Second Peter 1:4 speaks of the “partakers of the divine nature.” This is the highlight of Peter’s ministry. As those who have received equally precious faith, we, the believers in Christ, should be partakers of the divine nature. For God to be our life is a deep subject, but for God’s nature to be our nature is an even deeper matter.
The divine nature refers to what God is, that is, the riches, the elements, and the constituents of God’s being (John 4:24; 1 John 1:5; 4:8, 16). The divine nature, which mainly refers to the constitution of the divine life, the constitution of God, is constituted with Spirit, love, and light. The divine life and the divine nature are inseparable; the divine nature is the substance of the divine life and is within the divine life (1:1-2; 5:11-13). As the children of God, we are God-men, born of God, possessing the life and nature of God, and belonging to the species of God (3:1; John 1:12-13). At our regeneration, another nature was imparted into us; this is the nature of God, the divine nature. Because the divine nature is in the divine life, the divine life with which we were born again has the divine nature within it (3:3, 5-6, 15). Whoever believes into the Son of God is born of God and has the right to become a child of God; thus, a believer has the right to partake of, to enjoy, the nature of God (1:12-13).
Through incarnation Christ put humanity upon Himself and thereafter had two natures, the divine nature and the human nature. Through His resurrection and through coming into us as the Spirit, Christ has brought divinity into us. Therefore, we also have two natures, the human nature and the divine nature. By being born of the Spirit, we have become partakers of the divine nature. We can say, “Lord, just as You have two natures, so we have two natures also. You are divine and human, and we are human and divine. We are the same as You! Lord, You have our nature, and we have Yours. You are both divine and human, and we are both human and divine. Lord, You are the Son of God, and we are sons of God.” By our first birth we partook of the human nature. Now that we have been begotten of God by the new birth, we partake of the divine nature. Our status is both human and divine. We are not merely sons of man but sons of God as well.
We, the sons of God, have all become partakers of the divine nature. To us, God is no longer merely the creating God but also the begetting Father. He has imparted His life, His nature, and even His being into our being. God the Father has become our nature and life. Because we have been born of God, in life and nature we are the same as God. In other words, we are God in life and in nature but not in His Godhead. On the one hand, the New Testament reveals that the Godhead is unique and that only God, who alone has the Godhead, should be worshipped. On the other hand, the New Testament reveals that we, the believers in Christ, have God’s life and nature and that we are becoming God in life and in nature but will never have His Godhead. Regeneration does not make us part of the Godhead. To say that believers become part of the Godhead as objects of worship is to blaspheme God. We cannot share in the Godhead, but we can partake of the divine nature. What a great blessing it is to be one with God in His life and nature!
The greatest blessing in the universe is that we can partake of God’s nature. The Christian life is a life of enjoying the divine nature. We are partaking of the divine elements of God’s being. A partaker of the divine nature is one who enjoys and participates in the divine nature. If we would be partakers of the divine nature, we need to live by the divine life within which is the divine nature (1:4; 10:10; 11:25; 6:57b). We live the divine life by God’s promises. In order that we may enjoy all that He is, God will do many things for us according to His promises. We need to live by the divine life so that we may be partakers of the divine nature. Although we received the divine life at the time we believed, the divine nature must be continually enjoyed by us. This enjoyment requires the grace of God. God’s sufficient grace will work within us day by day so that we may enjoy the divine nature. The more we enjoy the divine nature, the more we have His virtue, and the more we are brought into His glory.
The riches of what God is are the content of the living hope mentioned in 1 Peter 1:3. According to His great mercy, God the Father has regenerated us unto a living hope. This living hope is actually a hope of life. Having this hope of life, we expect to enjoy daily the riches of the divine life. Actually, to enjoy the divine life is simply to partake of the divine nature. Therefore, partaking of the divine nature is related to our living hope of enjoying all the riches of the divine life.
When we were regenerated, we were enlivened by God. The divine life came into the center of our being. From that time onward, we have had a living hope, a hope of life. Our hope is that every part of our being will be enlivened. Regeneration, therefore, has brought in a living hope. Regeneration is unto the enjoyment of the riches of the divine life, and the riches of this life are the divine nature. Hence, to partake of the divine nature is to enjoy the riches of God.
When we received the divine life and were regenerated, we became a new being—a partaker of the divine nature. The expression partakers of the divine nature in 2 Peter 1:4 indicates that the Triune God is our portion. If God were not our portion, we could not partake of His nature. Every day we should partake of the divine nature. Our partaking of the divine nature must be constant, not occasional. In our Christian life, we must eat, drink, and even breathe the divine nature.
The matter of nature is very important. Hens lay eggs because it is according to their nature. The apple tree and all fruit trees bring forth fruit also by and according to their natures. This means that if we have a particular nature, we are able to do things that are by and according to that nature, and if we do not have a certain nature, we are not able to do things that are according to that nature. As believers in Christ, we have God’s nature. We desire to be holy, godly, and spiritual because these things are according to God’s nature, of which we partake. To do the things of God is natural to us because the divine things are according to the divine nature within us.
We have the divine nature within. The divine nature means everything in our Christian life. Since we have the divine nature, we do not need outward regulations to adjust our hair, clothes, and behavior. Any adjustments that we make should be made according to the divine nature within. Everything we do, say, and are should be checked with the divine nature. Every newborn child has the human nature. While little babies do not have any knowledge of outward regulations, they still have the human nature that regulates what they eat. You do not need to teach them about sweet and bitter because they have the human nature with its human taste. As Christians, we have a nature that is much higher than the human nature. We have the divine nature with a divine taste. We must live a life that matches the divine nature within us.
Since we have the life of God, we also have the nature of God. The emphasis on life is on the capacity to live, and the emphasis on nature is on the inclination of our living. We desire to be heavenly because the nature of God, the inclination of God, is heavenly. We desire to be holy because God’s nature and inclination are holy. We feel uneasy when we are proud, and we feel comfortable when we are humble because this is the nature and inclination of God. We feel uneasy when we take advantage of others and very happy when we share with others, because this is God’s nature and inclination. These are all matters of nature and inclination. If we realize that the divine nature within us has a particular taste, we will see that it is easy to be freed from the world and not love sin and evil. God is in us not only as our life but also as our nature. Within us He is the capacity to live, and He has also become our taste in our living. His life and nature in us make it very easy for us not to love the world and to overcome sins and evil.
If we enjoy God and partake of the riches of His being, we will be constituted with the divine nature, becoming the same as God in life and nature but not in the Godhead and expressing Him in all that we are and do. If we partake of God day by day, eventually we will partake of Him unconsciously. We all should be fully saturated with the nature of God. The more we are saturated with God, the more we will express Him. When others contact us, they will see in us the expression of the Triune God. We may even give off a divine fragrance.
The enjoyment of the divine nature is both for the present and for eternity. For eternity we will continue to partake of the divine nature. This is illustrated by the tree of life and the river of water of life in Revelation 22:1 and 2. The river of life flows out from the throne of God and of the Lamb. This signifies God flowing out to be the enjoyment of His redeemed ones. That flowing river will saturate the entire city of New Jerusalem. Furthermore, the tree of life that grows along the river will supply the redeemed ones with God as their life supply. This is a picture of what it means to partake of the divine nature. To eat the fruit of the tree of life is to partake of God’s nature; to be partakers of the divine nature is to be the eaters of the tree of life. God’s nature is holy, loving, righteous, kind, and pure. Actually, God’s nature is all-inclusive. The more we partake of the divine nature, the more we have holiness, love, righteousness, kindness, and all manner of divine attributes. These attributes then become our virtues, which eventually will consummate in God’s glory. We should praise the Lord that we human beings can have God’s life, enjoy God’s nature, live as God lives, express Him as our godliness, and have all the excellent virtues that will consummate in glory.
In his second Epistle, the apostle Peter unveils the energy, the strength, by which the believers are enabled to escape the corruption in lust and the result of that escape. The energy is the virtue of the divine life, and the result is that the believers partake of the divine nature and thus enjoy all the riches of what the Triune God is. In our partaking of the divine nature and in our enjoying of all that God is, all the riches of the divine nature will be fully developed, as described in verses 5 through 7 of chapter 1. Having escaped the corruption of lust in the world and having thus removed the barriers to the growth of the divine life in us, we are freed to become partakers of the divine nature and to enjoy its riches to the fullest extent in its development by the virtue of God unto His glory. Day after day we must partake of the divine nature, which is the glory. Eventually, this divine nature will glorify us, causing us to shine with God’s element. We were made children of God and sons of God in order to be partakers of the divine nature so that we may be glorified with the divine glory (v. 4; Rom. 8:30; Heb. 2:10).
It is a wonderful fact that as believers we possess the divine nature. The way to enlarge the sphere of the divine nature within us is to take the word of Christ not only by reading but also by praying, singing, psalming, and thanking the Lord (Col. 3:16). If the word of Christ is to dwell in us richly, we need to open our entire being and exercise our spirit. Then the word of Christ will enter into us, stir us up, and become mingled with us, causing us to be one with the Lord in an actual and practical way. As a result, the sphere of the divine nature in us will be enlarged.
In 2 Peter 1:4 there is a condition for becoming partakers of the divine nature: the condition is “having escaped the corruption which is in the world by lust.” Lust is a barrier that keeps us from enjoying the divine nature. Christ died to redeem us from the vain manner of life (1 Pet. 1:18-19), and now, as redeemed ones, we should abstain from fleshly lusts (2:11) and no longer live in the flesh in the lusts of men (4:2). This is to escape the corruption that is in the world through lust. The more we escape this corruption, the more we will enjoy the nature of God. Likewise, the more we partake of the divine nature, the more we will escape the corruption that is in the world by lust. This is a cycle of escaping and partaking and of partaking and escaping. If this cycle of partaking and escaping works within us in a strong, rapid way, it will be difficult for us to take in any of the corruption of the world. We partake of the divine nature, and this divine nature strengthens us to stay away from corruption. Then the more we stay away from the corruption of the world, the more we enjoy the riches of the divine nature. This is the experience of God’s economy.
In brief, we should partake of the divine nature and enjoy what God is, the contents, the ingredients, of His being. By what way do we enjoy the divine nature? First, we enjoy the divine nature by the full knowledge of the One who has called us by His glory and virtue and to His glory and virtue. Because of this, He has given us many precious and exceedingly great promises. Second, we need to escape the corruption which is in the world by lust; that is, we need to abstain from lustful living. Indulging the lusts of the flesh annuls our right to enjoy God’s nature. But if we escape the corruption which is in the world by lust, we will cooperate with the God who is now operating in us according to His promises to carry out His virtue and glory. If we cooperate with God’s operation, we will become those who enjoy the divine nature.