Thursday, November
20, 2014, 8:00 a.m. – The Lord Jesus put in mind the song, “Tell Me The Story of Jesus.” Speak,
Lord, your words to my heart. I read 2
Peter 1 (ESV).
The Divine Nature
Simeon
Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,
To
those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the
righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:
May
grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our
Lord.
His
divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness,
through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by
which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that
through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from
the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.
Peter addressed these thoughts to true believers in Jesus
Christ. Their faith was obtained by the righteousness of our God and Savior
Jesus Christ. They did not muster up this faith in their own strength or even
of their own initiative. God the Father had to draw them to Christ. Thus, we
are saved by God’s grace through faith, and yet this is not of ourselves; not
of human works lest any of us should boast (See: Eph. 2:8-10). Our salvation is
a gift from God. Even the faith to belief is a gift of his grace. Yet, this
does not mean we do nothing, i.e. that we have no participation in this
salvation at all. We do!
Yet, we do nothing to earn or to deserve our salvation. We
don’t earn points with God by following a list of do’s and don’ts. We don’t
become “good deed doers,” either, hoping we will gain acceptance and approval
from God. Our salvation is a God-thing from beginning to end. Only in the
working of the Spirit of God in our lives can we even be saved from our sins.
Yet, we must surrender our wills to the will of the Father. We must submit our
lives to Jesus Christ in yielding control of our lives over to him. And, we
must willingly die with Christ to our old lives of living for sin and self. We
must be transformed in heart and mind of the Spirit of God, and we must walk
daily in Christ’s holiness and righteousness. Yet, all this is the working of
the Spirit of God in our lives as we cooperate fully with that work.
Notice the wording in these first few verses here. His
divine power has granted to us… who called us to his glory and excellence… he
has granted to us his precious promises… through them you may become partakers
of the divine nature and escape… You see, it all originates with him, the
source for all of this is God, and the power, strength and wisdom to live up to
the calling we have received also comes from God. This is not works-based
salvation. This is us cooperating with God in his work of grace in our lives. This
is what it means to have faith. This is us yielding control of our lives over
to him, and it is us saying “Yes” to Jesus in doing the very things he has
asked us, called us, and has taught us to do, but all of this is done in Him
and is of Him. We just yield control and let him do his work in and through us,
but he won’t if we are resisting his Spirit and if we are going the opposite
direction.
Ok, so many people are teaching that God requires nothing of
us and that Jesus does it all. That is not true! If we read the New Testament,
chapter by chapter and verse by verse we come to realize that the New Testament
tells us over and over again that we should stop doing this and that we should
start doing that; that we should put off this, and that we should put on that –
not adding human works to our salvation, but cooperating with God’s work of
grace in our lives. This is the way in which we “participate” and “partake” in
the divine nature, instead of us participating and partaking still of our old sinful
nature and of the ways of this sinful world. Jesus called us out of darkness
into his wonderful light. He set us free from bondage to sin. And, he will give
us all we need to live godly, holy, upright and self-controlled lives, no
longer controlled by sinful passions and desires, while we wait for his return.
Confirm Your Calling
For
this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and
virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with
steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly
affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours
and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge
of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted
that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.
Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and
election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this
way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Again, what this is teaching here is not works-based
salvation. We are not adding fleshly and human works (externals) to the Spirit’s
work of grace in our lives in saving us from our sins. This is also not
something that the Spirit just does without our cooperation. This is not hands-off!
We have to make the effort – not human effort, but we must cooperate with the
Spirit of God in yielding to Him in allowing him to do his work in our lives. This
is what Paul wrote about to the Philippians (2:12-13). We must obey God by
continuing to “work out” our own salvation “with fear and trembling.” This is
problematic for some, but it doesn’t have to be, for the next verse explains
how it works: “for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to
fulfill his good purpose.” You see, this is the work of God, but we must
participate with God in that work via submission (honoring God for who he is).
What this is talking about, I believe, is our spiritual
growth and maturity. As we grow in faith with the Lord in yielding to his
Lordship over our lives, his divine character traits will be realized more and
more in our lives. I know this is certainly true of my life, and of other
believers with whom I have spoken over the years. The more we know Christ, and
the more time we spend time at his feet, and the more we walk with him in
obedience to his commands, the more we will desire him over and above the
things of this world and of this flesh. We will also become so much more
sensitized to evil and to worldliness and to the heart of God in understanding
what he truly accomplished for us on that cross. We won’t want to indulge in
the sinful nature, but we will want to daily yield to the Spirit of God in our
lives in letting him live his divine character out through us for his glory.
If we lack these godly character traits, or they are at a
bare minimum in our lives, because we are filling our hearts and minds with the
garbage, philosophies, values and virtues of this sinful world, which is thus
reflected in our life choices and behaviors, we will be ineffective and
unfruitful in our relationships with Jesus Christ and in allowing him to shine
his light out through us. We are both nearsighted and blind, because we have
forgotten that Jesus Christ cleansed us from all of that. Why, oh why do we
spend so much of our lives partaking in the pleasures of this sinful world and
in following after human and/or fleshly desires and passions with little regard
for God at all and without thought for why he died for us, and for what our
lives are really supposed to look like if we are truly in Christ by his saving
grace?
A Reminder
Therefore
I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are
established in the truth that you have. I think it right, as long as I am in
this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, since I know that the putting off
of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. And I will
make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to
recall these things.
For
we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power
and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was
borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am
well pleased,” we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we
were with him on the holy mountain. And we have the prophetic word more fully
confirmed, to which you will do well
to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and
the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no
prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy
was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were
carried along by the Holy Spirit.
Because we are sometimes just plain stupid, we need to be
reminded of these things over and over again. As humans, we can be so dimwitted,
at times. God did all that he did for us so that we might be delivered out of
slavery to sin, and so we might walk in his holiness, and yet we keep going
back to what once held us in bondage and we reject what is good and right and
holy. It makes no sense, does it? So, we need these reminders to stir us to
wholesome thinking and to knock some sense into these brains of ours. We were
bought with a price. We are no longer our own masters to do with our lives what
we want and desire, but our desire should be for our Lord and for what he wills
for our lives.
We will all do well to pay attention to what is taught here
in scripture with regard to our salvation and with regard to holy living, as
well as in relation to what God expects of us as his true followers. He died so
we would die with him to sin, and so we would walk in his holiness. He died so
we would no longer live for ourselves but for him who gave himself up for us.
His grace teaches us to say “NO” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to
live self-controlled, godly and upright lives while we wait for his return. If
we say that walk in fellowship with him, and yet we walk in darkness (continue
in willful sin), we lie. We cannot participate in the table of the Lord and the
table of demons, too. So, let us take scripture and God seriously and apply the
Word of Truth to our lives while we still have today.
Tell Me the
Story of Jesus /
Fanny J. Crosby / John R. Sweney
Tell me the
story of Jesus,
Write on my
heart every word;
Tell me the
story most precious,
Sweetest that
ever was heard.
Tell how the
angels in chorus,
Sang as they
welcomed His birth,
“Glory to God
in the highest!
Peace and good
tidings to earth.”
Fasting alone
in the desert,
Tell of the
days that are past,
How for our
sins He was tempted,
Yet was
triumphant at last.
Tell of the
years of His labor,
Tell of the
sorrow He bore;
He was despised
and afflicted,
Homeless,
rejected and poor.
Tell of the
cross where they nailed Him,
Writhing in
anguish and pain;
Tell of the
grave where they laid Him,
Tell how He
liveth again.
Love in that
story so tender,
Clearer than
ever I see;
Stay, let me
weep while you whisper,
“Love paid the
ransom for me.”
Tell me the
story of Jesus,
Write on my
heart every word;
Tell me the
story most precious,
Sweetest that
ever was heard.
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