2 Pet 1:3 For His divine power has bestowed upon us all things that [are requisite and suited] to life and godliness, through the [full, personal] knowledge of Him Who called us by and to His own glory and excellence (virtue)
2 Pet 1:4 By means of these He has bestowed on us His precious and exceedingly great promises, so that through them you may escape [by flight] from the moral decay (rottenness and corruption) that is in the world because of covetousness (lust and greed), and become sharers (partakers) of the divine nature.
2 Pet 1:5 For this very reason, adding your diligence [to the divine promises], employ every effort in exercising your faith to develop virtue (excellence, resolution, Christian energy), and in [exercising] virtue [develop] knowledge (intelligence),
2 Pet 1:6 And in [exercising] knowledge [develop] self-control, and in [exercising] self-control [develop] steadfastness (patience, endurance), and in [exercising] steadfastness [develop] godliness (piety),
2 Pet 1:7 And in [exercising] godliness [develop] brotherly affection, and in [exercising] brotherly affection [develop] Christian love.
2 Pet 1:8 For as these qualities are yours and increasingly abound in you, they will keep [you] from being idle or unfruitful unto the [full personal] knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).
This passage is such a great expose' of sanctification and how it develops and grows. It's not about being saved, it's life as a saved christian.
Vs. 3 His divine power has bestowed....
How has it bestowed? The power is in the blood. 1 Cor 1:18, Paul says the cross (what Jesus did there) is to those who are being saved "the power of God". We do not bestow the power, we recieve the power. It is not of our own ability, but by our faith through grace (unmerited favor). So if we have this power bestowed upon us, we have nothing to boast about except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. But wait, there's more.
2 Pet 1:3 For His divine power has bestowed upon us all things that [are requisite and suited] to life and godliness, through the [full, personal] knowledge of Him Who called us by and to His own glory and excellence (virtue)
How many things? ALL THINGS!..that are requisite and suited to life and godliness. If Christ by His power that comes from the shed blood bestows these things upon us, then we have them as part of the gift package of salvation. We get them through the full knowledge of Him. The preacher has to preach and we have to believe, ie, trust in and fully rely on Jesus Christ alone for our salvation. We were called by Him and to His glory and excellence (virtue). If we are His, then we have these things. Not because we earned them, but because He bestowed them, He gave them to us. "So now that we have them, then what?"
I'm glad you asked. Now, when God looks upon us, He does not see our fallen nature, but our old life has now been swallowed up by the true light. Jesus is the light of the world. What happens to our own personal darkness when the Light comes on the scene, beloved? The darkness is swallowed up in the light. Alleluia.
Christ set us apart by His light, and then Peter goes on to share with us how we grow in sanctification. Glory be to God. How we are to live day by day. We feed on the Word of God and grow in our excitement and thrill to what God has promised. Beloved, they are truly great and precious promises. We need only step aside and let them be ours. That is, we must present our old life as a living sacrifice to God, our reasonable service and let God bestow His power, His wonder, His might, His strenght and His Spirit upon us.
Saints, we simply must stop looking at ourselves and what we have accomplished and look to Christ, the Anointed One, anointed to be the propitiation for our sins. We must look upon what He has done and Has willingly bestowed upon us, even while we were yet sinners. Oh God this is getting too much for words to describe. We simply have to look at what God has done. If God has done it, we simply cannot do anything about it except accept it. If God has done it, THEN IT'S DONE! I said "IT'S DONE!!!!!)
God saw the problem, and God fixed it! When God fixes it, it's fixed. We were broken and dead in sin, but God!!!!!!!!! BUT GOD!!!! Oh what He has done. We are desperately in need of breaking up all our mirrors and start looking to the Word to see who we really are in Christ Jesus. We need to start seeing ourselves as God sees us. Stop looking at the weakness of what your flesh is. It's dead in God's eyes. So are it's works. Leave it in the grave and start getting on with what God has done. If God says I'm saved by my blessed faith and hope in Jesus His Son, then I'm as saved as saved can be. Alleluia! Glory! We are saved to the uttermost...
Hbr 7:25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
"Uttermost" means extreme or as much as possibly can be. There is nothing left that needs to be done that Jesus Chrsit has not already done and bestowed upon us how by faith in the shed blood hold our blessed hope for eternal life in that shed blood that flowed down Calvary's hill for you and me. Oh somebody ought to be shouting right about here.!
Stop listening to your fallen nature and start listening to the Holy Spirit as you discover the wonder of what God has so lavishly bestowed upon us and is clearly revealed in a new and everlasting covenant. If it is everlasting, it won't wear out. That's the good news of the Gospel. Oh what can I say. If only we could get unhooked from our stinkin thinkin and start thinking about what God has already said. If God said it, it is forever settled! Forever. Saved to the uttermost, not by my works, filthy rags that they are, but by the finished work of Jesus Christ, my Lord and my God, my Savior, my All. |
