In this message we will continue to consider aspects of the experience and enjoyment of Christ as our God and Savior.
Second Peter 1:3 says, “Seeing that His divine power has granted to us all things which relate to life and godliness, through the full knowledge of Him who has called us by His own glory and virtue.”
In verse 3 the word divine denotes the eternal, unlimited, and almighty divinity of God. Hence, divine power is the power of the divine life, which is related to the divine nature. God has given us the marvelous and mysterious divine power. God as the divine power passed through creation, redemption, and resurrection to become the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). This divine power is nothing less than the life-giving Spirit, who is God Himself as life to us in resurrection. The visible things of the creation came into being through God’s power. Redemption was also accomplished by the divine power. The one man Jesus could die on behalf of all men to accomplish an eternal redemption (Heb. 9:12) because of the divine power. Today as the life-giving Spirit, He offers Himself to us as the divine power in resurrection. When we receive the Lord Jesus, the Triune God enters into us as life in resurrection. This life in resurrection is the divine power, which is God Himself as the life-giving Spirit.
The divine power in 2 Peter 1:3 is the power of the divine life, and this divine life power has given us all things that relate to life and godliness. The things that relate to life are inexhaustible. They include the law of life (Rom. 8:2; Heb. 8:10), humility, wisdom, rejoicing, love, joy, hope, submission, goodness, meekness, kindness, longsuffering, and peace. Everything related to life has been given to us. The life power within the seed of a certain plant includes everything related to the plant—the stem, branches, leaves, blossoms, flowers, and fruit of the plant. Within the power of the divine life as the seed in us are all the things necessary for the growth of the divine life. In the divine power there are virtues such as love, patience, humility, kindness, and longsuffering. The divine power, the power of life, includes all things needed not only for life inwardly but also for godliness outwardly.
The divine power in 2 Peter 1:3 is the power of the divine life related to the divine nature. It is beyond our ability to measure this divine power. In the realm of human power we are impressed by the kind of power that it took to land a man on the moon. But how much more power was necessary to raise Christ to the third heaven, to the center and height of the universe!
Paul speaks clearly of this divine power in Ephesians 1 when he prays that we would know “what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the operation of the might of His strength, which He caused to operate in Christ in raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His right hand in the heavenlies” (vv. 19-20). This divine power has exalted Christ over all and has put everything under His feet. Now Christ is seated on the highest peak of the universe, far above everything on earth and “far above all rule and authority and power and lordship and every name that is named” (v. 21). In Ephesians 1 Paul goes on to indicate that the divine power that raised Christ from the dead and seated Him at God’s right hand in the heavenlies, far above all, has been applied to us (v. 22).
In 2 Peter 1:3, Peter says that this divine power has granted to us all things which relate to life and godliness. The word granted here means “imparted, infused, or planted.” All things which relate to life and godliness have been imparted into us, infused into us, by the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, who regenerates us and indwells us (2 Cor. 3:6, 17; John 3:6; Rom. 8:11).
“All things which relate to life and godliness” in 2 Peter 1:3 are the various aspects of the divine life, typified by the riches of the produce of the good land in the Old Testament. They are the substance of our faith’s substantiation allotted to us by God as our portion for our inheritance. Life is within, enabling us to live, and godliness is without as the outward expression of the inward life. Life is the inward energy, the inward strength, to bring forth the outward godliness, which leads to and results in glory.
The “all things” in verse 3 pertain to the divine life, to zoe, not to the life that is for our pleasure. All things have been given, imparted, and infused into us so that we may live the divine life and also live out this life. The life is inward, but godliness is outward, for it is God Himself expressed. In all our living we should express God. We should testify of God and speak about Him. When God becomes our expression, this is godliness. In our conversation we should express God. If we are expressing God, surely we could not engage in gossip. We should have God in our being and also in our living. Our mind should be filled with Him, and the fiber of our being should be constituted of Him. Then we will have godliness, the outward expression of the inward life.
The imparting into us of all the things of life is through the full knowledge of God, which is conveyed and revealed to us through His word. This becomes the faith (objective), in which our faith (subjective) is produced.