Divine Nature

Through another supernatural work of God we are to “be partakers of the divine nature”.  Some false teachers in the day Peter wrote this were teaching that salvation was an evolution.  They thought of salvation as a gradual process of being delivered from our lust from the sinful world and thereby becoming enabled to share the nature of God.  They thought this transformation was worked out through religious rites and mystical experiences.

Rather than this viewpoint, the apostle Peter teaches that the supernatural event has already occurred.  It happens the moment a person is born again through faith in Christ.  It is a single event, not a series of events.  We are not sort of saved or partially saved.  We either believe in Christ and get saved or we don’t.

But, what exactly does being a “partaker of the divine nature” mean?  It means that we might be called a child of God!  The Christian life is not a series of dos and don’ts.  The Christian life is being a part of Christ, it is living with Him and wanting the things of God.  It is following His guidance and yearning for more of Him everyday.

First, it means that we are united with Him.  In John 15 Jesus speaks of Himself as the vine and we as branches.  This is an obvious statement of our being united with Him.  In fact, He says that we can do nothing without Him.  In Ephesians 2:4-6, Paul says “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), ⁶ and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus”.  Paul writes in Philippians 3:10 “that I may know Him”.  We can know Jesus for He has called us friends.  Oh, to know Him!  Christianity is a Person.

Second, we are able to share this divine nature through the new birth.  In John 3, Jesus took great pains to describe this to Nicodemus.  We have a physical birth by our earthly parents, but when we believe for our salvation upon Jesus Christ we have a spiritual birth.  Peter says in 1 Peter 1:23 that this new birth is “… not of a corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which lives and abides forever”.  There is a new nature inside of us and it is God’s continued work of Santifying Grace to bring that man out so that this new nature is the dominant one.

Third, we receive indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.  Paul teaches in Corinthians that this Spirit guides and comforts us, and leads us into all truth.  A part of God actually takes up residence in my spirit.  As God’s nature is certainly divine, we are able to share in that divine nature as He dwells inside our heart.  Paul said in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”  Christ lives in me and in so doing I share in His divine nature.

Peter follows this being a partaker in the divine nature with “having escaped the corruption of this world”.  We aren’t just out of it for a little while, but we are washed clean and new again.  The corruption isn’t our primary nature anymore.  Having been born again, we have a knowledge and the Spirit inside of us showing us how to life a real life.  We have escaped the corruption, it doesn’t rule us anymore.  There is a continuing conflict in the life of a believer between the new nature and the old nature. 

The best story is the Prodigal Son story Jesus told.  At the end, the son had to say that he would arise and go to his father, because he was a son and not a pig.  In our struggle in our conflict, if we are sons of God, we will at some point have to return to our Father.  Our nature is a son nature and not a pig nature.