion and feeling, and His Church a human organization, and His Person only human, or at least not literally Divine? The language of St. Peter respect- ing the Christian life® manifestly points to a Divine Christ. And if the Christ of St. Peter had been the Christ, we will not say of a Strauss or of a Renan, but the Christ of a Socinus, nay, the Christ of an Arius, it-is not easy to understand what should have moved the angels with that strong desire to bend from their thrones above, that they might gaze with unsuccessful intentness at the humiliations of a created being, their peer or their inferior in the scale of creation. Surely the Angels must be longing to unveil a transcendent mystery, or a series of mys- teries, such as are in fact the mystery of the Divine Incarnation and the consequences which depend on it in the kingdom of grace. St. Peter’s words are sober and truthful if read by the light of faith in an Incarnate God; divorced from such a faith, they are fanciful, inflated, exaggerated.
St. Peter lays especial stress both on the moral significance and on the atoning power of the Death of Jesus Christ. Here he enters within that circle of truths which are taught most fully in the Epistle to the Hebrews; and his exhibition of the Passion might almost appear to presuppose the particular Christ- ological teaching of that Epistle. St. Peter says that ‘Christ has once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to Godf” This vicarious suffering depended upon the fact that Jesus, when dying, impersonated sinful humanity. ‘He bare our sins in His own Body on the trees.’ Stricken by the anguish of His Passion, the dying Christ is the consummate Model» for all Christian sufferers, in His innocence, in His silenceJ, in His perfect resignationk, But alse the souls of men,
e 1 St. Pet. 111, 16: τὴν ἀγαθὴν ἐν Χριστῷ ἀναστροφήν. Cf. v. 14.
{ Ibid. ver. 18: Χριστὸς ἅπαξ περὶ ἁμαρτιῶν ἔπαθε, Δίκαιος ὑπὲρ ἀδίκων, ἵνα ἡμᾶς προσαγάγῃ τῷ Θεῷ.
& Thid. ii. 24: ὃς τὰς ἁμαρτίας ἡμῶν αὐτὸς ἀνήνεγκεν ἐν τῷ σώματι αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ τὸ ξύλον.
h Tbid. ver. 21: Χριστὸς ἔπαθεν ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν, ἡμῖν ὑπολιμπάνων ὑπογραμμὸν, ἵνα ἐπακολουθήσητε τοῖς ἴχνεσιν αὐτοῦ.
1 Ibid. ver. 22: ὃς ἁμαρτίαν οὐκ ἐποίησεν, οὐδὲ εὑρέθη δόλος ἐν τῷ στόματι αὐτοῦ. Isa. liti. g; 2 Cor. v. 21; 1 St. John iii. 5.
5 1 St. Pet. ii. 23: ὃς λοιδορούμενος οὐκ ἀντελοιδόρει, πάσχων οὐκ HnelrEL, In the ἠπείλει there lies the consciousness of power.
k Ibid. : παρεδίδου δὲ τῷ κρίνοντι δικαίως. [
LECT,
imply a superhuman Sufferer. 301
wounded by the shafts of sin, may be healed by the virtue of that sacred Pain!; and a special power to wash out the stains of moral guilt is expressly ascribed to the Redeemer’s Blood. The Chris- tian as such is predestined in the Eternal Counsels, not merely to submission to the Christian faith, but also to ‘a sprinkling of the Blood of Jesus Christ ™,’ The Apostle earnestly insists that it was no mere perishable earthly treasure, no silver or golden wares, whereby Christians had been bought out of their old bondage to the traditional errors and accustomed sins of Judaism or of heathenism. The mighty spell of moral and intellectual darkness had indeed been broken, but by no less a ransom than the Precious Blood of Christ, the Lamb without blemish and Immaculate», Are we to suppose that while using this burning language to extol the Precious Blood of redemption, St. Peter is recklessly following a rhetorical impulse, or that he is obscuring the moral meaning of the Passion, by dwelling upon its details in misleading language, which savours too strongly of the sacri- ficial ritual of the temple? Is he not even echoing the Baptist°? Is he not in correspondence with his brother apostles? Is he not summarizing St. Paulp? Is he not anticipating St. John 4? Certainly this earnest recognition of Christ’s true Humanity as the seat of His sufferings is a most essential feature of the Apo- stle’s doctrine*; but what is it that gives to Christ’s Human acts and sufferings such preterhuman value? Isit not that the truth of Christ’s Divine Personality underlies this entire description of
11 St. Pet. ii. 24: οὗ τῷ μωλωπι αὐτοῦ ἰάθητε.
τὰ Tbid. i. 2: εἰς ὑπακοὴν καὶ ῥαντισμὸν αἵματος ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ.
Ὁ Ibid. vers. 18, 19: εἰδότες ὅτι οὐ φθαρτοῖς, ἀργυρίῳ ἢ χρυσίῳ, ἐλυ- τρώθητε ἐκ τῆς ματαίας ὑμῶν ἀναστροφῆς πατροπαραδότου, ἀλλὰ τιμίῳ αἵματι ὡς ἀμνοῦ ἀμώμου καὶ ἀσπίλου Χριστοῦ. Exod. xii. 5. ᾿
ο St. John i. 29: ἴδε 6 ἀμνὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ, ὃ αἴρων τὴν ἁμαρτίαν τοῦ κόσμου. It is impossible to doubt that the sacrificial rather than the moral ideas associated with the ‘Lamb’ are here in question. See Alford in loc.
P Acts xx. 28: ποιμαίνειν τὴν ἐκκλησίαν τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἣν περιεποιήσατο διὰ τοῦ ἰδίου αἵματος. 1 Cor. v. 7: τὸ πάσχα ἡμῶν ἐτύθη Χριστός. Heb. ix. 12: διὰ τοῦ ἰδίου αἵματος εἰσῆλθεν ἐφάπαξ εἰς τὰ ἅγια, αἰωνίαν λύτρωσιν εὑράμενυς.
41St.Johni. 7: τὸ afua Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ τοῦ Ὑἱοῦ αὐτοῦ καθαρίζει ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ πάσης ἁμαρτίας. Rev. 1. 5: τῷ ἀγαπήσαντι ἡμᾶς καὶ λύσαντι ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν ἡμῶν ἐν τῷ αἵματι αὐτοῦ... .. αὐτῷ ἣ δόξα καὶ τὸ κράτος εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώρων. ἀμήν. Ibid. v. ο: ἄξιος εἶ λαβεῖν τὸ βιβλίον, καὶ ἀνοῖξαι τὰς σφραγῖδας αὐτοῦ" ὅτι ἐσφάγης καὶ ἠγόρασας τῷ Θεῷ ἡμᾶς ἐν τῷ αἵματί σου. ;
τ St. Peter expressly alludes to our Lord’s Human Body (1 St. Pet. ii. 24, iii. 18, iv. 1), and to His Human Soul, when descending to preach to the spirits in prison (Ibid, iii. 18), after Its separation from His Body at death, v1]
302 St. Peter on the ever-living Word of God.
His redemptive work, rescuing it from the exaggeration and turgidity with which it would be fairly chargeable, if Christ were merely human or less than God? That this is in fact the case is abundantly manifest; and indeed the Person of Christ appears to be hinted at in St. Peter’s Epistle, by the same august expression which has been noticed as common to St. James and to St. John. The Logos or Word of God, living and abid- ing for ever t, is the Author of the soul’s new birth: and Christ Jesus our Lord does not only bring us this Logos from heaven ; He is this Logos. And thus in His home of glory, angels and authorities and powers are made subject unto Him"; and He is
not said to have been taken up into heaven, but to have gone |
up thither, as though by His own deed and willY. And when St. Peter exhorts Christians to act in such a manner that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, he pauses reverently at this last most precious and sacred Name, to add, ‘to Whom is the glory and the power unto ages beyond ages W.’ St. Peter’s second Epistle *, like his first, begins and ends with Jesusy. Its main positive theme is the importance of the higher practical knowledge” of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ 8, Jesus is not set before Christians as a revered and >
departed Teacher whose words are to be gathered up and studied; He is set forth rather as an Invisible and Living Person Who is to be spiritually known by souls. Along with this practical knowledge of Jesus, as with knowledge of God, there will be an increase of grace, and of its resultant inward evidence,
® 1 St. Pet. i. 20: φανερωθέντος implies Christ’s Pre-existence.
ὁ Ibid. ver. 23: ἀναγεγεννημένοι οὐκ ἐκ σπορᾶς φθαρτῆς, ἀλλὰ ἀφθάρτου, διὰ λόγου ζῶντος Θεοῦ καὶ μένοντος εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα. ΒΥ identifying the λόγος here with the ῥῆμα (ver. 25) that proclaims Him, Baur maintains his paradox, that in St. Peter’s Epistles the written word is substituted for, and does the work of, the Person of Christ in St. Paul’s writings. Vorlesungen,
. 296. . : τοὶ St. Pet. iii. 22: ὑποταγέντων αὐτῷ ἀγγέλων καὶ ἐξουσιῶν καὶ δυνάμεων.
Υ Ibid.: ὅς ἐστιν ἐν δεξιᾷ τοῦ Θεοῦ πορευθεὶς εἰς οὐρανόν.
wIbid. iv. 11: ἵνα ἐν πᾶσι δοξάζηται ὃ Θεὸς διὰ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, ᾧ ἐστιν ἡ δόξα καὶ τὸ κράτος εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. ἀμήν. Here ᾧ is naturally referred to Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ which immediately precedes it. See, however, Huther, in loc.
= For an examination of the arguments which have been urged against the genuineness and authenticity of this Epistle, see Olshausen, Opuscula Theologica, pp. 1-88, and Canon Cook’s art, ‘ Peter,’ in Smith’s Dict. Bibl.
72 St. Pet, ἃ ἃ, i118.
5 ἐπίγνωσι.
5. 2 St. Pet. i. 2, 8, ii. 20, iii, 18,
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spiritual peace. For this practical knowledge of Jesus is the crowning point of other Christian attainments®. It is the consummate result both of faith and practice, both of the intellectual and of the moral sides of the Christian life. In the long line of graces which this special knowledge implies, are faith and general religious knowledge on the one hand, and on the other, moral strength, self-restraint, patience, piety, brotherly love, and, in its broadest sense, charity 4. In this higher know- ledge of Jesus, all these excellences find their end and their completion. On any other path, the soul is abandoned to spiritual blindness, tending more and more to utter forgetfulness of all past purifications from sin®. For this higher practical knowledge of Jesus Christ is the means whereby Christians escape from the polluting impurities of the life of the heathen world’, It raises Christian souls towards the Unseen King in His glory; it secures their admission to His everlasting realm&. If Christians would not be carried away from their steadfast adherence to the truth and life of Christianity by the errors of those who hate all law, let them endeavour to grow in this blessed knowledge of Jesus». The prominence given to the Person of Christ, in this doctrine of an ἐπίγνωσις of which His Person is the Object, leads us up to the truth of His real Divinity. If Jesus, thus known and loved, were not accounted God, then we must say that God is in this Epistle thrown utterly into the background, and that His human messenger has taken His place.
Nor is the negative and polemical side of the Epistle much less significant than its constructive and hortatory side. The special misery of the false teachers of whom the Apostle speaks as likely to afflict the Church, will consist in their ‘denying the
b 2 St. Pet. i. 2: χάρις ὑμῖν καὶ εἰρήνη πληθυνθείη ἐν ἐπιγνώσει Tod Θεοῦ, καὶ Ἰησοῦ τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν.
© Ibid. ver. 8 : ταῦτα γὰρ (that is, the eight graces previously enumerated) ὑμῖν ὑπάρχοντα Kal πλεονάζοντα, οὐκ ἀργοὺς οὐδὲ ἀκάρπους καθίστησιν εἰς THY τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ ἐπίγνωσιν.
4 Tbid. vers. 5, 6, 7.
¢ Ibid. ver. 9.
f Ibid. ii. 20: ἀποφυγόντες τὰ μιάσματα τοῦ κόσμου ἐν ἐπιγνώσει τοῦ Κυρίου καὶ σωτῆρος ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ. Cf. Ibid. i. 4: ἀποφυγόντες τῆς ἐν κόσμῳ ἐν ἐπιθυμίᾳ φθορᾶς.
® Ibid. i, 11: οὕτω γὰρ πλουσίως ἐπιχορηγηθήσεται ὑμῖν ἡ εἴσοδος εἰς τὴν αἰώνιον βασιλείαν τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν καὶ σωτῆρος ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ.
h Ibid. iii. 17, 18: φυλάσσεσθε, ἵνα μὴ τῇ τῶν ἀθέσμων πλάνῃ συναπαχθέν- τες, ἐκπέσητε τοῦ ἰδίου στηριγμοῦ" αὐξάνετε δὲ ἐν χάριτι καὶ γνώσει τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν καὶ σωτῆρος ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ.
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304 St. Peter’s later Christology.
Sovereign that bought them,’ and so bringing on themselves swift destructioni, Unbelievers might contend that the apo- stolical teachings respecting the present power and future coming of Jesus were cleverly-invented mythsj; but St. Peter had himself witnessed the majesty of Jesus in His Transfiguration *, The Apostle knows that he himself will quickly die; he has had a special revelation from the Lord Jesus to this effect 1. Throughout this Epistle the Person of Jesus is constantly before us. As He is the true Object of Christian knowledge, so He is the Lord of the future kingdom of the saints. He is mocked at and denied by the heretics; His Coming it is which the scoffing materialism of the age derides; His judgments are foreshadowed by the great destructive woes of the Old Testament. Again and again, as if with a reverent eagerness which takes pleasure in the sacred words, the Apostle names His Master’s Name and titles. He is Jesus our Lord™; He is our Lord Jesus Christ ®; He is the Lord and Saviour®; He is our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ P; He is our God and Saviour Jesus Christ 4. His power is spoken of as Divine; and through the precious things promised by Him to His Church (must we not here especially understand the sacraments?) Christians are made partakers of the Nature of Gods. To Christ, in His exalted majesty, a tribute of glory is due, both now and unto the day of eternity*. Throughout this Epistle Jesus Christ is constantly named where
12 St. Pet. ii. 1: παρεισάξουσιν αἱρέσεις ἀπωλείας, καὶ τὸν ἀγοράσαντα αὐ- τοὺς Δεσπότην ἀρνούμενοι, ἐπάγοντες ἑαυτοῖς ταχινὴν ἀπώλειαν.
J Ibid. i. 16: οὐ γὰρ σεσοφισμένοις μύθοις ἐξακολουθήσαντες ἐγνωρίσαμεν ὑμῖν τὴν τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ δύναμιν καὶ παρουσίαν.
k Tbid.: ἐπόπται γενηθέντες τῆς ἐκείνου μεγαλειότητος. Ibid, ver. 18: ἐν τῷ dpe τῷ ἁγίῳ.
1 Tbid. ver. 14: εἰδὼς ὅτι ταχινή ἐστιν ἡ ἀπόθεσις τοῦ σκηνώματός μου, καθὼς καὶ ὃ Κύριος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς ἐδήλωσέ μοι. Here ταχινὴ seems to mean ‘soon,’ ‘not distant,’ rather than ‘rapid.’ Cf. St. John xxi. 18; but some independent revelation, made shortly before these words were written, is probably alluded to. Hegesippus, de Excidio Hierosol. lib. iii. 2; St. Am- bros. Serm. contra Auxentium, de Basilicis tradendis, n. 13.in Epist. 21.
m 2 St. Pet. i. 2. This occurs elsewhere only at Rom. iv. 24.
n 2 δύ, Pet. i. 14, 16. © Thid. iii. 2. P Thid. i. 11, ii. 20, iii. 18.
4 Ibid. i. 1. Cf. Bp. Middleton on Gr. Art. p. 433.
τ 2 St. Pet. i. 3: τῆς θείας δυνάμεως αὐτοῦ τὰ πρὸς ζωὴν καὶ εὐσέβειαν δε- δωρημένης. αὐτοῦ apparently refers to Ἰησοῦ (ver. 2), andis so distinguished from the Eternal Father τοῦ καλέσαντος ἡμᾶς (ver. 3).
8 Ibid. ver. 4: τίμια ἐπαγγέλματα δεδώρηται, ἵνα διὰ τούτων γένησθε θείας κοινωνοὶ φύσεως.
ὁ Ibid. iii. 18: αὐτῷ ἡ δόξα καὶ νῦν καὶ εἰς ἡμέραν αἰῶνος. ‘Tota eternitas una dies est.’ Estius,
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we should expect to find the Name of God. The Apostle does not merely proclaim the Divinity of Jesus in formal terms ; he everywhere feels and implies it.