Partaking of the Divine Nature



Posted: Thursday, July 03, 2008

by John Waddey
firstcenturychristian

Many times Christians read the words of Scripture without stopping to comprehend the message they convey. For example, Peter writes. "He hath granted unto us his precious and exceeding great promises; that through these ye may become partakers of the divine nature..." (II Pet. 1:3-4). Just what does it mean to partake of God's divine nature?.

Remember the day when you were saved from your sins. You were "baptized into Christ (and) did put on Christ" (Gal. 3: 26-27). In doing that you became a child of God. Just as your child shares your nature, so does your spirit share the nature of God. In that same act of baptism you were united with Christ (Rom. 6:5). In addition to forgiveness of your sin debt, you received "the gift of the of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:38). When you surrendered your will to His and obeyed his will, the Father and the Son came to you and made their abode with you (John 15:23). As a Christian your body is a temple of God and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you (I Cor. 6:19). Christ in you is your hope of glory (Col. 1.26-27).

Since the beginning, each man and woman born on earth has been made in the image of God (Gen. 1:26). When in time we marred our lives by our sin, that image was tarnished. Our relationship with our Creator was broken. A major part of Christ's mission was to redeem us from our fallen state and reconcile us to fellowship with our Creator (II Cor.5:18). With Him as our sacrifice (I Cor. 15:3), we purified our souls through our obedience to the truth (I Pet. 1:22). In Jesus, the image of God is restored to its proper condition and kept clean by the blood of Christ (I John 1:7).

When our old nature was "crucified with Christ" (Gal. 2:20) and we were united with him, we were "transformed into the same image (of Christ) from glory to glory" (II Cor. 3:18). This is facilitated by the renewing of our minds (Rom. 12:2). In Christ we are a new creation (II Cor.5:17) the old life, with its loves and loyalties has passed away, replaced with a new life filled with an unreserved love for the Sacred Three. "Christ is formed in" us (Gal. 4:19). As followers of His Son we are privileged to wear the holy name, Christian (I Pet. 4:16). We have the seal of our God upon us, marking us as His (Eph. 1:13). His divine Spirit within us causes us to produce the good fruit of the Spirit and to suppress the works of the flesh (Gal. 5:19-22).

Now I freely confess that I cannot explain the "how" of partaking of the divine nature nor answer every question that might be raised, but I confidently believe it because the Bible plainly tells me these things. Remember, we walk by faith (II Cor. 5:7). As someone once said, "Accept by reason all that you can understand of the Bible's teaching and the balance by faith and you will not go wrong." Partaking of the divine nature is in the realm of faith. God says it, thus we believe it. Skeptics may scoff but we trust the sacred instructions recorded in the Bible. By them we will live. By them we will die. We have every reason to believe what they say.

Back in 1677, Henry Scougal wrote on this grand theme. He said, "True religion is a union of the soul with God, a real participation of the divine nature, the very image of God drawn upon the soul, or, in the apostle's phrase, it is Christ formed within us. Briefly, I know not how the nature of religion can be more fully expressed than by calling it a divine life" ( The Life of God in the Soul of Man). Amen and Amen.

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My thanks to Lacy Williams for the idea of this lesson and the quote.

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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)
» left by Patricia
from Austin,Tx 3 years 296 days ago.
I enjoyed reading over what I have come to understand after growing in His word. However I felt this lesson would not be understood by the unsaved or baby Christians. Just adding confusion to their longing to understand.
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