13-5-1 Peter And Christ

The focus of Peter in the final maturity of his letters was undoubtedly the Lord Jesus. We have shown elsewhere how Paul’s recorded words and writings refer to the Gospels at least once every three verses. Alfred Norris (Peter: Fisher Of Men) has listed around 40 connections between Peter’s letters and the Gospels. And there are more. This makes a similar figure- once every three verses, Peter is alluding to the Lord’s words. And the figure is probably higher, seeing that we don’t know all the words and actions of the Lord Jesus, and probably Peter is alluding to incidents and words which aren’t recorded. Like Paul, Peter’s mind was saturated with the Lord Jesus. This was the secret of his spirituality, this was why he could cope with the ministry to the Gentiles which he had so boldly started being taken away from him and given to Paul, this was why he didn’t slump into a life of melancholy bitterness.  

Some of his allusions are conscious allusions (e.g. those to the transfiguration). Others seem almost unconscious- e.g. the way he cites both Noah and Lot (2 Pet. 2:5-8) as warnings for the last generation, when the Lord had likewise used both of them together (Lk. 17:26-32). Another unconscious allusion would be the way in which he describes the Angels ‘looking into’ the blood of Christ with the same word which described Peter looking into the tomb (Jn. 20:5,11; Lk. 24:12). Or when he told the messengers: “I am he whom ye seek: what is the cause wherefore ye are come?” (Acts 10:21). This is full of allusion to the Lord in Gethsemane (Mt. 26:56; Jn. 18:4-6). There is perhaps no exact sense in the allusions; but they reflect the fact that the experience of the Lord’s death and resurrection so indelibly impressed Peter that he reflected it both consciously and unconsciously. Likewise with us- even our body language should reflect our experience of such great salvation in so great a Saviour. In Acts 12:17 the same Greek words are used by Peter as by the Lord: “Go shew these things…to the brethren”. Peter felt that his deliverance from prison was like the Lord’s resurrection, and perhaps unconsciously he used the Lord’s words to Mary Magdalene. Peter then went “to another place” just as the Lord did on saying those words. He saw that his life was a living out of fellowship with the Lord’s mortal experiences, every bit as much as our lives are too. 

Peter’s last words in 2 Pet. are full of the theme of knowing Christ (1:2,3,5,8; 2:20). Finally, He came to really know the man whom he thought he once knew. His very last recorded words urge us all to follow his pattern: to grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour (3:18). He wrote this with awareness that he had denied the knowledge of the Lord; his very last words reflected his sense of inadequacy and shame at his failures, and yet the sure and certain knowledge that he knew the grace of the Saviour whom he believed.