The Enabled Life
His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires 2 Peter 1:3,4
Too many people think the Christian life is all about what God wants from us, but the overriding emphasis of the Bible is what God wants for us.
Peter will talk much in this letter about the effort we need to be making but that’s not where we start. It all begins with what God has given us – His ‘starter-kit.’
Peter wants his readers to see clearly that Christ’s call to them is the ground for His appeal that they live a godly life. Jesus has taken the initiative to call us to Himself and the One who calls, enables.
He doesn’t always give us all we want but He does give us all we need for ‘life and godliness’; and everything we need is in Christ. The more we really know Him the more we can know the power to live a holy life.
As we grow in our ‘knowing Christ,’ what parts of His character and being will be at the forefront? Peter answers: ‘his own glory and goodness’ (which can be equally translated ‘glorious goodness’). Peter seems to be thinking of the total impact Jesus’ life had and continues to have on humanity. When John wrote ‘We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father’ (John 1:14) it was more than the transfiguration that revealed Jesus’ impact. It was His life, teaching, miracles, character, death and resurrection.
So what does God want for us? Nothing less than that we should share His own very nature (‘so that … you may participate in the divine nature’). ‘Through these,’ through His glory and goodness, we are called to come and ‘participate in the divine nature.’ We are promised a share in His moral excellence in this lifetime, and of His glory after this lifetime.
So we have available to us the promises, power and person of the Lord Jesus Christ to regenerate us and make us a sharer in God’s own nature. The family likeness has already begun to be seen in us.
But there’s something for us to do. We are to flee from the world, not from the physical world into a hermit-like asceticism, but from a world system alienated from God by rebellion. We can’t sit on the fence. We can’t ‘participate in the divine nature’ while ‘participating’ in the world system. We can’t enjoy both at the same time. We only ‘participate in the divine nature’ if we ‘escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.’ The word ‘escape’ means ‘to flee/run away from.’ There’s no room for half measures. Peter tells his readers to resist the devil (1 Peter 5:9) but emphatically, to run away from the powerful drug of lust. Like all drugs it demands more and more but gives less and less.
The ‘corruption in the world’ is the reason for its future destruction. This ‘corruption’ makes God angry (2:18,20). Peter’s call is for Christians to live out their new relationship with Christ in practical obedience. We don’t pretend to be perfect but we believe we will know perfection when Christ returns.
In this lifetime we flee from the world’s system and take hold of Christ, His power and His promises. This is how we experience Christ’s transforming power in us.
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