February, 1939
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walk in the Spirit, led by the Spirit, filled with the Spirit, bearing the fruit of the Spirit. Not all Christians are thus walking. They need a new crisis, not in the sense that Peter was baptized by the Spirit at Pentecost, but in the sense that they now surrender and trust the Lord and enter into the realization of what is theirs in Christ. Christians should seek the fullness of the Spirit and covet earnestly the greater gifts of the Spirit. Saved by the Grace of God From Simon Peter we leam this other sobering fact. After a believer has had the very highest experience in fellowship with Christ and in service for Him, there is no guarantee of victory for him except as he abides in Christ and in His truth. For after all of these ten crises, Simon Peter sinned by acting contrary to this very mes sage of grace that had come to him. Paul tells us that Peter stood condemned. The very Peter who had supported Paul in the Jerusalem conference, and who had seen plainly that Jews as well as the Gentiles are saved by grace, needed to have this message given to him again by Paul be cause he wavered in his testimony (Acts 15:7-11; Gal. 2:11-21). Peter’s life story in his spiritual expe riences is the story of the grace of God as it transformed defeated Simon into victorious Peter. It is Peter who gives us that glo rious name, “the God of all grace" (1 Pet. 5:10). The Lord was in very truth the God of all grace to Peter in all of Peter's failure and need. By grace Peter belonged to a godly family in Israel. By grace he followed John the Baptists By grace he met the Lord. By grace he was called to dis- cipleship, then to apostleship. By grace he made the Great Confession. By grace he was restored after his denial. By grace he was baptized by the Spirit. By grace he was led into God’s plan of salvation by grace for all the Gentiles. Peter is the one who speaks of “the manifold grace of God” (1 Pet. 4:10). He gives as the theme of his first letter, “the true grace of God” (1 Pet. 5:12). Peter himself was a good steward of the manifold grace of God. It is fitting that he should close his letters with the clarion call to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour. He was Peter from beginning to end—-not John, nor Andrew, nor Paul; the same Peter —but, oh, what a change! The same Lord and the same grace are ours. [T he End] Cutler B. and Mrs. Whitwell, graduates of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, as sisted by Don Allen as pianist, have been holding meetings for the two weeks from January 15 to January 29 at the Wayside Chapel at Carmichael, Calif. Their itiner ary for the immediate future is as follows: Jan. 30 to Feb. 12—First Baptist Church, Ceres, Calif.; Feb. 19 to March 5—Com munity Church, Imperial, Calif., and March 12 to 26—Evanston Community Evangel ical Church, Denver, Colo. Whitwell Evangelistic Party in Services
PETER’S TEN SPIRITUAL CRISES [Continued from page 58]
riences are parallel with the experiences that Christians should have today? If we turn to Paul’s experience, we are met by the startling fact that when Paul saw the risen Lord, practically all of the spiritual crises that Peter had had were in cluded in that one experience of Paul’s. (W e are viewing the revelation of Christ on the Damascus road and the subsequent revelation of Ananias as one experience. Note Acts 22:10.) There was, indeed, only one of these spiritual crises of Peter’s that Saul had, that of becoming a son of the law at thirteen years of age. And as we have seen, even that experience was differ ent in Saul’s case, since it was an outward experience without the inner change of heart. But when Paul saw the Lord, he saw Him as Christ the Son of God. He wets bom of the Spirit. His sins were cleansed (Acts 22; 16). He was baptized by the Spirit into the Body of Christ. He was called to full-time service for the Lord. He was commissioned to make Christ known to the Gentiles. Because Peter belonged to the transition period, it was needful that he, like all that were saved before the cross and lived on into the new dispensation, should have at least two spiritual crises: first, when he was bom of the Spirit, and second, when he was baptized by the Spirit into the Body of Christ. Many teach that these same two experiences are needed for Christians to day, and that when a man is bom again, the Holy Spirit does not come into his heart, or in any case that he is not baptized by the Spirit. Others make a distinction between being baptized by the Spirit into the Body of Christ, and being baptized with the Holy Spirit for supernatural serv ice—the “upon baptism.” Throughout the Epistles there is no sug gestion that Christians should seek for the baptism of the Spirit. Apart from all other considerations, this fact makes plain that it is not God’s plan that believers should seek for this baptism. Moreover, it is clear that when at Pentecost the church was estab lished, this event changed altogether the status of believers who should accept Christ. Each individual believer was joined to Christ thereafter by the baptism of the Spirit without the necessity of the particu lar signs that were given at Pentecost, It is true that in The Acts of the Apostles, there is a description also of the baptism of the Samaritans, of the Gentiles, and of the disciples of John the Baptist. Thus we have in Acts four separate religious groups. It was altogether fitting that there should be a divine revelation in connection with each of these groups—circumcised Jews, Samar itans, Gentiles, and followers of John the Baptist—in order to emphasize the fact that thereafter there was but one Body, and that all these Separate groups were baptized into that one Body. All individuals who now take Christ as Saviour are born of the Spirit: they have the witness of the Spirit: the Spirit indwells them; they are baptized by the Spirit into the Body of Christ. Believers at their con version are sealed by the Spirit till the day of redemption, and have the earnest or first fruits of the Spirit. After being bom of the Spirit, and baptized by the Spirit, and indwelt by the Spirit, believers are to
ward to the fulfillment at Pentecost when Christ Himself sent the Holy Spirit to abide in believers.) Others teach that all Chris tians are baptized into the body of Christ at conversion but must have a second dis tinct experience if they are to be baptized for power in service. If what we have said concerning Peter is true, then he and the others were born of the Spirit before Pentecost. But Pentecost could not come until Christ had died and risen again. Now these believers were united with the risen Christ, and from henceforth believers are in this new rela tionship. They were baptized by the Spirit into the Body of Christ. The individual re sult with them was that they were filled with the Spirit. Peter Preaches to the Gentiles Simon Peter was one of those who lived on both sides of Pentecost. This fact means that he lived in two dispensations, and in that transition period when the new wine was being poured into fresh wine skins. Even after Pentecost, Peter’s entrance into the new dispensation had not been com pleted, so far as his own understanding of the truth was concerned. Consequently, we have one more great spiritual crisis to note. At Pentecost none were baptized into the Body of Christ except circumcised Israelites. Later the message came to the Samaritans, when Peter and John went down and laid their hands on them. They were then baptized by the Spirit into this new Body. But what about the uncircumcised Gen tiles? How was God to reveal the mystery that Gentiles were fellow members of the same Body, that they did not need to be come Jews in order to be saved? The answer is that a supernatural revelation was given to Peter that he might be willing to go to preach the gospel to Cornelius and his household. At that time there was no laying on of human hands. God took the matter directly into His own care, and the Holy Spirit was poured out upon these Gentiles in order to show Peter, and through him the rest of the church, that God made no distinction between Jew and Gentile, cleansing their hearts by faith (Acts 15:8, 9). Peter in an Age of Transition How far is Peter an example for us in spiritual crises? How many of these expe-
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