This allotment contains all things related to life and godliness, including the divine nature and the precious and exceedingly great promises. But how can these promises be counted among the content of the allotment? Let us use the illustration of a will in answering this question. Suppose your father’s will says that you have a certain inheritance. Your inheritance is what is written in your father’s will. The will not only tells you about certain things; it tells you that these things are your portion. Furthermore, this will is a fulfilled promise. Therefore, the will, a fulfilled promise, includes all the items of your inheritance. In this sense, the will, the promise, and the inheritance are all one. In like manner, concerning the things related to life and godliness, including the divine nature, the promises actually are the will. The New Testament is a testament, not merely a covenant. In today’s terms, it is a new will. The twenty-seven books of the New Testament are a will telling us of the items of our rich inheritance. Hence, the will and the inheritance are one.
An inheritance without a will would be lacking something very important. If we did not have the New Testament, which is a new will, how would we know what God has promised us concerning our inheritance? The allotted faith, our portion, includes all things related to life and godliness. As we have seen, it also includes the divine nature and the promises. All this is included in the allotted faith, in the portion God has allotted to us.
Second Peter 1:4 says, “Through which He has granted to us precious and exceedingly great promises, that through these you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption which is in the world by lust.” The words “through which” are difficult to understand. The relative pronoun “which” in verse 4 refers to glory and virtue in verse 3. Through and on the basis of the Lord’s glory and virtue, by and to which we have been called, God has given us His precious and exceedingly great promises.
According to verse 3, the Lord has called us not only by His glory and virtue, but also to His glory and virtue. The disciples saw the Lord’s glory. During the time He was with them, they saw the virtue in His conduct and daily living. They also saw His glory on the mount of transfiguration. I believe that they also saw the Lord’s glory at other times, for example, when He fed the five thousand and when He called Lazarus out of the tomb. Having seen the Lord’s glory and virtue, the disciples were attracted. This means that they were called by the Lord’s glory and virtue. After the Lord’s resurrection, on the day of Pentecost, Peter was full of glory and virtue. The disciples were in a situation that was full of glory and full of virtue, the very glory and virtue to which they had been called.
Through this glory and virtue God has given us promises. The Greek preposition rendered “through” in verse 4 is in the instrumental sense becoming causal. For this reason, some versions render the Greek word “because of.” This means that because of the glory and virtue God has given us the precious and exceedingly great promises. Because we all have been called to glory and virtue, God has given us promises in order that He may work out this virtue and glory for us.
According to verse 4, God has given us precious and exceedingly great promises so that through these we may become partakers of the divine nature. We already have the divine life. When faith was produced in us at the time we believed in the Lord, the divine life was imparted into us. Although we have the divine life, a long process is necessary for us to enjoy the divine nature.
There is a difference between life and nature. The divine nature is what God is. We enjoy the divine nature by living the divine life. How can we live the divine life? We live the divine life by God’s promises. We need to live by the divine life so that we may be partakers of the divine nature. To partake of the divine nature simply means to enjoy the divine nature.
After we experienced the “click,” all things pertaining to life and godliness were imparted into us. Now we have the divine life. This divine life is for us to live a life that expresses God. We express God as our godliness. Godliness is simply God expressed by us in our living by the divine life.
The impartation into us of all things which relate to life and godliness is through the full knowledge of God, the One who has called us by and to His own glory and virtue. How can we live a life that expresses God as our godliness? We live it through our knowing of Him. Therefore, we need to know the One who has called us by His glory and virtue and to His glory and virtue. Furthermore, through this glory and virtue He has granted to us precious and exceedingly great promises.
Because of the glory and virtue, God has given us the promises. This also means that God has promised us that He will carry out His glory and virtue for us. Hence, His promises were given through the glory and the virtue, that is, because of the glory and virtue.
As we have seen, the word “through” in verse 4 is first instrumental and then causal. It is first a means, and then spontaneously it becomes a cause. The Greek preposition translated “through” also means on account of, on the basis of. Because of, on account of, on the basis of, the fact that God has called us to His glory and virtue, He has given us promises. By these promises He assures us that He will work out the virtue so that we may reach His glory.