Hugh Martin on Simon Peter

Reading Ted Donnelly's excellent and moving 'Peter, Eye-witness of his Majesty' in preparation for a series of sermons on Peter, I was drawn to two books recommended in a footnote, both of which I was able to obtain easily second hand. One is 'From Simon to Peter' by J.Glyn Owen, (EP, 1985) which I am presently reading and am finding immensely helpful. The other I have just finished: Hugh Martin's 'Simon Peter' (Banner of Truth edition 1967).

Hugh Martin is one of my favourite authors though I have only read three books by him - I do not think he wrote many. He was one of those towering 19th century Scots who have bequeathed us so much. His 'Jonah', also published by the Banner is fine and full of insights, and 'The Atonement' is harder to get hold of(my second hand copy came from the USA last year) but is worth every penny you may pay for it. (Could someone re-print this some time - my copy is Knox Press, 1976)?

Anyway to get back to 'Simon Peter' - what a privilege to be a minister and read books like this for a living! It feeds one's own soul as well as one's sermon preparation. A few highlights that spoke to me were:

In relation to Andrew introducing Simon to the Lord: 'It is when you have yourself had fellowship with Jesus that you have either the heart or the power to speak of Jesus to another. Were we much with Christ we would speak of him...But if we have not fellowship with Christ for our own souls,...our religious talk, when we attempt to speak to our worldly brother, will become mere dead, and vapid, and formal cant...'

Concerning the Lord's warning of Satan wanting to 'sift' the disciples and of His prayer for Peter (Luke 22:31-2): 'It shows that the saved soul is an object of contest among the higher intelligences and before the throne of God on high...such a transaction going on on high may interpret very clearly the meaning and scope of those struggles which I am painfully conscious of within. And then - to use the language of this same Simon Peter at a later date - I may learn, in wonder, awe, meekness and gratitude, no more to "think it strange concerning the fiery trial that is to try me" (1 Peter 4:14)'.

A repeated theme in Peter is his needing to become aware of his weakness, and that weakness was often where he thought he was strong: 'Hence the Christian's safety is in the knowledge of his weakness which sends him to the Lord for strength. "When I am weak, then I am strong".'

Of Peter's denials: 'This once righteous man, [distinguished as we know for promptness and for quick decision], bold as a lion, is not so utterly bereft of any quality whatever as of exactly that which he thought never could forsake him'. He needed to be redeemed, says Martin, from self-reliance - and no more so than where he thought himself strong.

There is much more...