2 Peter 1:3-4 (NKJV) 3 "as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust."
I am rejoicing this morning in the wonderful provision provided in the LIFE and DEATH of Christ. I capitalize both, for both a needed for a more abundant, joy-filled Christian life.
Christ's death deals with the old person; Christ's life enables a new person! Too often we focus on the past and forget to realize that we need to turn our eyes away from the things of the past, and turn them forward to the future, and rejoicing in the NEW person that God is making of each of us if we are willing.
How good is this new person? Just this morning I read of how Christ's death has put us in a position of eternal security. Amazing—that's being "kept by the power of God."
He also gained a victory for us that is ours for the asking—there is a process involved, but it is reserved for us and we come into it more and more. In all of this we are reinstated to God's favor and become partakers of the divine nature—not bad for those who have had a life-time of disloyalty and poor choices and know themselves to be as weak as water when it comes to temptation in and of themselves!
Don't miss that we become partakers of something divine—heavenly, something that we don't have the tiniest right to, but can be gloriously and blessedly ours!
This results in our "will"—here we are talking about the "kingly power of choice"—coming into harmony with Christ's will!
And last, but certainly not least, "And the life which Christ offers us is more perfect, more full, and more complete than was the life which Adam forfeited by transgression." {ST June 17, 1897, par. 16}
Click on this link to read the full Signs of the Times article from June 17, 1897