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It is essential that we understand how the ministries of the Lord
Jesus and His disciples are correlated. The Lord Jesus' ministry was primarily to the
Jews. He said, "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel."
Paul said of Him, "Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for
the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers (Matt. 15:24; Rom. 15:8).
It is the same concerning Peter's
ministry. "... as the gospel of the circumcision was (committed) unto Peter ... for
he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision ..."
(Gal. 2:7,8). In the former passage the Lord Jesus is called a "minister of the
circumcision," His ministry being connected with the people of the covenant of
circumcision--that made with hands. In the latter passage, Peter is also spoken of as
having the "apostleship of the circumcision." In this sense, then, Peter's
ministry was similar to that of the Lord Jesus. In both cases it was a ministry on behalf
of the truth of God--a ministry of the security and establishment of the promises made to
the fathers. But Peter's ministry was rejected as that of the Lord's had been. Individuals
submitted to the Messiah and became recipients of a blessing that was according to
promise, but the nation in blindness and unbelief refused their blessings.
Peter had another ministry, just as the
Lord Jesus did. If the Lord Jesus had a ministry in which He addressed Himself to the
Jewish nation as such, He had also a ministry in which He specifically addressed Himself
to the true children of God in the midst of the nation. In John 10 He speaks of thus
ministering to the true sheep of the Jewish fold. Peter was given a ministry of like
nature--a ministry specially intended for the true believers among the circumcised. In
John 21:15-17 our Lord commissions Peter to shepherd and feed His lambs and sheep.
In the early chapters of Acts we have the
record of Peter's ministry to the nation of Israel, and in his two Epistles he
carried out a special ministry to the persecuted and dispersed disciples--the followers of
the persecuted and rejected Messiah. In speaking of Peter's ministry in his epistles as
especially intended for converted Jews, it is to be understood that it applies to all
Christians; but its primary application is to believers connected with Israel
wherever they have been scattered ( 1 Peter 1: 1; 2 Peter 1: 1) .
Paul also had a double ministry: one
towards the world--the nations--all men; the other, towards the Body of Christ, the Church
(Col. 1:23,24). In either case it was a ministry of the grace of God--a dispensing of
blessings from the Father, whether to believers individually or corporately.
In the Old Testament times promises were
made, but the blessings implied in the promises were not then dispensed. When our Lord was
on earth He did dispense certain blessings to individuals where He found faith. He did
minister the forgiveness of sins, for instance, to individuals who believed; but He did
not give the full blessing that goes with the fulfillment of the promise of forgiveness;
nor did He, in the days of His flesh, give the Holy Spirit.
In connection with the ministry of Peter
there was both the ministration of the forgiveness of sins and of the Holy Spirit; yet
Peter did not minister the fullness of blessing which is the present portion and
possession of faith. In the Father's wisdom, this was reserved for Paul. The full scope of
faith's blessings, so far as they are now bestowed in this dispensation, is exclusively
through the ministry of Paul. We have also in Paul's ministry the blessings that are in
hope--that is, what will yet be done for us and given to us as completing the
blessings which redemption has acquired for us. What we find in Paul's ministry, then, is
the entire sphere of blessing in which the Father displays His wondrous grace and mercy.
But now to turn to John's ministry. Its
leading feature is that it occupies us with the Father Himself--with what He is in
Himself. It is what is intrinsic, essential, underived and eternal. It is the life of
God--the eternal life that was ever with the Father. In his Gospel, John's ministry
relates to the manifestation of God in His Son become Man. His life on earth is viewed as
a declaration of what God is--His nature, character, and life, displayed on earth as
testimony to men--the features and characteristics of His unchangeable nature, not only
proclaimed, but shown, exhibited.
In John's Epistles the life that is
eternally in the Son and has been manifested among men in its eternal, unchanging nature,
is viewed as a communication, and the ways in which it displays itself in those to
whom it has been communicated are unfolded. In the book of Revelation John writes of the ways
of the Eternal--He who is the First and the Last, Head of the new creation, the living
One, though He died--in bringing all things into accord with His own eternal nature.
The distinctive features of the ministries
of Peter, of Paul, and of John are explicit and plain. They are in no way in opposition,
but perfectly harmonious, each in agreement with the others, none to be pitted against the
others. They are not to be compared as if one is paramount to the others. There should be
no deprecation of Peter's ministry as if it were defective--not equally perfect with that
of Paul and John.
There is a tendency, perhaps naturally in
us all, to give a prominence to the blessings ministered by Paul which overshadows the
Blesser Himself. It was this tendency that was in the mind of our dear brother Darby, when
he counseled us not to neglect John in pressing Paul. He did not mean by this advice that
John is to balance Paul, but that the apprehension and enjoyment of John's ministry will
be a cure to our proneness to being occupied with the range of our blessings in such a way
as to have them more distantly before us than the One who has blessed us.
It is the Blesser Himself with whom John
occupies us. What He is--what He is essentially, intrinsically, eternally. What He is in
essence, in nature, in character: this is what John reveals to us. What would all the
sphere of our blessings be without God Himself? It certainly ought not to need much
consideration to realize that the Blesser is greater than the blessings. The Giver is
higher than His gifts.
The Son of God who came from the Father to
give us knowledge of Himself is above the benefits He has procured and secured for us,
inestimable as all these are; and we need the sense of this in our souls -to keep us from
glorifying ourselves on account of the great blessings that have been given us. The
ministry of John serves to maintain us in this very needful apprehension.
"That which we have seen and heard
declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is
with the Father, and with His Son, Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that
your joy may be full" (1 John 1:3,4). |
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