In the past two messages we saw God’s dispensation in the ministry of Paul. In this message we want to see His dispensation in the ministry of Peter, Jude, and James. Compared to Paul’s writings, Peter’s are very brief. Yet the crucial points in his writings are very similar to the crucial points in Paul’s writings. Paul, though, had at least two particular points which Peter did not mention. Paul specifically told us that the church is the Body of Christ (Eph. 1:23). He also told us that Christ as the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45), and that the Lord is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17). Peter never told us this, though he mentioned the Spirit of Christ (1 Pet. 1:11), and the Spirit of glory and of God (1 Pet. 4:14). This indicates that according to Peter’s understanding the Spirit of God in the New Testament age has become the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of glory.
Peter also has one precious point which Paul did not mention, that is, we are the partakers of the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4). This item in the Bible is a big diamond. It means that we are enjoying the divine essence of what God is. We are partaking of the divine elements of God’s being. Such an expression, partakers of the divine nature, is very strong! I am so happy that Peter wrote this. Otherwise, in the entire Bible there would not be a word telling us that we are now enjoying the very essence of God. What a great lack there would be if this were not in the Bible! I surely would like to have a sign to hang in my room saying: “Partakers of the divine nature.” Surely the biggest blessing in the whole universe is that we can partake of God’s nature and essence. This is far beyond our understanding and even the more is far beyond our ability to speak. We are short of the utterance to describe such a thing.
What does it mean to partake of the divine nature? Let me illustrate it in this way. Suppose you have a little creature, a chicken. A chicken lays eggs, but it never studied in an egg-laying school. To lay eggs is simply something of the chicken nature. By this illustration you may have a little apprehension of what it means for us to be partakers of the divine nature.
As soon as we were regenerated there was a kind of nature within us that would not agree for us to do certain things. No one had to teach us not to do certain things. Something within our nature was telling us that as children of God we should not do that thing. Even as the chicken’s nature is in the chicken, so the divine nature is in those who have been born of God. We have been born of God with God’s divine life. Life and nature cannot be separated. Actually the nature is the essence of the life. God’s nature is within God’s life, so the very divine life with which we have been born again has within it the divine nature. Right after our regeneration we began to partake of this nature, even unconsciously.
Let me give you another illustration concerning the divine nature. A little baby does not have any knowledge about bitterness or sweetness. He has not been taught what is bitter or what is sweet. Even he does not have such a vocabulary. But if you put something sweet into his mouth he will swallow it, and if you put something bitter into his mouth he will spit it out. Who taught him to do this? It comes out of his nature. His nature rejects the bitterness. Whatever is bitter is rejected by his human nature. Whatever is sweet is accepted by his human nature. Right after he has been delivered, even when he is very young, a baby rejects and accepts certain things.
Likewise, at our regeneration, another nature got into us. This is the nature of God, the divine nature. We began to enjoy this divine nature right after our regeneration. As believers we all are partakers of such a divine nature within us. Peter did not say we have a divine nature, but that we have become partakers of the divine nature. It is now within us, and we are partaking of it. That means that we are now enjoying it. And we enjoy it unconsciously and unintentionally. A little baby rejects the bitterness and receives the sweetness without intention. If you put something bitter into his mouth he rejects it unintentionally. This is the action of his nature.
It is hard for us to describe and to know the nature, but we can surely discern the actions of the nature. It is hard to say what is the chicken nature, but we can discern the actions of the chicken nature. The main action of the chicken’s nature is to lay eggs.
We are children of God. We have been born of the divine life, and within the divine life there is the divine nature. Now we are partaking of this nature and enjoying this nature unintentionally. There are too many things that this divine nature within us rejects. Although no one teaches us to reject this thing or to reject that thing, as Christians we just reject it because we have partaken of the divine nature within us.