THE transfiguration scene never faded away from the mind of the apostle Peter. The holy mount was to him what the ladder was to Jacob at Bethel, and what the third heaven was to the apostle Paul. And even the beams of the brightness of the mount are seen to shine out, so to say, through Peter’s Epistles. Hence the many references therein to the appearing of Jesus Christ and the glory to be revealed in that coming day. And so much is this the case that in reading these epistles we almost imagine ourselves in the confines of glory, and the intervening wall luminant with the light from within.
But if the appearing of Christ is thus held before the believer, it may be asked, How about the manifold temptations, the fleshly lusts, and the devil who goes about as a roaring lion? If the believer is confronted with so much that is against him, how is he to be carried through the wilderness? The apostle anticipates these questions, and gives the reply.
Peter, by the Holy Spirit, says, “You who are kept.” We do not keep ourselves. We are not asked to do it. God does not entrust us with our own keeping, and certain it is we should not like to be trusted with it ourselves; although there is a keeping, of a different sort, which is enjoined upon us. Elsewhere it is said, “Keep yourselves in the love of God” (Jude 2121Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. (Jude 21)). The believer is held responsible to do this, and his spiritual instincts must feel how needful is the exhortation. But here, in Peter, we are told that we “are kept by the power of God.” Nothing short of this will suffice. It is a power outside ourselves, and one that is divine, and therefore almighty. The heart of Him who elected us before the foundation of the world, has also provided a means by which He will preserve us while we are passing through the world―no matter what the opposition may be.
Seeing that the believer is kept in this divine way is not, however, to be made an excuse for supineness or indifference. We are told it is “through faith.” The heart is not to be without its exercise. It is with the heart man believeth. The believing principle is to be acted on. Faith is to be at its post.
Nor is this power merely displayed as occasions for it may arise. It is pledged on behalf of the saints “unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” Salvation here is looked at as at the end; although, it is true, we have the salvation of our souls now, as stated by Peter a little later on in his epistle. So also, e.g., in Romans 13, “Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.” This divine power is now being put forth without a break during the whole of the period from the time of conversion until the revelation of Jesus Christ. In point of fact, it is concurrent with the whole of the believers’ life down here.
In Old Testament days also, God was known as the One who kept His people. The Psalmist could sing: ― “He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy Keeper.” There was the recognition not only that God was their keeper, but that the keeping was unceasing. That which characterized the One who kept Israel was, that He neither slumbered nor slept. If the Psalmist could say so in that day, even more can Peter in his.
But we might go further back than David’s day. Reference has already been made to Jacob at Bethel; and there it was the patriarch received the well-known pledge from the Lord: ― “I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest.” Whatever the vicissitudes of the way might be, and Jacob had many, he held a guarantee that God would keep him wherever he went; and I venture to think he never forgot it. It is true a saint now is not given a promise such as this in the same direct and personal way, for it is not the day of oral communications from heaven. Nevertheless, he is to accept such a precious statement as we are considering from the pen of the apostle Peter as if it were made to him personally by the Lord Himself. Scripture is the great resource of the saints just now, and it cannot be broken.
It is for believers, therefore, at the present time to tread their way through the world with hearts encouraged and fortified with the reassuring fact that they are kept by the power of God―the fruit, surely, of the care and faithfulness of Him who made them the objects of His electing love before the world began. W. J. M.