Morning By Morning #260

You may participate in the divine nature.

2 Peter 1:4

From the pen of Charles Spurgeon:

Of course, to “participate in the divine nature” is not to become God. That cannot happen, for the essence of Deity is not to be participated in by the creature. Between the creature and the Creator there will always be “a great chasm” (Luke 16:26) in respect to the essence of god-hood. Yet just as the first man, Adam, was created “in the image of God” (Gen. 1:27), we too by the renewal of the Holy Spirit, in an even more divine sense, are made in the image of the Most High God and “participate in the divine nature.”

We have been made in God’s image by grace. Since “God is love” (1 John 4:8) we have become love—”Everyone who loves has been born of God” (1 John 4:7). God is truth; thus, we have become true and we love that which is true. God is good and He makes us good by His grace so that we become “the pure in heart” who “will see God” (Matt. 5:8).

In addition, we “participate in the divine nature” in even a higher sense than this—in fact, in as lofty a sense as can be conceived short of our becoming absolutely divine. Don’t we become members of the body of the divine person of Christ? Yes, and the same blood that flows in the head flows in the hand, and the same life that makes Christ alive gives life to His people, “for you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3). And if this were not enough, we are married to Christ. He has betrothed, or pledged, us to Himself in righteousness and faithfulness, and we who are joined to the Lord are one in spirit with Him.

What a miraculous mystery! One with Jesus! We study it, but who can fully understand it? We are so perfectly one with Him that as the branch is one with the vine, we are just as much a part of our Lord, Savior, and Redeemer! While we rejoice in this, may we remember that those who “participate in the divine nature” will reveal their high and holy relationship in their dealings with others, and may we make it evident by our daily walk and conversation that we have escaped the corruption that is in the world through the lust of the flesh.

Oh, that we may have more divine holiness of life!

From the pen of Jim Reimann:

What an amazing thing that our Lord allows us to participate in His nature! Rather than becoming proud over this, however, we should approach the Lord with great humility, as David did in the following psalm. May this be our prayer today:

“O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger. When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” (Ps. 8:1 – 9).