2 Peter 1:2-8: May God give you more and more grace and peace as you grow in your knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord. By His divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know Him, the One who called us to Himself by means of His marvelous glory and excellence. And because of His glory and excellence, He has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share His divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires. In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone. The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In Ephesians 2, Paul is very emphatic when he describes how we become saved. He teaches us that God’s grace, through our faith in Christ saves us. Paul teaches us that, once we make the commitment to serve the Lord, we are then required to live by faith. As Peter teaches us in today’s scripture, it is through our continued faith and obedience that we are empowered to share in God’s divine nature.

Let’s digress for a moment. In Romans 3, Paul tells us that we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. So, how does a holy God and a vile sinner become one? For us to share in God’s nature, we must become one with Him; how is this possible? Let’s give this issue more than a fleeting thought. Peter begins his exhortation talking about how we (share in God’s divine power), but toward the conclusion of this passage, he explains that we must move on into the place in Christ (by faith) where we (share in His divine nature). Yes, Jesus saved you the very moment you believed in Him as the Lamb of God that takes away your sin, but that was the power of God. Do you remember what Paul wrote in Romans 1? The preaching of the gospel is the power of God unto salvation, to the Jew first and then the Gentile.

Therefore, we can conclude that God wants us to be filled with His divine nature to live a godly life and not just share in His divine power. To assure that we, who name the name of Jesus move beyond the moment of salvation and share in His divine nature, He has designed our new walk to be carried out by His eternal promises. As Christians, we haven’t received the fullness of our inheritance. In fact, Paul teaches us, in Ephesians, that God has only given us the earnest (or down payment) of our inheritance in Christ. So the benefits of our full salvation are given to us as we continue to share in Christ’s divine nature through faith.

We can see more clearly now why God requires us to first fulfill the will of God, before we can receive the promise of God through our faith in what Christ has already (past tense) done for us. Through these great and precious promises, we are being (present tense) transformed by faith. If we should stop living by faith, we stop the transformation process. But as the writer of Hebrews stated, we are not of those who draw back in perdition (lawlessness), but we believe unto the salvation of our soul. Jesus tells us, “Those who endure to the end shall be saved.”

Let us, who have been touched by the power of the gospel continue, by faith, in obedience to the Word of God in order that, through our obedient faith, we can share in God’s divine nature . . . having escaped the lustful corruption that is in this world. Please take the time to read the excerpt from Peter’s epistle in the above passage once again. The Holy Spirit inspired him to instruct us to continue moving in our faith until we share in His divine nature, but it doesn’t stop there. As we mature and begin developing the fruit of the Spirit, we are to add to our faith: virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. We are on a journey, walking away from the image of the first Adam and, through faith becoming like the Last Adam (Christ). Indeed, our God is an awesome God!!!

—submitted by Asa Dockery, US