Back to North Pointe Baptist Church
Partakers
of the Divine Nature
A
Sermon by Pastor Jim Scott Orrick
2
Peter 1:4
When George Whitefield was a student at Oxford in the early 1700s, he was in a group with the Wesley brothers and some others, and these young men became notorious for their adherence to very strict religious rules. And so they were derisively called Methodists, because they were so methodical in their religion. Sometimes they were called, “the Holy Club”. Now the fact of the matter is, none of the men in the Holy Club were even saved. They were very strict in the observance of the methods of religion, but none of them were born again. It was only months or years later that some of them were converted to Jesus Christ and they became partakers of the divine nature. A person can go very far in the methods of religion and still be a stranger to true grace, and never have been made a partaker in the divine nature.
Here was George Whitefield's experience:
The spiritual dissatisfaction experienced in the Holy Club, though later to be expressed by almost all it is members, was first evident in Whitefield. The immediate human cause was a book, The Life of God in the Soul of Man, written in the previous century by a young Scotsman, Henry Scougal.
This little work, so directly contradicted all that he and his fellows believed about salvation that it alarmed him. He says that by it:
God showed me that I must be born again, or damned! I learned that a man might go to church, say his prayers, receive the sacrament, and yet not be a Christian. How did my heart writhe and shudder like a poor man that is afraid to look into his account book lest he should find himself a bankrupt.
‘Shall I burn this book? Shall I throw it down? Or shall I search it?’ I did search it; and, holding the book in my hand, thus addressed the God of heaven and earth. ‘Lord, if I am not a Christian, or if I am not a real one, for Jesus Christ's sake, show me what Christianity is that I may not be damned at last!’
God soon showed him. For in reading a few lines further, that ‘true religion is a union of the soul with God, and Christ formed within us,’ a ray of Divine light was instantaneously darted in upon my soul, and from that moment and not until then, did I know that I must become a new creature. (George Whitfield, vol.1 pp. 72-73, Arnold Dallimore)
So Henry Scougal's little book, The Life of God in the Soul of Man, was blessed of the Almighty God to bring about the conversion of George Whitefield, the greatest man of the 18th Century. There was all the difference in heaven and on earth between Whitefield when he was merely observing the outward methods of religion, and Whitefield after he became a partaker of the divine nature.
You may teach a parrot to bark and eat dog food and to hate cats, but he still is not a dog. And so some of us have been through stages in life where we perhaps talked like a Christian, had moments when we were affected and deeply moved emotionally with the prospect of going to heaven, perhaps even wept tears to think that Jesus Christ, such a pure and holy young man, should be so ill-treated as he was when he was crucified on the cross, and had even felt emotion when we thought that he did it for us. We may talk like a Christian and sometimes even feel like a Christian, we may do the things that Christian people do: go to church, perhaps even participate in the ordinances; being baptized, observing the Lord's Supper, and still not be a real Christian. A real Christian is someone who is a partaker of the divine nature.
If you want to grow an oak tree, an acorn is what you need to plant. A glass marble, no matter how beautiful it may be, will never grow into an oak tree because a glass marble has no life in it. An acorn on the other hand has life in it. Now some of us feel like the responsibility of religion is a weight that we must continually carry, and push, and it is a burden to us. If that is so with you, and it has been so for years, might it be that you have never partaken of the divine nature? Might it be that like a glass marble, you are beautiful on the outside, but do not have life in you? Becoming a partaker of the divine nature makes all the difference. Sometimes when we talk to people about becoming a Christian, they will frankly admit, “I could not live the life.” We should always agree with them when they say that. There is no possibility of any us living the true life of a true Christian, unless the words of my text are true for us and we have become partakers of the divine nature.
I am going to group my comments this morning around two main heads. The first one is very brief: What partaking of the divine nature is not, or this doctrine defended against false views. But then, I hope I will have a great deal more to say about the second head: What partaking of the divine nature is, or the doctrine described in scripture.
So first of all let’s think of three things that partaking of the divine nature is not, or defend this doctrine against false views. First, when the scriptures say that we become partakers of the divine nature it does not mean that we ourselves are going to become little gods. Now the very mention of the concept is ridiculous to some of you. But others of you who perhaps have been familiar with Mormonism or some other non-Christian religion know that the teaching of some non-Christian cults is that we are sooner or later to become little gods ourselves. I am not an expert in Mormonism, perhaps some of you can correct me, but as I understand, Mormonism teaches that we ourselves are to become partakers of the divine essence, partakers of the divine being, that we ourselves are to become divine. However, the scripture does not say that we are going to become partakers of the divine essence; rather it says that we become partakers of the divine nature. So, first of all, this does not mean that we ourselves will become divine.
Second, neither does this mean that we will discover our own divinity within ourselves and then express our divinity. Now this would be the teaching of a couple of groups. First, during the time when Peter would have written this, a philosophy known as Stoicism was very popular. And one of the teachings of the Stoics was that this world itself was evil, that matter was evil, and that emotions were evil since they are part of this world. According to the Stoics, in order for a person to become divine he should deny his emotions and deny himself of the world. And by doing this the Stoic said a man can become a partaker of the divine nature. They actually used this very phrase as it appears here in my text, and it may be that Peter is utilizing their own phrase and explaining what it really means to be a partaker of the divine nature.
I said that there were two groups that espoused the view I am now discrediting. Today we do not hear very much about the first group, the Stoics; but we do hear and read a lot about the second group: New Age religions. This sort of talk about becoming divine is very common in New Age religions; and in fact, they would feel very at home in saying that we become partakers of the divine nature. But they would mean something different than what you, or I, or Peter would mean when we say that we become partakers of the divine nature.
Let me read you an example of the sort of ways that this teaching expresses itself. This little story is from the book, Chicken Soup for the Soul, entitled,” The Golden Buddha”. The story tells how one of the editors of the book, Jack Canfield, was in Thailand, and he was going around viewing the various Buddhist temples. And they all seemed to mix up into his mind but then he went into one that was a very small temple, but in it there was a solid gold Buddha that weighed over 2 ½ tons. So while everyone was taking pictures and looking at the golden Buddha, Canfield went over and read a history of the golden Buddha. He learned that several years ago a highway was being built in Bangkok, and the highway was going to go over the temple that previously had housed the golden Buddha, although at that time they did not know the idol was golden. The great idol was covered with clay, and it was assumed that it was simply a clay Buddha. But in the process of moving this huge statue, a bit of clay chipped away and one of the monks saw that there was gold underneath. So he began chipping away the clay and found that the whole Buddha was solid gold. The theory was that an invading army was coming into Thailand hundreds of years ago, and in order to protect this golden Buddha the monks covered him completely over with clay. That is a very interesting story, but here is the New Age drivel that Canfield preaches from it: “As we flew home I began to think to myself, we are all like the clay Buddha, covered with a shell of hardness created out of fear, and yet underneath each of us is a golden Buddha, a golden Christ, or a golden essence which is our real self. Somewhere along the way between the ages of 2 and 9 we begin to cover up our golden essence, our natural self. Much like the monk with the hammer and chisel our task is now to discover our true essence once again” (71). And that sort of nonsense is common throughout the New Age movement: devotees assert that you are actually divine yourself, and that if you just chip away all of the crust that has accumulated on you, then the divine nature will shine through. Of course, Canfield’s teaching is drastically opposed to the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ who once said to a group of men, who were very religious, “You are like a white washed tomb. On the outside you are beautiful, but on the inside you’re full of dead men’s bones.” Canfield said that we are encased in a crust of clay; Jesus says that we are coated with a veneer of whitewash. Canfield said that the beautiful part is on the inside; Jesus says that when you get inside, past the beautiful white wash, you find a grave full of dead men’s bones. So partaking of the divine nature does not mean that we become divine ourselves, nor does it mean that we discover and assert the golden Christ within us, because there is no golden Christ within us.
And then third, let me mention an orthodox doctrine that I do not believe is being referred to in our being partakers of the divine nature. It is correctly taught that when we become believers, the Holy Spirit comes and lives in us. But I do not believe that is what Peter is talking about here when he says we become partakers of the divine nature. Instead, there is actually something that happens to our humanity, (for we remain completely human), but instead of being a human being who is devastated by sin and ruined by sin we now begin undergoing the process of becoming like God in our humanity. You will remember from the creation account that human beings were made in the image of God. And I believe that this verse of scripture, and indeed the whole Bible, teaches that through Jesus Christ that image of God that was largely, (not entirely), destroyed by the fall, is recreated after the likeness of Jesus Christ.
And so now we move on to the second main head, the doctrine defined, or what being a partaker of the divine nature is. I want to be very clear with you from the outset and not hold you in suspense regarding what I am eventually going to develop from this text. Let me go ahead and tell you that I believe that being a partaker of the divine nature is a way of talking about sanctification. What is sanctification? The mere word sanctification may not be of help to some of you, so let me tell you what it is, using the Baptist Catechism as my guide. Sanctification is the work of God’s free grace. It is an ongoing process that God commences with our conversion, but then it goes on until we are completely made perfect in glory. We will never be made completely perfect in this life. Some of the benefits that we receive from Christ’s atonement for us, such as justification, and adoption, are instantaneous. Justification is an act of God’s free grace; it is once and for all, never to be repeated. If you are a believer you will never be more justified than you were the first moment that you looked to Jesus Christ in faith. Similarly, adoption is an act of God’s free grace. He adopts us into his family and you will never be anymore nor any less a child of God than you were the moment you looked to Jesus Christ in faith and received Him. However, it is different in sanctification. Sanctification commences at conversion. There is a drastic change that takes place immediately in a converted person. Everyone who looks to Jesus Christ and receives him is delivered from the dominion of sin; sin no longer has the upper hand, instead grace has the upper hand. But that work of sanctification that commences at conversion continues throughout all the life of a Christian. And so sanctification is not an act, but a work of God’s free grace whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of Christ. Renewed in the whole man means every aspect of your being is being formed after that same aspect of Christ’s being. Let me illustrate. You are a person who has intelligence; you have a mind and you are capable of thinking. But because of sin, your mind has become corrupt; your very thinking processes have been affected by sin. There are certain truths that you are unwilling to accept, and certain behaviors that you do not believe to be best. You do not think, for example, that embracing Christ will bring you more joy and pleasure than the pleasures of sin. But this thinking is false; you may not realize that it is false because your mind is darkened because of sin. Well, in the process of sanctification your mind becomes like the mind of Jesus Christ. Not that suddenly your I.Q. jumps up to whatever Jesus’ I.Q. might have been. But rather your thinking processes are cleansed, your thinking processes are enlightened so that you are able to recognize truth, and you are able to believe truth. This is an ongoing work that continues from the moment of your conversion, and as the work progresses you become increasingly a partaker of the divine nature and your mind becomes like the mind of Jesus Christ. “So let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,” Philippians Chapter 2 says.
Again, when I talk about aspects of humanity being made like Jesus Christ, I am not only talking about your thinking processes, but also the part of you that loves, or hates. I am not just talking about emotions, but I am talking about affections, that part of you that makes one activity desirable and another activity undesirable. Well, prior to our coming to Jesus Christ, we want to sin. Our mind tells us that sin is most pleasurable, so this is what I want to do. But then when we are converted, God does a work in us whereby He renews our will, and he changes us from a person who loves sin, into a person who loves God. God transforms our mind, our will, our affections; he transforms every aspect of human nature in the process of sanctification. We are renewed in the whole man after the image of God and are enabled more and more to die unto sin and live unto righteousness. I believe that is what becoming a partaker in the divine nature means.
Let’s take a closer look at what the Bible has to say about this process of being a partaker in the divine nature. Most of my observations will be drawn from the context surrounding verse four, but I am going to ask you also to turn to several other verses of scripture that state clearly and plainly of what it means to become a partaker of the divine nature. First of all, let us observe that the Lord Jesus Christ models the divine nature for us. If we want to cooperate with the work that God is doing in us, and if we want to apply ourselves diligently to being a partaker of the divine nature, the best way of doing this is by looking at Jesus Christ and saying,” I want to be like you. Make me like you Lord, please, make me like you. Stamp thine own image deep on my heart.” We look at Jesus Christ and we consciously imitate Him. Now turn to your Bibles to the book of II Corinthians 3. We will come back to my text in just a moment. As I said most of what I have to say will be taken from this very text that I have read, but there are several other verses of scripture that will help us to know more clearly what is being taught in 2 Peter 1. And the first one is 2 Corinthians 3:18, which reads, “But we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image; from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” Do you see the process? We are looking at Jesus Christ, and as we gaze upon him, and as our hearts are drawn out in love for him, then we become more like Him. You may mark it down as an inviolable rule: you will become like what you love. You will become like whatever is your god. And if Jesus Christ has captured your affections, then you will become more and more like Him and you will be transformed from glory into glory, so that Christ is formed in you. Paul uses similar language in Galatians 4:19, “I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.” What is he talking about? He is saying, “I want to see you become like Jesus Christ, I want to see you become a partaker of the divine nature.” Again, Paul writes in Colossians1: 27, “Christ in you the hope of glory.” Christ in you is this participation, this partaking of the divine nature in which a believer becomes like Jesus Christ. Paul says that is the hope of glory. Jesus himself teaches us the same thing when he says,” Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yolk upon you and learn of me.” Take my yolk upon you and learn of me. “Look at me, act like me,” Jesus says. I have already quoted from Phil. 2 when Paul says to the Philippians, “You attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.” Another translation says, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” And then he gives us a description of what the mind or the attitude of Jesus Christ was: he humbled himself and became a servant. And when I get around to concluding this sermon, I will summarize four or five of the outstanding characteristics that will be evidenced in anyone who is a partaker of the divine nature and one of those characteristics will be humility. If you are a partaker of the divine nature, you will become like Jesus Christ, “who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross (Philippians 2:6-8). Do you see how low Jesus got? He went all the way down to submitting to the death of the cross! And therefore God has highly exalted Him and given Him the name that is above every name. But he went very low before he was exalted and that is the kind of attitude you and I should have. Paul says, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” You look at Him like in a mirror, and you say, “That is what I want to look like;” and you become a partaker of the divine nature. Turn your bibles to Hebrews 2:18. I will take you on a whirlwind tour of several passages of scripture that shows us how this works in actual practice. “For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted. Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling…” (Do you see the word partakers? It is the same word that we have back in 2 Peter) “Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus Christ, who was faithful to Him who appointed Him.” The writer puts Jesus before us as an example that we are to imitate. This command grew out of a real life need that the Hebrews had: they were suffering, and they were being tempted. The writer of Hebrews says, well look here at Jesus Christ, “He was tempted in all points, like as we are, yet without sin. Take Him as your example. Consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession.” And then in chapter 3, look at verse 14, we find again the word partakers. “For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said: ‘Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.’” We are partakers of Christ if we act like Jesus Christ. Now turn over to Hebrews 12 and look at the first three verses. “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the thrown of God. For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.” Here is the situation for the Hebrews, they were undergoing persecution, they were in danger of becoming weary, they were in danger of just sitting down on the sidelines and saying, “I can’t carry on with this.” But the writer says, “You mustn’t stop now. Look at Jesus! Look at what he endured! Consider him who endured such hostility for sinners against himself.” And as we look at Jesus and consider what he endured, our hearts gain courage and we are conformed to His likeness.
We humans are very susceptible to being influenced by the example that is set by persons we admire. Often the power of their example operates on us unconsciously, but it is undeniably very powerful. Sometimes young people are influenced in their choice of clothing by having observed the same style in a movie star or a recording artist whom they admire. They want to be as much like them as they possibly can. The same power of example can be utilized to cultivate good character in us and in our children through the reading of biographies. One of the most powerful tools in many of our lives has been the reading of great Christian biographies. We look at these great men and women of God and our hearts are inspired; we want to become more like them. That same principle affects us when we look at Jesus Christ.
We can observe a pattern that goes something like this: “You are experiencing some kind of trouble? If you will look at Jesus and consider how he behaved when he was experiencing trouble, you will not only gain courage, you will actually become more like Jesus in every way.” There are numerous instances of this pattern being repeated in the book of 1st Peter. In fact, in each of the first four chapters of 1st Peter this same pattern is repeated. I am not going to have us look through all of them; you can read through the first book of Peter later, but you will see this pattern repeated. You are suffering. Look to Jesus; he endured suffering. That should encourage you to behave properly under suffering, even the way that Jesus did.
But some of you may be thinking, “Well, right now I am not suffering very much, so how is it that Jesus Christ can be an example to me? For instance, I want to become evident in my marriage that I am a partaker of the divine nature, and Jesus was never married. So how can Jesus be an example to me as a husband if he never was a husband?” Think of what we read in Eph. 5, “ Husbands love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her.” And so even though Jesus was never a husband, like you are, or a wife, like you are, and Jesus never sat in front of a computer screen, as you do, yet there are great principles from the life of Jesus Christ that will govern us and will instruct us and lead us to become partakers of the divine nature. In looking to Jesus Christ, you can find the guiding principle that you need for every area of life. So the first thing that we see is that, the Lord Jesus Christ has modeled the divine nature for us.
Now from the text, we can see that the divine nature
is mediated to us through the great and precious promises. It is mediated to us through the word of
God. I want you to turn back in your
Bibles to the book of 1 Peter 1. And
look at verse 22 with me. 1 Peter 1:22,
“Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit and
sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart,
having been born again...” - And that is really what we are talking about here,
the new birth, where by we are re-created in the image of Jesus Christ –
“having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through
the word of God, which lives and abides forever….” How were we born again? God the Holy Spirit initiated it in us,
giving us the new birth through the word of God. And that word of God is described here as a
seed: an incorruptible seed, a seed that never dies, a seed that will never
rot. It is the seed of the word of God
through which God mediates to us the information that we need to become a
partaker of Jesus Christ. The Jesus that we imitate is not the Jesus of modern
creation; the Jesus that we imitate is the Jesus who is taught in the
scriptures: the Jesus who is preached in the gospels, the Jesus who is preached
by Paul and by Peter, the full-blown politically-incorrect Jesus that got
himself crucified, and who, if he came to this earth again would be in deep
trouble with the vast majority of people.
That is the Jesus who exemplifies for us the divine nature, and whose
nature is mediated to us in the scripture.
So, it is no accident that the Bible asserts so unequivocally that we
become partakers of the divine nature through the great and precious promises,
that is, through the word of God. We
become like Jesus Christ by beholding Him in a mirror. What is that mirror? The word of God. It is an everlasting seed, through which God gives us the new
birth and we are born of God, born from above and made partakers of the divine
nature. So, Jesus Christ models the
divine nature to us, and it is mediated to us through the scriptures.
Moving on, from my text you can see that this
participation in the divine nature is accompanied by purity. The end of verse 4 says, “that you may
become partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that
is in the world through lust.” If you
become a partaker of the divine nature, there will commence a deadly enmity in
your soul against the corruption that is in the world through lust. Peter’s words are chosen very
carefully. It is not that the world
itself is corrupt, but that there are corruptions in the world through
lust. And if you become a partaker of
the divine nature then one of the outstanding characteristics that will be true
of your soul is that you will want to be pure from sin.
Let us go on and see still further, in verse 5, that
participation in the divine nature is something that can be improved through
diligence: “But also for this very reason giving diligence add to your
faith, virtue,” and so on. Partaking of
the divine nature is something that we diligently pursue. We don’t just sit back and cross our legs
and say, “God, if you are going to make me holy, have at it.” Instead, we follow the example of the
apostle Paul, who utilizing a string of athletic metaphors says, “Forgetting
what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal
to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus”
(Philippians 3:13,14). Other times he talks about himself as being a boxer who
does not fight in vain. When, as an old
man, Paul is getting ready to die, he says, “I have fought a good fight, I have
kept the faith, and I have finished the course. Henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness,”
but it was not just plopped on me. I
diligently followed the Lord, I obeyed the words of the Lord who said, “Strive,
Make every effort to enter in the narrow gate.” That is just what Peter is
saying here: “Give all diligence,” be serious about this, be earnest about
this, strain toward the mark to win the prize for which God has called you
heavenward in Christ Jesus. Paul says,
“ I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection…becoming like him in
his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead”
(Philippians 3:10,11). Is Paul saying, “If I only live a holy enough life, then
I will get raised from the dead after I die?”
That is not what he is saying; instead, he is using resurrection from
the dead, as a metaphor for a holy life.
Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is set before as a way we are to live
in relation to this world, in relation to the corruption that is in the world
through lust. As Christ was raised up
from the dead, even so we are to walk in newness of life. That is what our baptism symbolizes as
well. Putting old things behind, we are
washing off the corruption that is in the world through lust, by the blood of
Jesus Christ. And now we are being
raised up to walk in newness of life. That is what our baptism pictures. But it is something that we are to pursue
diligently, and our partaking of the divine nature is improved with diligence.
Looking further in verse 5, we see that the partaking of
the divine nature is commenced with faith. “But also for this very
reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue….” Now do you see that
Peter assumes that faith is already present?
In verses 1 and 2 he addresses his audience as believers, as those
who have obtained like precious faith.
So, he assumes that faith is already present in his readers, and that it
is by faith that we get on track to become partakers of the divine nature. So if you have not yet believed in Jesus
Christ, there is no way you can become a partaker of the divine nature until
you do believe in him. Participation of
the divine nature is commenced by faith.
You may say, “Alright, just what am I supposed to believe?” Well, believe everything that the Bible says
about God, but since you are a sinner in need of salvation, you should believe
what the Bible says about Jesus Christ being a Savior for sinners. And put your faith in Him and receive
Him. For as many as received Him, to
them he gives the power to become children of God, children born not of natural
descent nor of human decision, nor husband’s will, but born of God. And that is just exactly what we are talking
about here: becoming a partaker of the
divine nature, being born again, by Almighty God. So this participation of the divine nature is commenced in faith.
And then notice in the verses 5, 6, and 7, that
participation in the divine nature is attended by holiness. Holiness is here presented as a series of
positive virtues. True holiness is not
merely escaping the corruption that is in the world through lust, as it says in
verse 4. But it is also the positive
holiness that is delineated in verses 5, 6, and 7: “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.” I’m not going to get
into explaining what all of these virtues are, but you can see that partaking
of the divine nature does not merely consist in stopping doing what is bad, but
it also entails practicing what is good.
So, participation in the divine nature is attended by positive holiness.
The final thing I want to say about this partaking of the
divine nature before a final summary is that partaking of the divine nature is rewarded. Beginning in verse 8 Peter says, “For if
these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in
the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
It all starts with knowing Jesus Christ, but it does not end there, you
bear fruit. Jesus Christ said to his
disciples, and he says to us, “This is to my Fathers glory, that you bear much
fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples….
You did not choose me, but I chose you to go and bear fruit” (John
15:8.16). And when we look at Jesus
Christ, it is not some idle exercise that ends in ecstatic adoration, but our
gazing at him results in our producing fruit: the fruits of the Spirit, and the
kind of fruits that are mentioned in verses 5, 6, and 7. When we partake of the divine nature, we
bear fruit, and our fruit bearing is rewarded.
Notice the precious reward mentioned in verse 11: “For so an entrance
will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ.” Some people get
into heaven with just the ‘smell of smoke’ on them, so to speak. They are saved so as by fire; if what these
verses say is true of you, you will not just barely squeak in to heaven, but an
entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
In review, Jesus Christ models the divine nature of which
we become partakers, so that truly it can be said that it is Christ in you, who
is the hope of glory. We are
transformed into His likeness as we behold his glory. We are transferred from glory into glory as we behold Him. Our participation in the divine nature is mediated
through the word of God, and the picture of Jesus Christ that we behold is
given through the word of God. It is attended
with purity, escaping the corruption that is in the world through
lust. It is improved through
diligence, it is commenced by faith, it is attended by positive
holiness, and it is rewarded.
To sum up let me mention four or five qualities that are
true of Jesus Christ, and that will be true of you and me if we are partakers
of the divine nature. At the very
foundation we will have faith in God.
God is a God of truth. God
believes Truth. And if we become like
God, we too will believe God and believe God’s truth. Next, (and I mentioned this earlier in the sermon) partakers of
the divine nature will demonstrate humility. When Jesus Christ became a man he was a very humble man. And if we are going to partake of the divine
nature, we too will be humble. We will
not insist on our rights before God because Jesus Christ never did that. We will submit to God’s will, and we will
earnestly desire to do God’s Will because that is what Jesus Christ did. We won’t have any notions that somehow
everybody ought to be respecting us and showing us honor, because when Jesus
Christ came, he said that he did not come to be praised by men. Further, if we become like Jesus Christ,
then we will love God. There
will be an affectionate outgoing of our hearts to God, especially as we see him
in revealed in the face of Jesus Christ.
Since God loves what is best, even himself, if we become partakers of
the divine nature then we too will love what is best. We will love God. Again,
there will be love for people, because God loves people. We will also love purity. We will have a desire to be free from sin
and have positive holiness in our lives.
So partakers of the divine nature will evidence these five
characteristics. Now examine your
heart. Do you believe the truth about
Jesus Christ? Do you long for
purity? Do you love God? Do you love people? If you do, then you should have great hope
that God has begun a work in you that will extend throughout all eternity and
will result in your being glorified. If
God has done this work in you, then come out boldly for Jesus Christ. Say to your family, say to us pastors, “I
have been born again; God has saved me.
I at least have hopes that the Lord has saved me.”
“What evidences do you see?” We will ask you.
“Well, here is what has happened...” And we will try and
help you work through doubts and anxieties that you may have. But if the Lord has begun to do this work in
your heart, rejoice in it. I want you
to know that you could not want Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior, unless
God had worked in you. Apart from God’s
grace, people just do not want Jesus to be their Lord; they want sin. If you want Jesus Christ, then be
encouraged, God has begun a work in you.
If you look at God and love Him, be encouraged, because sinners by
nature do not love the God of the Bible.
If you love God’s people, if you enjoy being with God’s people, if you
want to see others saved and come to know God, be encouraged. That is not common by nature. If you want to be free from sin, if you want
to follow in the ways of holiness, then be encouraged, that is not natural for
a sinner. And if this is true of you,
take courage and come out strongly for Jesus Christ. Publicly profess Him before this world, by following Him in
baptism.
Copyright
2000 Jim Scott Orrick
Permission granted for not-for-sale reproduction in exact form including
copyright.
Other uses
require written permission. Contact jimorrick@hotmail.com
Scripture from The Holy
Bible, New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by
Thomas Nelson, Inc.