Partakers of the Divine Nature
Think about this: Could it be true? Really? We are partakers of God’s divine nature? Wow!
Let’s read 2 Peter 1:1-4 to see what the Word says:
“Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, according as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that has called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given to us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”
What do we learn through this passage?
- We have the same precious faith Jesus in our new created spirits!
- How? Through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ! Not by works! It’s a gift!
- Grace and peace can be multiplied to us as we grow in our knowledge of God and our Lord Jesus Christ!
- God has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness! Wow! Read this again slowly!
- How do we benefit from this? The more we get to know Him!
- We have been given exceeding great and precious promises!
- These promises enable us to be partakers of His divine nature!
- These promises also enable us to escape the corruption in the world through lust!
Consider the wonder of this!
Since the fall of Adam, his fallen nature has been handed down to us generation after generation. It stays that way from the moment we come into this world until we are reborn in Christ and become a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). The good news is: God made provision through the new birth by faith in Christ to make us partaker of the divine nature so we can live victoriously over sin in the liberating presence of the Holy Spirit.
Success in the Christian life has a lot to do with learning to live in your new righteous identity in Christ and valuing our relationship with Him. How do we do this? Rom. 12:2 gives us a huge key! As we study the Word, our minds are transformed until we become more and more like Him.
John 15:5 is another huge key. Jesus told His disciples, before His resurrection, that He is the vine and they the branches. As the vine gets its life and strength to bear fruit from staying in the vine so we believers get our life and strength from staying in Christ, our Lord and Savior. He said, “Without me you can do nothing.”
Let’s go back to our divine nature and take another look.
The word “precious” is peculiar to Peter’s writing. He’s calling our faith “precious,” meaning it’s priceless — has great value. In 1 Peter 1:18,19 Peter goes on to say that we’ve been redeemed by the “precious” blood of Christ.
Eph. 2:8-9 is a wonderful scripture. Grace can be defined as God’s unearned unmerited favor. It’s everything God has done for us independent of us. And it’s simply to be received by faith! We use the supernatural faith God gives us to as a gift to receive salvation and everything else He’s already provided by His grace. This precious faith also brings us into the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. It can be built up by praying in tongues (check the Holy Spirit search bar for more teaching on praying, speaking and singing in tongues.) Being “born of God” makes us a partaker of His nature like any son is a partaker of the nature of his father. Isn’t that awesome! For by one man’s disobedience (Adam) many were made sinners, so by one Man’s obedience many were made righteous and partakers of His divine nature.
To build our lives, believers then focus on the precious promises of God which are yes and amen to His glory! There is no other lasting foundation. To build on anything else is like building a house on sand (Matt. 7:24-27) which will surely fall. The knowledge of God (2 Pet. 1:3) gives us all the promises in the Word of God for the purpose of allowing us to partake of God’s divine nature. What a deal!
One great and precious promise is eternal life (I John 2:25; John 3:16, 36; Titus 1:2; I John 5:11-13). To be sure of eternal life makes the bells of our heart ring. To miss eternal life is more than pathetic. It is tragic when one realizes the horror of eternal Hell for those without Christ. Especially knowing that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (Rom. 10:13)! Simply say “Jesus, come into my life! I want you to be my Lord and my Savior!” He then comes in and makes you His home — you become a temple of His holy spirit! You become just as He is in your spirit! You become one spirit with Him! And so much more!!
Another precious promise is the baptism of the Holy Spirit that Christ gave and was fulfilled at Pentecost (Acts 1:4; Luke 24:49; Acts 2:1-4)! This is a precious promise for all believers throughout this entire age (Acts 2:39). The Holy Spirit is God Himself in the person of the Holy Spirit who is called God (Acts 5:3-4). He makes real in our experience in the present all that Christ did in history when He died on the cross. And you receive the fullness of God living inside you! Now as you start to realize how awesome this is, your desires in this life will begin to look like His desires. You will want to be a blessing to others!
Here’s another precious promise, one which I personally love! “Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it” (John 14:13-14). “And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us: and if we know He hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that that we desired of Him” (I John 5:14-15). If you can pray without ceasing throughout the day (instead of worrying without ceasing throughout the day), all the resources of Heaven are at your disposal. Prayer gives you immediate contact with the throne of God. You can call on Him at any time and any place! Now that’s incredible!!!!
Another precious promise: God has promised that He will never leave you (Heb. 13:5). Friends may fail you and forsake you, but God never. He has promised to always be with you. You can go anywhere on that promise. He that began a good work in you when you were saved has promised to keep on working in you even until Jesus comes (Phil. 1:6; 2:13)! Glory to God!!!
And what about that great and precious promise found in Rom. 8:28? “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are the called according to his purpose.”?
The Bible contains hundreds of promises and God is able to make them all good. He’s just that good! Especially that by these very great and precious promises, we are made partakers of His divine nature. He has already fulfilled that, too!! God by His divine power is able to bring to pass and fulfill all He ever promised. If that is not true, then we are deceived. Then there is no Heaven, there is no such thing as sins forgiven. There is no answer to prayer. Life becomes totally hopeless if there is no power in God to do what He said.
However, God is able and will fulfill all His promises. God has made us partakers of His divine nature as He promised. We need to believe that wonderful truth and act upon it. He is able to make it real in our experience when we believe Him, realize the impossibilities of our own sinfulness [and] our own human nature in attempting to do what is right, and learn to yield ourselves to His divine nature.
Your house may be wired with electricity with all its resident power, but it is your fault if you want to keep lighting the house with kerosene lamps. You cannot blame the electric company if you have an electric stove and you cook with wood. It is equally true that you cannot blame God if you keep on living in the powerlessness of the flesh, defeat, and sin, when He has come to indwell you and make you a partaker of His divine nature.
A believer is made a partaker of the divine nature with the new birth experience and made a participant of it when he realizes that God is in his heart by the presence of the Holy Spirit and he will yield himself to God’s control (Rom. 6:11-14; Gal. 5:16, 25). The Holy Spirit gives life to your spirit so that it will control the soul and together the body (Rom. 8:11).
The spirit and soul are quickened or made alive with His incoming presence and putting you into vital life giving contact with the living God. The original text of Romans 8:10 would read “the body is dead because of sin but the spirit is alive because of righteousness”. Note that the spirit is small “s”. However, the Spirit dwelling in you gives life to your spirit giving life to your body so you are able to live a righteous life under His life giving control.
Believe the promises of God, rely upon them, act upon them, and God by His divine power will make real in you the truth of being a partaker of the divine nature so you do not have to live in the defeats of the human nature. You draw upon the power of God by faith, vital prayer contact, and feeding on the Word of God. This helps you to participate in the living “Christ in you” (Col.1:27) rather than trying merely to imitate Him.
The “rest of the story” is simply to be faithful in adding to your faith virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. This speaks of continuance in growth. Doing these things make you fruitful and solid in assurance so that you never fall (2 Pet. 1:5-11).