1 Peter 5:10 But the God of all grace, who has called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that you have suffered a while, make you perfect… Our first experience in reading this verse is amazement that borders on bewilderment. The whole is a perfect blaze of diamonds. Keep your eyes upon the verse, and see what words we have: "God," "all grace," "called," "eternal glory," "Christ Jesus," "dominion forever." And, as if these were not enough, we find also perfection thrown in as well: "make you perfect." And these marvellous words daze us all the more because of their contrast to that which has gone before. "The devil," "a roaring lion," "suffering," "adversary," "God," "grace," "eternal glory," "perfection." Now we will seek to put the words in order, and link them together. And observe that, though this text reads as a prayer, it is really a promise. Instead of the first word being "but," it should be "and." In the previous verses the Holy Ghost has been telling us what we have to do. Now He tells us what God has promised to do. We must never separate the things that God has joined together. If God says in one line, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling," He says in the next, "for it is God that worketh in you." And so, if here I am told that I am to be sober and vigilant, and that I am to resist a roaring devil, and I say, "How can it be? It is more than I can do," He who bids me do it tells me what He will do: "And He Himself shall perfect, strengthen, and stablish you." The words, you see, are beginning to fall into order. But there is one important point which I question whether many of you have seen, because in nine cases out of ten that sentence, "after that ye have suffered a while," is linked with the last clause of the verse, whereas it belongs to the first; and if you look you will see what a difference it makes. The God of all grace who hath called us, after that we have suffered a while, to His eternal glory, will Himself, whilst we are suffering — during this little interval that lies between the grace and the glory — so sanctify the suffering, that it shall perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle us. The sufferings come between the grace and the glory. I. Who shall rise to the height of this first expression, "THE GOD OF ALL GRACE"? It does not mean that God is gracious in His tendency, or simply gracious by His nature, but that He Himself is the reservoir, the home, the source, the supply, of grace in all its manifestations. Need I recapitulate them to you? Divine choice with all its inscrutable mysteries. Redemption by a dying Christ. Justification also in all its wondrous harmony between mercy and perfect equity. Yes, and regeneration too, with its heaven-born purity, and its new-created tendencies within the soul. All these are covered by the word "grace." These things are only different manifestations of one and the same sublime attribute. But, when I mention these, I have only just touched the spray of the wave. There are deeps that lie beneath in this expression, "the God of all grace," for it contains all the graces which the soul must possess before it can enter eternal glory. Most certainly there must be the grace of repentance. The cry of "God be merciful to me" is a cry that comes down from heaven before ever it can break from my lips. "The God of all grace." But repentance must ever be followed by faith. It is the gift of God. Then there are other graces yet to be manifested. "Faith worketh by love." But love is born of God, for God is love, and if I love Him, it is because He first loved me. But no man can see the Lord apart from holiness. How can this poor, sin-stained man become holy? And the answer is, that it is the Spirit of the Lord that worketh holiness; and so, whilst He is the God of all manifestations of grace, He is the God of all the graces that I possess. But I have hardly begun yet with this enumeration. This text covers much more, for it includes all the supplies of grace that are needed along the road. It is a weary road: I need refreshing grace. It is a sorrowing path, because it is a sinful one: I need comforting grace. As a wandering sheep, I need restoring grace. Being weak as a babe, I need upholding grace. And everything that a saint can need from the moment of my new birth to that ecstatic instant when I stand before His eternal glory, without spot or wrinkle, lies centred in God. II. THIS GOD OF ALL GRACE CALLS US TO ETERNAL GLORY. Let us begin at the beginning. He has called you. The call that is intended here is, as Archbishop Leighton beautifully puts it, that call which goes deeper than the ear, touches the heart within, throws open the door, and admits the Christ. And consequently you will find that the word "called" becomes the title of the true Christian. A man of God is one who has been called. But how is he called? It is "unto His eternal glory in Christ"; not simply, mark you, for Christ's sake. That is true, but it is not the truth here taught. He has called us to eternal glory "in Christ." He called Christ into glory, and, when He called Christ into glory, He called me, because I am in Christ. The call that I receive is a call that sounds in the Son's ear. It is a call "to His glory." We share His blessedness. God's glory is Himself. There is nothing more glorious about His glory than Himself. The only way in which God can glorify Himself is to reveal Himself. Come, lave thy spirit in the eternal blaze of Deity. Come, be at home with Me. That one word "glory" covers all joy, all blessing, all bliss. God has called us unto His eternal "glory." But this is only the beginning of the theme. You have to put the word "eternal" into the scale. It is not a call for an age or for a millennium. Oh, fools that we are to weep our eyes out over earth's sorrows, and to grumble our spirits into wretchedness because of a passing moment of care! III. HE ALLOWS A LITTLE INTERVAL OF SUFFERING WHICH IS ITSELF FULL OF BLESSING. Ah, we too often want to leave that bit out, "After that ye have suffered a while." The call comes, but the glory does not come immediately after the call. The suffering is part of the call, as well as the glory. It is not a haphazard thing that comes in. It is all a part of the plan. When God calls you to glory, He calls you to come to glory through a little while of suffering. How this takes away all the acidity of one's sorrows! It is part of the road to the eternal glory. It is just as much included in the plan as all the rest, And then, you see, it says that it is only a "little" while. Really the word "while" is not there. It is "after ye have suffered a little"; and you can choose, if you like, whether it means degree or duration. You say, "But why can I not go to heaven at once?" The answer is found in the last line of our text. He Himself will "make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you." He will do it through this little interval of suffering. He will perfect you. Ah, there is nothing about us that is not imperfect. There are many little rents in us, and the Lord allows us to go through this little while of suffering so that He may repair the imperfections. Bad as you are, you would be worse if you had less trouble. There is not here, today, a child of God who is not the richer and the holier for the little while of suffering. The next word is "stablish," and that implies fixity. Oh, we are very prone to fluctuation. Some times nothing but a heavy heart will give weight to a character, and so God says, "I cannot let that light and frivolous child remain like a piece of thistledown floating at the dictation of every breath of air. I must pass him through a little while of suffering." That is stablishing. The word "settle" does not appear in the R.V. The last word there is "strengthen," and the meaning of the word is "made powerful to resist attack." There is the devil. He is roaring. Do you think you can resist the great adversary? Never! But the Lord steps ill, and says, "If I bid you meet the roaring lion, I will pass you through a little season of suffering which shall repair and stablish you, and put spiritual thews and sinews into you, so that in My strength you may overcome." (A. G. Brown.) Parallel Verses KJV: But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. |
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