How often do we turn on the news, only to be inundated with example after example of how the world is not as it should be?  Child trafficking rings, wars, poverty, abuse, so much of the world is adrift.  We know that things should not be this way, but we often struggle to articulate how they should be.  Experience has taught us that without something higher, something nobler to strive for, humanity defaults to its vices that come all to naturally, despite its best intentions.  To put it simply, we see a fallen world cast in our image, and the thought that scares us the most is that it will always look this way so long as it looks like us. But what if the world wasn’t supposed to look like us, because we aren’t even supposed to look like us?  What if the intention from the beginning was for us not to cast the world after our corrupted nature, but for us to be cast according to the divine nature? When God liberated the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, he did not just rescue them from a place of suffering.  He brought them to a better place, a place of abundant blessing.  Their story was not limited to escape from an evil past but was also about a journey to a more righteous future. The same is true for our individual journeys. God does more than deliver us from our sinful past, he leads us into a future where we look more like who we were always meant to be.

In addition to serving as a minister, I coach the local high school track team. One of my jobs is to tell my athletes what not to do. Don’t drop your elbow below your shoulder when throwing the javelin. Don’t lean into the mat when high-jumping. These are flaws in technique that creep into their form as they compete, and my job is to point them out so they can be corrected and their performance will improve. However, telling them what not to do is an exercise in futility if I’ve never told them what to do. Telling them not to drop their elbow when throwing the javelin doesn’t make much sense unless they understand that keeping the elbow elevated positions you better for a good throw. Telling a jumper not to lean into the mat only helps if they have been taught that leaning away from the mat gives them a better angle with which to clear the bar. While telling athletes these things is critical to them developing the proper technique, the ideal method is to show them.

Demonstrating the ideal technique is the best way to help athletes learn the proper way to run, throw, or jump. But what if you, as the coach, are past your prime and incapable of running fast, throwing far, or jumping high? Thank God for YouTube! Thanks to the marvels of modern technology, in just a few seconds I can pull up video on my phone of the world’s best athletes competing and show their technique to my athletes as a model of flawless form. I can show my guy learning shot put what it looks like when Ryan Crouser, the world record holder, throws. I can pull up video of Sydney McLaughlin-Leverone running hurdles so my girl still developing her own technique can see exactly what it is supposed to look like. Do I expect them to suddenly look like world champions after watching a few videos?  Of course not! But it gives them an ideal to strive for. This is exactly what the Apostle Peter does in his second epistle. He desperately wants to give the Christians he writes to an example, something to strive for. He writes to them:

³ His 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, ⁴ 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. ⁵ For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, ⁶ and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, ⁷ and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. ⁸ 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. ⁹ For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. ¹⁰ Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. ¹¹ For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (II Peter 1:3-11)

To put it as bluntly as I can, God did not save us from our old selves for us to continue being our old selves. Salvation was, is, a precursor to sanctification. We are meant to be partakers of the divine nature, but we must note that this is a reality only through God’s power and God’s promise. The gospel is not self-help. The gospel is not an invitation for you to get your act together. It is an invitation to accept, and even embrace, the reality that there is no helping yourself, that you are powerless to get your act together. When my granddaughters were small, they got power wheels cars for Christmas. They were young, so these were small versions that were powered and steered by remote control. It was entertaining to put them in the cars and watch them think they were driving around the church parking lot, when really, we were steering the car and making it go. We are as likely to drive ourselves down the road of spiritual progress as Lainey and Livy were to drive themselves around in their cars. The sooner we realize that we are in the car, but God is steering it and making it go, the better off we will be. An entire generation of Israelites that watched God liberate them from slavery in Egypt failed to enter the promised land because they said, “we can’t do it!”, yet God never intended for them to do it. Chances are you’ve been there.  At some point, maybe recently, maybe even now, you’ve said “I can’t be like Jesus.” You’ve tried and failed so many times the results seem indisputable. Guess what? You’re right. You can’t be like Jesus. But you know who can be like Jesus?  Jesus! It’s why Paul wrote to the Galatians, ^“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:15-20)

The process of becoming a partaker of the divine nature begins with faith. Peter says so explicitly in verse 5, “For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with…” Peter is assuming that faith, trust in God, is the foundation upon which the divine likeness will be built. Paul makes the same point when he writes to the Romans, “What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? ² For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. ³ For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” (Romans 4:1-3) Notice that Paul never says that Abraham didn’t perform any works. He says that Abraham’s works didn’t justify him. Abraham’s works were never going to give him the promised land; they were never going to give him a child by Sarah. Abraham was walking, we might even say working, but he was doing so in the power and promise of God. Paul elaborates more on this later in the same chapter:

¹⁹ He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. ²⁰ No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, ²¹ fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. ²² That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” ²³ But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, ²⁴ but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, ²⁵ who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. (Romans 4:19-25)

“He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead.” Maybe when you survey your own spiritual life, you consider yourself as good as dead. That’s OK.  In fact, what if I told you that’s exactly where you need to be! Paul says of Abraham, “No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.” The more Abraham realized that he couldn’t do it, the more he relied on the God who could! The sooner we realize that there is no hope for us saving ourselves, the sooner we begin to look for help beyond ourselves, where it can truly be found.

We were made to be partakers of the divine nature.

We were made to pursue virtue.

We were designed to obtain knowledge.

God’s intention was for us to exercise self-control.

We shine when we remain steadfast.

We show the world an alternative way of being when we are godly.

We truth of God is revealed when we show brotherly affection.

We reflect the image of God when we love.

You may be thinking, “I have tried to be more virtuous.  I know I need more self-control.  I struggle to remain steadfast.  I have tried, and I just can’t do it.”

Exactly! You…can’t…do…it!

Faith in yourself leads not to the divine nature, but to human nature, and we have seen enough of what the world looks like when it is made in our image. To become partakers of the divine nature, our faith must be not in ourselves, but in the divine!

⁸ By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. ⁹ By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. ¹⁰ For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. (Hebrews 11:8-10)

Abraham’s journey was one of faith.  Think of everything that took place because of Abraham’s trust in God. A child was born to a 90-year-old woman, and from that child emerged a great nation, Israel. From among the people of Israel came the promised Messiah, Jesus. God’s plan that covers millennia was furthered the instance that Abraham made the decision to believe in the God who made the promise, and trust that the one who made the promise also had the power to deliver it.

It is often said that the journey of 1,000 miles begins with the first step.  Maybe you feel like who you are this morning is about 1,000 miles from the divine nature.  Will you take that first step in faith, in the direction of the divine nature? Do you understand that you won’t get there through your own strength, but only if your faith is in the power and promise of God?

 

-Justin Simmons lives in Glenmora, LA and preaches for the Glenmora Church of Christ