by T. Austin-Sparks
First published in "A Witness and A Testimony" magazines, 1966, Vol. 44-2 - 44-5.
Peter, as the first of the twelve Apostles, represents the link between the former Israel, which forfeited the Kingdom of God, and the new Israel, which inherits the Kingdom. Peter represents that transition, and in a very real way is the link between the two. The temporal kingdom of Israel, an earthly world power - perhaps the world power - with a temple, and everything else that belonged to the old. But all that has gone. All that is finished with, and now there is introduced something that is wholly spiritual. That is one of Peter's words - "a spiritual house... to offer up spiritual sacrifices" (1 Peter 2:5). We read that, we quote it, we use it in our worship, and we know it, but really it represents the battleground of our lives. The Lord is not dealing with us, in the first place, on temporal grounds, of things seen and things that we can handle. He is putting it all away from that realm of our own ability to grasp, to have, to hold, and to understand, and putting it in another realm altogether.
