Ministry of Peter, Paul, and John

by J. N. Darby
We have scriptural authority for regarding Peter and Paul as the apostles, respectively, of the circumcision and of the uncircumcision. Peter and the twelve remained at Jerusalem when the disciples were scattered, and, continuing the work of Christ in the remnant of Israel, gathered into an assembly on earth the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Paul having received the ministry of the assembly, as of the gospel to every creature under heaven (Col. 1), as a wise master-builder lays the foundation. Peter sets us off as pilgrims on our journey to follow a risen Christ towards the inheritance above. Paul, in the full development of his doctrine, shows us the saints sitting in heavenly places in Christ, heirs of all of which He is heir. All this was dispensational, and it is full of instruction.
John holds a different place. He does not enter into dispensations, though once or twice stating the fact as in John 13:1; 14:1; 17:24; 20:17, nor does he take the saint or even the Lord Himself up to heaven. For him Jesus is a divine Person, the Word made flesh manifesting God and His Father, eternal life come down to earth. The Epistle of John treats the question of our partaking of this life and its characters.
God's Dealings With the Earth But at the close of the Gospel, after stating the sending of the Comforter at His going away, Christ opens to the disciples (though in a mysterious way) the continuation of God's dealings with the earth, of which John ministerially is the representative. He links the manifestation of Christ on earth at His first coming with His manifestation at His second. Christ's Person, and eternal life in Him, is the abiding security and living seed of God, when dispensationally all was corrupted and in confusion and decay. If all were in disorder outwardly, eternal life was the same.