"Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." [2 Pe 1:4]
God’s word is described to us in The Bible as a seed. Jesus said regarding one of His parables, “the seed is the word of God.” [Lk 8:11] Peter tells us, using the same picture, that we are “born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.” [1 Pe 1:23] It is by this seed – God’s word – that we are born again, as Jesus said we must be: “verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” [Jn 3:3] John adds to this as well, showing us that in addition to salvation from the word/seed, the seed abides in us, for that seed is Christ, and Christ is “The Word of God.” [Rev 19:13, Jn 1:1] He writes, “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for His seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” [1 Jn 3:9] When a man is born of God, “The Spirit of Christ,” [Rom 8:9] comes to dwell in Him and that man becomes “an habitation of God through The Spirit,” he becomes “the temple of The Holy Spirit.” [Eph 2:22, 1 Cor 6:19] The seed which saves us, “the implanted word” [Jam 1:21] in our hearts, is Jesus Christ Himself dwelling within us, as Ephesians literally states, “the Christ [is] dwelling in your hearts by faith.” [Eph 3:17]
We have seen how that God’s word, which is eternal, has saved us, making us new. His Word, that is even Christ Himself, has come to dwell in our hearts eternally even as it says of the word, “the word of The Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word by which the gospel is preached unto you.” [1 Pe 1:25] We have been everlastingly saved and secured by God’s infallible, unchangeable, uncorruptible, eternal word; we have been saved by Jesus Christ. But what shall encourage us today, is when we consider the thing to which God compares His word: a seed.
We have seen how God has implanted the seed of His word into our hearts and by that we have been saved. This is like the parable of the sower, wherein Jesus expounded upon different types of hearts into which God’s word is sown. And we have seen how that the word is Jesus: He is the word which “became flesh, and tabernacled among us,” [Jn 1:14] as John wrote. Let us consider then a seed. If one were to take a seed out from an apple and plant the seed, nothing else preventing, the seed would sprout and grow up into an apple tree. It would not grow up to create mangos, pears, or any other fruit: nor would it bury itself deep and produce peanuts or carrots. Similarly, if one were to venture to the store and browse the selection of seeds, the picture on the package represents what shall grow. If one were to pick a packet containing seeds with a picture of a red flower, they should expect to receive red flowers, not pumpkins for instance.
Now then, how does this relate to God’s word, which is the seed? We see that just as an apple seed shall always and forever produce apple trees, so too God’s word, which is the seed, shall always and forever produce in a man’s life the fruit and life of Jesus Christ: “the fruit of The Spirit, [which] is love…” [Gal 5:22] See again our verse for today in context:
“Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, according as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue: whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” [2 Pe 1:2-4]
Starting at the end, we see Peter promise us by The Spirit’s inspiration, “by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature.” Nature in this sense means, “the essence, essential qualities or attributes of a thing, which constitute what it is…” [Webster] Thus, the divine nature is nothing else but God’s nature, Jesus’ nature: it is those qualities and attributes which are “pertaining to the true God.” [Webster] We are being promised that we, as mere men, but as men transformed by Christ, that we can be partakers of that very essence of Jesus Himself. We have the ability, through The Spirit, to partake and share in those blessed qualities of Jesus Himself, whether it is longsuffering, patience, goodness, or kindness – or any other quality Jesus displayed, save that we are neither Christ nor God. If there be a quality or attribute which makes God, God: faithful, true, honest, just, meek – then we, as His saints, can partake of those things: they can be displayed through our bodies, for they are the fruit of the Seed of The Word of God which has been planted in our hearts. That is what is promised to us here in Peter. Indeed, a glorious promise it is, but we must see further the context, for He writes “by these ye might be partakers,” and thus we must see what “these” things are.
Moving backward in the text, we can see that what Peter refers to when he says “these,” is nothing else than what came before: ”exceeding great and precious promises.” But we must go further back still, for verse four starts with “whereby,” thus directing us to the source of the “exceeding great and precious promises.” Verse three reveals to us the source: “the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue.”
Putting these things together, we can see our promise more clearly – God, by His divine power, has gifted to us, (if we would but lay hold of these things), exceeding great and precious promises through the knowledge of Jesus Christ, that by those promises: that is, by the knowledge of Jesus Christ His Son, we might be partakers of His very nature. See the promise, dear Christian, that if there be a word regarding Jesus – if you do but see His glorious life through the scriptures – then it is a promise from God of what He intends to produce in you. The knowledge of Jesus is to the Christian like the picture upon the seed packet: it shows us what we shall produce. For if The Seed dwells in us, if it has been implanted in us, and if that seed be Christ, it must be that the seed produces the life and glory of Jesus. If Jesus truly dwells in me, and I see Him to be quite patient – it is no longer a condemnation of my failure to obtain patience (no, for, “there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus…” [Rom 8:1]), but it is a promise of what God intends to do in my life. And to this, Paul agrees, God writing through Him,
“But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of The Lord, are being changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by The Spirit of The Lord.” [2 Cor 3:18]
And again,
“For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.” [Rom 8:29]
What a glorious promise this is for the Christian! For through this we can look at Jesus’ life with more joy and more hope, seeing that if God is showing us a quality of Jesus through the scriptures, it is to say that He intends by The Spirit to make us into that very image we are beholding. Therefore, may we seek Jesus out in His word, ever learning more of Him, that we might ever be becoming more like Him.