J C Ryle
We learn, for one thing, from these verses, that Christ foreknows the future history of Christians, both in life and death. The Lord tells Simon Peter, “When thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not”. These words, without controversy, were a prediction of the manner of the Apostle’s death. They were fulfilled in after days, it is commonly supposed, when Peter was crucified as a martyr for Christ’s sake. The time, the place, the manner, the painfulness to flesh and blood of the disciple’s death, were all matters the Master foresaw.
The truth before us is eminently full of comfort to a true believer. To obtain foreknowledge of things to come would, in most cases, be a sorrowful possession. To know what was going to befall us, and yet not to be able to prevent it, would make us simply miserable. But it is an unspeakable consolation to remember that our whole future is known and arranged beforehand by Christ. There is no such thing as luck, chance or accident in the journey of our life. Everything from beginning to end is foreseen – arranged by One who is too wise to err and too loving to do us harm.
Let us store up this truth in our minds and use it diligently in all the days of darkness through which we may yet have to pass. In such days we should lean back on the thought, Christ knows this and knew it when He called me to be His disciple. It is foolish to repine and murmur over the troubles of those whom we love. We should rather fall back on the thought that all is well done. It is useless to fret and be rebellious when we ourselves have bitter cups to drink. We should rather say, This also is from the Lord; He foresaw
1Taken, with editing, from Expository Thoughts on John, vol 3. Here are some of Ryle’s general comments on John 21:18-25.
it and would have prevented it if it had not been for my good. Happy are those who can enter into the spirit of that old saint who said, “I have made a covenant with my Lord that I will never take amiss anything that He does to me”. We may have to walk sometimes through rough places on our way to heaven. But surely it is a resting, soothing reflection, Every step of my journey was foreknown by Christ.
We learn, secondly, in these verses, that a believer’s death is intended to glorify God. The Holy Ghost tells us this truth in plain language. He graciously interprets the dark saying which fell from our Lord’s lips about Peter’s end. He tells us that Jesus said this, “signifying by what death he should glorify God”.
The thing before us is probably not considered as much as it ought to be. We are apt to regard life as the only season for honouring Christ and action as the only mode of showing our religion, so that we overlook death except as a painful termination of usefulness. Yet surely this ought not so to be. We may die to the Lord as well as live to the Lord; we may be patient sufferers as well as active workers. Like Samson, we may do more for God in our death than we ever did in our lives. It is probable that the patient deaths of our martyred Reformers had more effect on the minds of Englishmen than all the sermons they preached and all the books they wrote. One thing, at all events, is certain: the blood of the English martyrs was the seed of the English Church.
We may glorify God in death by being ready for it whenever it comes. The Christian who is found like a sentinel at his post, like a servant with his loins girded and his lamp burning, with a heart packed up and ready to go – the man to whom sudden death, by the common consent of all who knew him, is sudden glory – this is a man whose end brings glory to God. We may glorify God in death by patiently enduring its pains. The Christian whose spirit has complete victory over the flesh, who quietly feels the pins of his earthly tabernacle plucked up with great bodily agonies and yet never murmurs or complains, but silently enjoys inward peace – this again is a man whose end brings glory to God.
We may glorify God in death by testifying to others the comfort and support that we find in the grace of Christ. It is a great thing, when a mortal man can say with David, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil” (Ps 23:4.) The Christian who, like Standfast in The Pilgrim’s Progress, can stand for a while in the river and talk calmly to his companions, saying, “My foot is fixed sure; my toilsome days are ended” – this is a man whose end brings glory to God. Deaths like these leave a mark on the living and are not soon forgotten.
While we live in health, let us pray that we may glorify God in our end. Let us leave it to God to choose the where and the when and the how and the whole manner of our departing. Let us only ask that it may “glorify God”. He is a wise man who takes John Bunyan’s advice and keeps his last hour continually in mind and makes it his company-keeper.
We learn, thirdly, in these verses, that whatever we may think about the condition of other people, we should think first about our own. When Peter inquired curiously and anxiously about the future of the Apostle John, he received from the Lord an answer of deep meaning: “If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou Me.” Hard to understand as part of that sentence may be, it contains a practical lesson which cannot be mistaken. It commands every Christian to remember his own heart first and to look at home.
Of course our blessed Lord does not wish us to neglect the souls of others, or to take no interest in their condition. Such a state of mind would be nothing less than uncharitable selfishness and would prove plainly that we do not have the grace of God. The servant of Christ will have a wide, broad heart, like his Master, and will desire the present and eternal happiness of all around him. He will long and labour to lessen the sorrows, and to increase the joys, of everyone within his reach and, as he has opportunity, to do good to all men. But, in all his doing, the servant of Christ must never forget his own soul. Charity and true religion must both begin at home.
It is vain to deny that our Lord’s solemn caution to His impetuous disciple is greatly needed in the present day. Such is the weakness of human nature that even true Christians are continually liable to run into extremes. Some are so entirely absorbed in their own inward experience and their own heart’s conflict that they forget the world outside. Others are so busy about doing good to the world that they neglect to cultivate their own souls. Both are wrong, and both need to see a more excellent way; but none perhaps do so much harm to religion as those who are busybodies about others’ salvation and, at the same time, neglect their own. From such a snare as this may the ringing words of our Lord deliver us! Whatever we do for others (and we never can do enough), let us not forget our own inner man. Unhappily, the Bride, in the Song of Solomon, is not the only person who has cause to complain: “They made me the keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard I have not kept” (Song 1:6).
The praise of a hypocrite is not of God, but of man; the praise of an Israelite is not of man, but of God. The former desires to seem good, that he may be admired; the latter to be good, that God may be honoured.
William Seeker