Morning, September 16
Go To Evening Reading
“Partakers of the divine nature.”
2 Peter 1:4
To be a partaker of the divine nature is not, of course, to become
God. That cannot be. The essence of Deity is not to be participated
in by the creature. Between the creature and the Creator there must
ever be a gulf fixed in respect of essence; but as the first man Adam
was made in the image of God, so we, by the renewal of the Holy Spirit,
are in a yet diviner sense made in the image of the Most High, and
are partakers of the divine nature. We are, by grace, made like God.
“God is love”; we become love—“He that loveth is born of God.” God is truth; we 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 shall see God. Moreover, we become partakers of
the divine nature in even a higher sense than this—in fact, in as lofty a sense as can be conceived, short of our being
absolutely divine. Do we not become members of the body of the divine
person of Christ? Yes, the same blood which flows in the head flows
in the hand: and the same life which quickens Christ quickens his
people, for “Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” Nay, as if this were not enough, we are married unto Christ. He hath
betrothed us unto himself in righteousness and in faithfulness, and
he who is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. Oh! marvellous mystery!
we look into it, but who shall understand it? One with Jesus—so one with him that the branch is not more one with the vine than
we are a part of the Lord, our Saviour, and our Redeemer! While we
rejoice in this, let us remember that those who are made partakers
of the divine nature will manifest their high and holy relationship
in their intercourse with others, and make it evident by their daily
walk and conversation that they have escaped the corruption that is
in the world through lust. O for more divine holiness of life!