Description / Transcription
Father, we do need You every hour. I need You every hour, whether I am eating or sleeping or teaching or studying or working. Whatever it is, whatever it is you’ve called each of us to do in every moment, listening, processing, we need You, we need Your power to work in us to affect something that only You know we need and only You can accomplish for us. We pray this in Your Son’s name. Amen.
There is a slightly more recent meme going around, to Randy, yep, here we go again with the memes. There’s a slightly more recent meme that goes something like this: Tell me you do blank without actually saying that you do blank. Okay, so if that’s a little too conceptual, let me put an example out there for you. An example might be, “Tell me you do cross fit without actually saying that you do cross fit.” Okay, to all you cross fit junkies out there, I love you, this is a safe place, but this is just too good of an example to pass up.
So what you would do then is post a picture of maybe a whiteboard and on it says “WOD,” w-o-d, work out of the day, if you know you know. So you might post a picture of a whiteboard that says “WOD,” your workout of the day. You might post a picture of your hands calloused and bleeding. You might say something like “just did my first muscle up” with like a strong arm emoji or something like that. You might carry around a gallon jug of water. You might wear a t-shirt that says “gym shark.” You might not wear a shirt at all while you’re working out. Who knows.
Tell me you do cross fit without actually saying you do cross fit. What that’s saying is hey, show me all the things that you’re trying to highlight but don’t actually say it necessarily in the exact words.
Well, this passage that we’re going to look at tonight, 2 Peter 1, is not about cross fit, don’t worry. But it is about a concept, a doctrine that we know today as union with Christ. But it’s from Peter’s perspective. A lot of times we hear and we learn about, we read about, the doctrine of union with Christ really explicitly in Paul. Paul has his classic language of in Christ, in Him, with Christ. Paul has union with Christ language all over the place.
But it’s not exclusive to Paul. It’s throughout Scripture. And tonight, again this is sort of a broad categorical doctrine that Peter is honing in on, he’s focusing in on this concept of union with Christ. Specifically what he’s doing, he’s trying to expound what it means and what it looks like to have been crucified with Christ and no longer live yet Christ lives in him. He’s trying to expound this idea. What does that mean? What does it actually mean? What does it look like for believers in the present age? That’s the language that I want us to pay attention to as we come to the passage.
I’m going to read verses 3 through 11. I think in the bulletin it maybe says 3 through 9. That’s okay. If you’re following along, just keep the eyes going, and if not, keep the ears going.
So 2 Peter chapter 1, verses 3 through 11: “His divine power,” it should be obvious, that means God’s divine power, “has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence, by which He has granted to us His precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
The grass withers and the flower fades but the word of our God remains forever.
There is a lot here in this text. I cannot say everything that needs to be said. I cannot say certainly everything that I wish I could say, but what we are going to do, we’re going to hone in what is the big idea, what Peter really wants you to get from this passage. Again, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, what is Peter trying to remind us of?
That’s actually what he’s doing. Right after this, Peter says that he’s not necessarily telling them anything new. He says this is a truth that you already have, but it’s good for him to make every effort to stir them up by way of reminder.
So if tonight you think to yourself you’re not saying a lot of new things, that’s great, because Peter didn’t necessarily claim to be saying a lot of new things.
Later in chapter 3 he says it again. He says what I’m doing here is I’m stirring you up by way of reminder. I want you to remember these things, be able to recall these things, these truths that you already have.
So what we’re going to do is see what Peter wants here. Peter wants you to remember that by the power of God you are enabled to live in light of and thereby experience your union with Christ in the present age. That’s the big idea of the passage. Peter wants you to remember that by the power of God you are enabled to live in light of and thereby experience your union with Christ in the present age.
Now he does this by returning to and hashing out these three aspects, these three realities that are tethered and play into the doctrine of union with Christ.
First. He returns to the root of union over and over and over again. What we’re going to do here, we’re just kind of going to look at different verses that point out the root of union with Christ. First look up just one verse, sorry, two verses. He writes to those who have obtained faith by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. So you’ve obtained faith by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. Root of union.
Verse 4 – having escaped the corruption that is in the world. They’ve already escaped.
Verse 9 – you have been cleansed from your former sins.
Verse 10 – confirm your calling and election.
Verse 4 – He has granted, He has given to you these precious and very great promises.
What Peter has in mind here when he’s talking about union with Christ is the foundation of our union itself. Again, maybe he doesn’t necessarily say it in explicit terms, but he’s highlighting, he’s shedding light on this. What he’s doing is he’s bringing out terminology from the whole counsel of God. It’s not an exaggeration to say that he has the whole scope of Scripture in mind.
Later on, just shortly after this and then throughout this short letter, he brings out the prophets. He brings out the law of Moses. He even mentions Paul’s writings as inerrant Scripture. So he’s thinking about the whole counsel of God. He’s applying what we could probably say is our justification, propitiation, atonement. He’s saying, look, that is the root of your union with Christ. There is no union without calling, without election, without atonement, without justification. That’s the root. These promises that we’ve read about already in the Psalms and in Isaiah and that we’ve sung about, these promises that are fulfilled in Christ and then granted to God’s people to be received and rested upon by faith alone.
It has to start here. You can’t expect to move forward. You can’t expect to learn accurately and apply accurately the Bible’s teaching about sanctification, good works, assurance, perseverance, glorification, unless you come back to the root, unless you come back to the starting point.
Now that being said, you can’t just stop there. The story doesn’t end there. Union with Christ doesn’t terminate at justification. The Christian life moves. It’s not stagnant. It’s active.
So number two. First we saw number one, the root. Number two we see the pursuit.
Look at verse 5. He says make every effort.
Verse 8 – if these qualities are yours and are increasing.
Verse 10 – be all the more diligent. Later in verse 10, practice these things.
Union with Christ, the message of the Gospel, the mechanism of our salvation, what tethers us to God Himself, is not something that we keep just up here in our minds. It’s not something that we just learn about and then cast aside and move on from, but it’s something that we actually apply.
Now some of this language might actually make us good Reformed folks a little bit scared. He says supplement your faith, add to your faith, confirm your calling. I don’t know, sounds a little risky.
I get that. It’s good. But think about this. Your security in Christ is confirmed by your pursuit of Christ. Your security in Christ, we’re not saying it’s valid. Again, we already took legalism off the table. We already established the root of our salvation. But your security, your salvation, your identity in Christ is confirmed and supported and supplemented by our active pursuit of Christ.
He says supplement it not with something new and different but supplement it with the application and rehearsing and living out of it.
Here’s an imperfect illustration that might help a tiny bit. You can be the judge. If you’ve ever gone rock climbing, especially rock climbing outside, you know that there is a ton that goes into the preparation process. There’s a ton that you have to do to make sure that you can climb safely. You have to go through a really long list. You’ve got to tie knots a specific way, you’ve got to make sure that all your pro, protection, you’ve got to make sure that all your pro is working correctly. You’ve got to make sure that your harnesses are cinched up right. You’ve got to make sure that your carabiners are locked. What you have to do, you have to go through the list and you’ve got to make sure that you’re actually doing that the way that it’s supposed to be done.
Then you actually go back with your climbing partner and you do like a little call and response. You go “on belay,” “belay on,” “climbing,” “climb on.” Even before you get to the point of actually climbing, it’s a good thing to have your partner check all your gear. It’s a really, really good principle.
What you’re doing in some sense is you’re rehearsing the steps of climbing. You are “supplementing” the security that you have in the rope and the harness by hashing it out, going over it, with your climbing partner. Now your security technically doesn’t depend on that confirmation or supplemental verification process, but here’s the thing – you definitely wouldn’t want to neglect it. You definitely wouldn’t want to ignore it.
In the same way, Christians ought to take the process of discipleship seriously. We ought to take the process of living in a Christ-like way seriously, of growing in Christ seriously. Again, just to be very clear, not in a neurotic or legalistic way. Out of the question. But take it seriously in a renewed, redeemed, hopeful way. We should, in a sense, practice, rehearse our union with Christ, trusting that we will start to look more like Him.
Now again here, Peter does such a good job in not just giving a principle in the abstract, but he does a great job at showing some of the concrete ways that we can do that.
Look at verses 5 through 7 here: ” For this very reason,” because of your union, because of your justification, “for this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith,” your God-given gift of faith, “with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness… godliness… brotherly affection, and… love.”
Now we don’t have time to dig into the nitty gritty distinctions or nuances in every single one of these terms, but we need to know that while they are not itemized and partialized, while you don’t want to chop them up and treat them as independent things, we should be able to distinguish one from another. We should attempt to see each of these qualities, as Peter puts it, attempt to see each of these qualities individually and as a whole.
Let me state the obvious. Taking all of this seriously and trying to pursue these things, trying to supplement with these things, it’s going to take work. It’s going to take effort. It’s going to be difficult. But the good news is that it’s worth it because of the fruit that it bears.
That’s the third point. That’s the third thing that we see Peter return to over and over again and expound is the fruit of our union.
So we have the root, the pursuit, and the fruit. Love it when that happens.
The fruit of our union.
Look at verse 8 – if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Verse 10 – if you practice these things, you will never fall or fail.
Verse 11 – but instead there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ .
Take a second. Think about the logic here. Think about what Peter is saying. Peter is saying that when you practice living out your union with Christ, you are in a sense experiencing what it is like to live in God’s eternal kingdom today. When you practice, when you rehearse what we know to be true about the Gospel, that you have been bought with a price, that you have been crucified with Christ, that He became sin who knew no sin in order that we might become the righteousness of God. When we live that out, we are in a very small way tasting the glory into which we are being brought. We get that today. We get to experience what it’s like to live in God’s kingdom in the present day. That is crazy. What else can offer you that? What over system can offer you that?
Now look at verse 3 and 4 – He has called you to His own glory and excellence, or maybe by His own glory and excellence, either way. Then verse 4, let’s look at this phrase – become partakers, or participating in the divine nature.
If you have the ESV, here it says that you may become partakers of the divine nature.
Now this is where Peter really starts to bring out the glory and the beauty and mystery of our union with Christ. It’s beautiful.
Real quick. Here’s what the verse is not saying. The verse is not saying that the Creator/creature distinction is obliterated. This is not Peter advocating for a form of pantheism where we will just be absorbed into one essence at the end of time and all of a sudden we will cease to appear, or we will cease to exist. The Creator/creature distinction is not obliterated.
He’s also not saying that we will become demi-gods. It’s not going to be like in the movie Hercules when he emerges from the death lake and he’s glowing and he’s shiny and he’s like finally I’ve become the god that I was born to be. You’re not going to become a demi-god.
And your human essence will not be transmuted into something ontologically different. You’re not going to cease to be human. Instead, you are finally going to be fully human. You are finally, in your union with Christ, as a glorified new creation, you will finally be a partaker of the divine nature in such a way that you will become what you were created to be before the Fall. You will finally become the perfect image of the glory of God that we were created to be.
Irenaeus says this, early Church father. He says the Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, through His transcendent love became what we are that He might bring us to be even what He is Himself.
Then Calvin says this – the goal of the Gospel is to render us eventually conformable to God, not in essence but in quality, as far as our capacities will allow.
Partaking in the divine nature does not mean that we become God, it doesn’t mean that we become gods, it means that we finally become fully and perfectly like God in the way that we were created to be. Christ will remake us as we were originally created to be. Again, the perfect images of His own glory and excellence. It’s amazing. When you live out your union with Christ, you are really living into and practicing that future state of glory that He has promised to bring you into. That’s good news.
That’s the big picture of the Gospel that can and should control the way that we see our day-to-day life. Every aspect of our day-to-day life should be reoriented by this fact, that we are being conformed, transformed, from one degree of glory to the next.
So what might this have to do with not wasting your summer? We finally got there. How to not waste your summer. A couple principles.
Number one. Get to know God. Get to know God. If you don’t know, if you don’t truly know the transformative power of the Gospel personally for your life, spend your summer searching the Scriptures and drawing near to the Lord. Nothing else is as important. Get to know God.
Number two. Get a bigger perspective. It might be that we will waste our summer because we think that something else is more worthy of our time than being conformed into the image of our Savior Jesus Christ. Get a bigger perspective. I’m preaching this to myself just as much as to any of you here. The Gospel is not just what God has done in the past so that you can live however you want to, the Gospel is also about what He is doing and what He will do in you. To live out the Gospel, to live as He has called us and designed us to live, is to get a taste of the glory of new creation.
Number three. Be honest. Don’t waste your summer by being honest, and specifically search your heart and discern if, where, and how you may be stagnating or stalling out in the Christian life. Go revisit verses 5 through 7 and ask yourself is there somewhere, is there a gap somewhere in here? Am I really honed in on this one thing to the detriment of all the other things? Ask yourself, and ask God to reveal where you need to grow.
Number four. Be intentional. Create opportunities to supplement, to confirm this gift of faith that is in you. Start super small if you need to, but don’t do nothing. You can’t afford to do nothing.
Number five. Be encouraged. Don’t waste your summer by being encouraged by the Gospel. As you pursue God, remember that it is God Himself who works in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure. You are not alone. He has not left you to yourself and to your own devices. Be encouraged that it is the Lord Himself who dwells within you.
Then that leads to the last thing. Be confident. Knowing this, be confident. Rest in the truth that God gives Himself to you in Christ, and that by His divine power He has enabled you and actively enables you to live a life worthy of your calling.
Let’s pray. Father, this is such an encouraging passage that You have allowed us to look at together tonight. It is encouraging and it is also convicting because we know that we do not always live out the Gospel, live out our union with Christ perfectly. Sometimes we do it pretty poorly. But Lord, it is encouraging once again to remember that You have not left us to ourselves, to figure things out for ourselves, by ourselves, but rather You by Your Word and Spirit have given us Your divine power, through Your divine knowledge that you impart to us and the promises that You grant us, in order that we might live according to the way that You designed us and have redeemed us and are restoring us and renewing us to live. I pray that we would do that and we would be sincere about that this summer. It’s in Your Son’s name we pray. Amen.
