2 Peter 1:4

The Lord’s promises come to us through Christ’s divine power and the true knowledge of Him (2 Peter 1:3). We learn of these promises as we get to know Him better, and the power for fulfilling what He has promised comes from Him. "Granted" translates a Greek word (doreomai), also found in 2 Peter 1:3, that stresses the great worth of what God has given. "Promises" refers to promises that all believers can know about, not secret promises. They are in the Scriptures. The ones Peter referred to in his first epistle deal with our inheritance (1 Peter 1:3-5) and the Lord’s return (1 Peter 1:9; 1 Peter 1:13). Here his reference is to all God’s promises. They are "precious" (Gr. timia) because of the great worth of the spiritual riches involved (cf. 1 Peter 1:7; 1 Peter 1:19; 1 Peter 2:7). They are "magnificent" (Gr. megista, lit. greatest) because they are intrinsically excellent.

". . . one of the great lessons of 2 Peter is that to maintain a holy life in a world like ours, we must be deeply rooted in the prophetic promises of God’s word. Above all, we must hold fast to that ’blessed hope’ of the coming again of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ [cf. Matthew 24:48-50]." [Note: Zane C. Hodges, "Exposition of Second Peter," The KERUGMA Message 1:2 (July-August 1991):4.]

"Here, again, we have an instance of St. Peter’s habit of anticipation, and a link between the introduction and the third chapter. Already the author is thinking of the doubts about the Parousia." [Note: Bigg, p. 255.]

Christians become partakers of God’s very nature by faith in His promises. In our day, as in Peter’s, many people are interested in becoming partakers of "the divine nature," though they may conceive of the divine nature in non-Christian ways (Eastern mysticism, new age spirituality, etc.). [Note: See Robert V. Rakestraw, "Becoming Like God: An Evangelical Doctrine of Theosis," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 40:2 (June 1997):257-69.] Peter evidently used this phrase to capture the interest of his formerly pagan Hellenistic readers, but he proceeded to invest it with distinctively Christian meaning. He was an effective communicator.

When God saved us by faith in His promise, He indwelt us, and we therefore possess the nature of God within us (cf. John 16:7; Acts 2:39). God’s nature in us manifests the likeness of God and Christ through us. It also gives us power enabling us to overcome the temptations of lust that result in corruption (cf. Galatians 5:16-17). Note that Peter did not say that we have the divine nature (which is true), from which we might infer that we no longer have a sinful human nature and do not sin. He said that we participate in the divine nature, from which we should infer that we experience some of God’s qualities but not all of them now.

Peter spoke of our having escaped this corruption in the past. He meant that our justification has assured our escape from this corruption, not that we escape it automatically simply because we are Christians. Another view is that Peter meant that Christians will become partakers of the divine nature when we die, having escaped the world’s corruption through death. [Note: See Bauckham, pp. 181-84.] Yet we already possess the divine nature through the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit. The temptations that we presently face characterize the world as a whole (cf. 1 John 2:17). Assurance of ultimate victory over this corruption should encourage us to strive to overcome it now.

"Each man must make a choice. Either he becomes freed from sin, or he becomes further enslaved to sin." [Note: Louis Barbieri, First and Second Peter, p. 96.]

"Man becomes either regenerate or degenerate." [Note: Strachan, 5:126.]

Godliness, goodness (lit. virtue), divine nature, and corruption are all concepts that fascinated the philosophical false teachers of Peter’s day. Peter reminded his readers of God’s provisions for them that made them adequate and in need of nothing the false teachers, to whom he would refer later, said they could provide.