Morning, September 16
Charles Spurgeon · Morning and Evening: Daily Readings
2 Peter 1:4
"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!