October 11
PARTAKERS OF THE DIVINE NATURE / PART 8
DOING … A BYPRODUCT OF GOD’S NATURE
-2ND Peter 1:5-8,10 states, … And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue;
and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness
brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that you shall
neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ … Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence
to make your calling and election sure: for if you do these things, you shall never fall: …
-As one takes a first glance at this passage of scripture it appears that we are being given a list of things
that we must do to become like God. In fact, MANY Christians spend a lifetime trying to “work up” or “muster
up” enough strength in and of themselves to try to become like God. BUT THIS IS NOT THE CASE!
-We must go back to the original statement that Peter made. 2nd Peter 1:4 states, … we have
been made partakers of the divine nature … The statements that Peter makes in verses four through eleven are to
be seen in light of his original statement. This means that faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly
kindness, and charity are BYPRODUCTS OF PARTAKING OF THE DIVINE NATURE. If you think that you are capable of producing these
attributes of God in your life outside of the divine nature, then you will find yourself right back in your original predicament,
which is … O WRETCHED MAN THAT I AM!
-We must be careful not to get the cart before the horse. MANY think that what they do
will produce the divine nature. This is just the opposite of the truth. We must understand that it is the divine nature at
work within us that will produce godliness in our lives. This is what James meant when he stated that … faith without
works is dead … Did James mean to tell us that works produce faith? NO! His statement ( faith without works is dead
) simply means that proper faith in the Lord Jesus Christ will produce proper godly works. When Peter mentioned doing certain
things which would result in never falling, he was meaning that the doing of these things would be a byproduct of God’s
divine power and nature. It is God’s divine power that stems from His divine nature, producing the fruit of the Spirit
in our lives, for …
-WE ARE HIS WORKMANSHIP!-
