The sermon today is on life and godliness and how we get them

Life and Godliness

A sermon preached by

Jim Scott Orrick

Sunday, October 29, 2000

Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust (2 Peter 1:2-4).

In his play Pygmalion, George Bernard Shaw writes of a poor flower girl named Eliza Doolittle, who lived on the streets of London. A phonetician named Henry Higgins rescues Eliza from a life of poverty. There were two phases to Eliza’s rescue: the first phase entailed Higgins actually getting her off of the streets and cleaning her up, physically. The second phase of his rescue entailed his teaching her to speak proper English and the nuances of cultured life in Great Britain. So there were two phases in the process of Eliza’s becoming an elegant lady: first Higgins rescued her from the street, and then he taught her the speech and manners of the British elite.

Similarly, the same two phases can be seen in the process of birthing and rearing a child. The birthing process is relatively quick, and (at least from a man’s perspective), easy, in comparison to the process of rearing the little savage to become a decent human being who will make a contribution to society. Two phases: first, bringing the child into the world; that takes just a short while. But then there’s the second phase, which takes many years and a lot of time, toil and effort: teaching the child to behave properly.

The same two phases can be seen in God’s dealings with His people. In the first phase he takes us out of the street, so to speak; he takes us out of the miry clay, as the Psalmist puts it in Psalm 40. And then in the second phase, again adopting the Psalmist’s phraseology, he sets our feet upon a rock and establishes our going. His pulling us out of the miry clay may entail only a relatively short time, like the birth of a child. But the cleaning the clay off of us and setting our feet upon the rock and establishing our going, indeed, fashioning us after the image of His own Son, that’s a longer phase in most cases. There are times, of course, when someone is converted and they die only a few days or maybe even a few minutes after their conversion, and, in that case, they are immediately made perfect in holiness and pass into glory. But for those of us who have a period of time on earth following our being snatched out of the world and escaping the corruption that is in the world through lust - following that, there is this second phase, this prolonged period, in which God molds us, and sculpts us, and chips away what is unlovely in us. And he makes us into His bride. Both of these phases are mentioned in my text.

Notice verse 3, where the phrase, life and godliness appear. The Bible teaches that His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. Last week I tried to preach to you the truth that is taught here, that all things that pertain to life and godliness are given to us, generally, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue. Knowing God, is the general fountainhead, or, if I may refer back to an illustration that I used last week, knowledge of God is like a sprinkler system that waters the whole lawn and not just one part of it. Generally, we receive all that we need for life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue. Now this week I want us to see what the text has to say about the manner in which God specifically bestows life and godliness upon his children. Generally, it is through the knowledge of himself that God grants life and godliness; but specifically, how does He grant us life? And how does He sculpt godliness in us?

So there are two points to this morning’s message. The first point is, What God does to call us to Himself. The second point is, What God does to conform us to Himself. Again, look with me at verse three: His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue. It is in this calling us that He gives us life. God draws us to Himself. Jesus tells us in no uncertain terms, No man can come to me, except the Father which sent me, draw him. The Father will call and everyone who is taught by God will come to me, Jesus says. So He calls us; He gives us life. Effectual calling is the work of God’s spirit, whereby, convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ and renewing our wills … Did you catch those three things. Number one, He convinces us of our sin and misery. Number two, He enlightens our minds in the knowledge of Christ. Number three, He renews our wills. All three are necessary components of effectual calling. And when He works these three things in us: convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and renewing our wills, He persuades and enables us to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered to us in the Gospel. When God calls, He calls us out of sin, He calls us to Jesus Christ. And by the merits of Jesus Christ we are granted life and accounted righteous.

Now how is it that God calls us to Himself? According to verse 3 He calls us by glory and virtue. We have read that all things that are necessary for life and godliness are given to us through our knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue. So I want you to think with me now about how the glory of Christ and the virtue of Christ draw us to embrace Jesus Christ. First of all, consider that word glory. I fear that glory is one of those religious words that have become largely ineffective to us. We glibly speak of glory without giving much thought to what it really signifies. What is glory? Well, the word literally means, brightness or radiance, and is used to refer to things that shine, like the sun, the moon, the stars. All of these have glory. And it is a long assumption among human beings that anyone who visits us from another world will have great glory. It is an assumption that is obvious, not only in the pages of Scripture, but outside Scripture as well. When one of the gods of the Pantheon came down, he is virtually always described as coming with glory. So if you were to ask one of the ancient pagans, “What would you expect a god to look like if you were to see one?” He would almost certainly answer, “I expect him to be full of glory.” And if he spoke Greek, then he would have used the Greek word that is used here, “He will be full of doxa.” He will have glory; he will shine; he will be resplendent. The expectation that a visitor from another world will be full of glory is apparent even in modern times. When movies depict a flying saucer landing on earth, and the door opens, what always comes out of the door first? Light! Light shines out. So whether the assumption that supernatural or extraterrestrial beings will be accompanied by resplendent light is innate, or whether it is an acquired expectation, I don’t know. But it is obvious in literature, it is obvious in film, and it is obvious in art, that we expect beings who visit us from another world to be full of glory, and that glory, for us, often means a shining brightness. Of course, we are not left to idle speculation based on film and mythology: when God appears in the Old Testament, what always accompanies Him? Glory! So when God appears on Mount Sinai there’s thundering and lightening and there’s glory -- there’s a great brightness, so that the writer says, it looked like the whole mountain was on fire. So also when the tabernacle was dedicated, God came down and His glory filled the tabernacle, so that the priests were not able to minister. The same thing happened again when the temple was dedicated: God came down, and His glory -- His resplendent brightness filled the place so that the priests were unable to minister. Or think of Isaiah’s vision that we read in Isaiah chapter 6, when he says, “I saw the Lord, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple with glory.” And the Scriptures say that it is specifically the glory of Christ that calls us out of death into life. Now if you think about it, this is reasonable. We long to encounter the transcendent. Even people who don’t believe that there is a God, reveal by their lives and by their very pursuits of pleasure that they long to be drawn out of themselves to encounter something bigger than themselves, even if it’s just a mountain or the Grand Canyon. I believe that all of us show by our actions that we long to have an encounter with something that is much bigger and something that is much stronger than we are. Indeed, Someone who is much bigger and is much stronger and more glorious than we are. Or it may be that the desire for transcendence manifests itself in wanting to watch scary films. You say, “Well, that’s not very transcendent or glorious.” But this business of dead people coming back to life and haunting the living gives people a thrill because, for a moment their minds and bodies are fooled into thinking that there is something beyond this life, that there is something that is powerful, even if it’s a very evil power. All around us there are evidences that people long for something bigger, I’ll say Someone bigger, someone stronger, someone who is glorious. That longing is legitimately satisfied in God; it is legitimately satisfied in Jesus Christ.

When Jesus Christ came to earth he was full of glory. John writes, in John chapter one, “We have seen His glory, the glory of the only begotten son of the Father, full of grace and truth.” That’s the kind of glory Jesus has, it’s a glory that’s full of grace, and it’s a glory that’s full of truth. It is significant that Christ’s glory is attended by grace. Glory unaccompanied by grace may thrill us, but it will not necessarily attract us. Apart from the assurance of grace, glory is very intimidating. The Bible records several appearances by angels from heaven. These angels were obviously very glorious in their appearance, and they scared those persons who saw them. What were the first words that angels usually said to those to whom they were sent? “Fear not.” The people were frightened because they knew that anyone with as much glory as an angel would also have power to hurt them. I want to make the case that glory simply by itself would slay us, but in Jesus Christ the glory that shines out is a glory that is full of grace and truth. It is a glory that is coupled with virtue. In this very chapter, II Peter chapter one, we see that Peter also gives us a glimpse into the glory that he observed in Jesus Christ. (2 Pet 1:16) "For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty." Peter is saying, “We saw something in Jesus Christ that was supernatural.”

Of course, it may be that both John and Peter were making reference to a specific event that took place in the life of Christ. There was a time when Jesus took Peter, James and John with Him up on a high mountain and while He was there His face began to shine, brighter than the sun. Not only His face, but His clothes also shined brighter than any launderer could make white cloth. Whiter than the noonday sun glaring off of a new-fallen snow, Jesus Christ shone. I believe He gave Peter, James and John just a glimpse of what He was like before He came to earth and just a glimpse of what He would be like after He left earth. Jesus prays to the Father in John chapter 17: “I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.” From this we learn that Jesus laid aside His glory when He came to earth. This may give us some insight into what Philippians chapter 2 means when it says that He made Himself of no reputation. He emptied Himself. What did He empty Himself of? Perhaps the closest that we can get with our little finite minds is to say that He laid aside His shining, He laid aside His resplendent brightness. But just for a moment on the Mount of Transfiguration, He revealed it to Peter, James, and John, and through their record He’s revealed his glory to us too. Jesus was not of this world. Jesus is full of glory.

The apostle Paul had an experience in which he was caught into the third heaven, and he saw things that were not lawful for any man to speak. But after he had that experience, he calls Jesus, in the book of 2 Corinthians, “the Lord of Glory!” The Lord of Glory, that’s Jesus. So when I preach Jesus Christ to you, He is not some puny and weak human being; He’s a mighty and a strong God-man who possesses the glory of God. And I believe there is something about the proclamation of the glory of Jesus Christ that God has calculated to call sinners to Himself, and to lift sinners out of the miry clay.

But as I said, it’s not just glory that calls us out of death into life; it’s also virtue. Now virtue is a very interesting word. We don’t hear a lot of talk today about virtue as being moral excellence. But the Greeks talked a lot about virtue. Back in the days of Homer, a virtuous man was someone who was powerful, someone who had demonstrated his prowess in war. He was a strong leader. Then as the meaning of the word evolved, Aristotle took it up and Aristotle wrote a lot about the man of virtue – the man of moral excellence. But then as the word continued to evolve, by the time of Jesus Christ, and by the time of the writings of Peter that we are studying now, the word here translated virtue had come to be associated with a god coming down to earth and revealing himself to human beings and exercising his power on their behalf. Now isn’t that interesting, that virtue refers not simply to moral excellence, but it may refer to a morally excellent being who has come from another world and powerfully demonstrates his power on behalf of mortals. And I believe that this is the meaning of virtue that Peter has in mind when he says that we are called by glory and virtue. Because this is what Jesus Christ has done. He has come to us from another world and He has demonstrated His moral excellence through living a perfect life and by offering Himself up a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice and reconcile us to God. And He did this, not for good people, but for bad people. He did this not for His friends but for His enemies. What wondrous love is this! Perhaps for a good man someone might dare to die but God demonstrates His love for us in this that while we were yet sinners Christ died for the ungodly. He exercised His power, His military strength on behalf of those who were helplessly enthralled to His own enemy and who had even served in the forces of His enemy. But now He lays down His life so that these very enemies might be reconciled to God. This is a message that calls us out of darkness into light. This is a message that lifts us out of the miry clay, that lifts us out of the corruption that is in the world through lust, sets our feet upon a rock and establishes our going and puts a new song in our mouth, even a song of praise to our Lord and to our God. Many will hear of it and will trust in Him. So God in this first phase of salvation gives us life. He plucks us out of the world by revealing to us His glory and virtue, and through that revelation of Christ’s glory and virtue, He calls us to Himself.

But there’s a second phase of salvation. The first phase is the way God calls us to Himself. The second phase is how God conforms us to Himself. And one of the great purposes God has in mind in the whole scheme of salvation is that He would make Christ the firstborn among many brothers and that we should be formed in likeness of Jesus Christ. Now how is that going to happen? Notice verse 4 of my text: "By which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." Have you noticed that theses two verses have an awful lot of prepositions in them? Maybe it will help you to logically conceive of the progression that is in these two verses if I paint a word picture for you. Imagine a clock face and at 12:00 write the word, “Him”. Him, and then draw a line to 3:00 and write, “glory and virtue.” And then draw a line to 6:00 and at 6:00 write, “promises.” And then draw a line from 6:00 to 9:00 and at 9:00 write the word, “partakers.” Or the whole phrase would be, “partakers of the divine nature.” And then you can draw a line from 9:00 to 12:00, which points back to, “Him.” Now with that word picture in your mind, look again at verses 3 and 4. As His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him, (at 12:00), who called us by glory and virtue, (3:00). So this glory and virtue, it proceeds from Him. Now out of glory and virtue something has been given to us. Verse 4: by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, (6:00). Then there’s a result that comes from the promises: that through these, you might be partakers of the divine nature (9:00). And then the final arrow that points from 9:00 to 12:00 demonstrates to us that the nature of which we partake is indeed the nature of Him who is full of glory and virtue. That word picture helped me; I hope it will help you to get all these prepositions straight in your mind. And I hope it will help you now as we proceed to discuss, what God uses to conform us to Himself. Now I don’t think that we are going to get to 9:00 today, so we will spend the rest of our time here at 6:00 so to speak, on the promises.

When God conforms us to Himself, one of the chief tools that He uses, is the promises. God uses promises more than threatenings. A wise parent will do the same, a wise athletic coach, or anyone who is called upon to lead men and women or boys and girls will find that they will accomplish a lot more through promises, and fulfilled promises, and approval, and praise, than they will ever accomplish through criticism and threatenings. God uses threatenings, there is no doubt about it; II Peter is full of threatenings, but there are very few people who are drawn to God by His threatenings. We are made to feel uncomfortable in our sins because of threatenings, but where will we turn when we turn from sin? We will never turn to God unless we see in God someone who has made some promises. The Bible says in Hebrews 11:6, “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” If someone doesn’t believe that God is going to reward him than that person will never seek God. So God holds out to us the promises, and these promises are effective in conforming us to His image. They are effective in making us, partakers of the divine nature.

How does God use the promises to make us partakers of the divine nature? First, some of these promises have already been fulfilled, and through these promises we are granted righteousness in his sight. We believe what God says regarding some of the things that have already happened. He says, “My Son has died for sinners and whoever believes in my Son will not perish but have everlasting life.” When you believe this promise you are made a new creation in Christ Jesus, and the majority of the work of sanctification will have already taken place the moment that you believe in Jesus Christ. Someone might object, “I certainly don’t feel like the majority of sanctification took place when I was converted. God has been chipping away and beating at me for years and years since I was converted.” Ah, but in comparison to the hold that sin had on you before you were converted, you were a new creation the moment you first believed in Jesus. You were born again and in that moment the back of sin was broken, and grace gained the ascendancy in your life. Sin remained, but you may be assured that if sin was still in control, grace had not yet come. When grace comes, even though we still remain sinners plagued with pride and all sorts of wickedness, yet sin does not hold sway over us the way that it did before our Conqueror came and won us over to Himself. So these promises are powerful and effective to conform us to the image of Jesus Christ, in that, when we believe some of the promises that have already been fulfilled we are granted the image of Jesus Christ. The Spirit of God comes to live within us so that now when God makes further promises something like a magnet in us that responds to these promises, and we are drawn to the further promises that He gives.

Now I want to move on and talk about the second sort of promises, the kind that have not yet been fulfilled. I believe that Peter gives us an example right here in this text, of how the promises encourage us to cooperate with the Spirit, in the work that He is doing to make us partakers of the divine image. Look with me at verse 5: But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love… Notice that all of these virtues require effort from us. We don’t just kick back on the easy chair and say, “I am going to let God bestow all of these things on us.” We give all diligence, to be this kind of a person and to have this kind of nature formed and encouraged in us. So how do the promises encourage this? Look at verse 8: For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Now, here in these verses, there are at least three promises that are given to us, that are intended to entice and draw out of us the kind of diligence that is necessary for us to add to our faith, virtue and so on. First, if you are diligent in obeying these conditions you won’t be unfruitful in your knowledge of Jesus Christ. It will produce a changed character in you. You won’t be unfruitful. And then here’s another promise, namely, that if you are diligent in doing this you will never stumble. Don’t you just shudder at the thought of stumbling and bringing some kind of shame upon the name of Jesus Christ? Well, here’s a precious promise that encourages you in perseverance: if you are diligent in these things, you will never stumble. And then, notice still another promise that touches our deepest longings. What do you want most of all? “Oh, I want to go to heaven when I die, I don’t want to go to hell. I want to be with God forever.” Well, here’s a promise, it says that if you are diligent in these things, an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. You won’t just squeak into heaven or just barely squeeze through the door with the smell of smoke on you. You won’t come limping into harbor with the main mast broken off and the tatter of sails hanging over the edge of the ship. But an entrance will be granted to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. That entices me, that entices you. It is through these great and precious promises that we are made partakers of the divine nature. So promises, both the ones that have already been fulfilled and those that have not yet been fulfilled are effective in making us like the Lord Jesus.

For another example of how God sanctifies us through using the promises that have not yet been fulfilled turn over to II Peter 3:4. Here one of the promises is presented from the perspective of those who doubt that it will be fulfilled. These doubters say, Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation. Jesus has promised that he will come again in his glory. Peter recognizes that there are some people who doubt this promise. They say, “Oh, everything’s been going on just as it always has. Jesus will never come again.” But Peter says, “He promised that He was going to come back.” Now if you believe this promise of the Lord’s return, it will have an effect on you and it will help to conform you to the image of Jesus Christ and make you a partaker of the divine nature. It is a deterrent to sin when you ask, “Would I want Jesus Christ to find me doing this when He comes back?” It is an encouragement to righteous living when we remember that Jesus Christ is coming back and He says, Blessed is that servant who his master finds obedient when he returns. So the promise of Christ’s coming is a promise that has not yet been fulfilled, but it is a promise that has power to make us a partaker of the divine nature.

Now then, look near the end of II Peter 3:13, which reads, “Nevertheless, we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot, and blameless.” See, He’s saying that because this promise has been given, if you think about it properly, it will be a tremendous aid to you in being a partaker of the divine nature.

These promises, both the ones that are fulfilled and the ones that are not yet fulfilled, are described in my text as great and precious. Now those of you that have studied Greek, know that usually the word for great, is just mega. But here the superlative ending has been added to mega. These promises are better than great; they are the greatest. They are exceedingly great. Why, exceedingly great? First of all, an exceedingly great God makes them. Secondly, they are made to exceedingly great sinners. And thirdly, they apply for an exceedingly great time. These promises for salvation that are made by God to sinners are for eternity. You are going to live forever, somewhere.

Not only are these promises exceedingly great, they are also described as precious. They are precious because these promises come to us at a tremendous cost. That which is very costly we regard as being very precious. These precious promises were purchased at a precious price. Turn back a few pages to I Peter1:18, which reads, “Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by the tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” These promises are precious because they were purchased at a very precious price. Then these promises are precious because they have to do with what ought to be most precious to us, our everlasting souls. Jesus puts a soul on one scale of the balance and He puts the whole world on the other scale of the balance, and He says that the soul is worth more than the whole world. He asks the question, “What will it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul, or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” Oh, what would a person in hell give in exchange for his soul? While on earth, many of the souls who are now in hell frittered away the precious hours by playing with the toys of earth, ignoring the threatenings of God, ignoring the promises of God, ignoring the truth of God that each of us possesses an everlasting, precious soul that is worth more than all the world. And in the end, those damned souls found out to their everlasting dismay that the threatenings of God were not vain threatenings, and that the promises of God were, indeed, precious promises, and that their soul is more precious than all the world. So these promises are precious because they were purchased with a precious price, and they are precious because they have to do with our most precious possession, even our everlasting souls. From Jesus Christ proceed glory and virtue, and out of this glory and virtue, God has given to us, exceedingly great and precious promises. He uses these exceedingly great and precious promises to make us holy, and to make us partakers of the divine nature.

Other uses require written permission. Contact jimorrick@hotmail.com

Scripture from The Holy Bible, New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by
Thomas Nelson, Inc.