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2 Peter 1:4<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n Truth to Learn<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n In eternity, we will share in God\u2019s divine nature.<\/p>\n Behind the Words<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n The expression \u201cexceedingly great<\/span>\u201d comes from the Greek \u201cmegista,<\/span><\/em>\u201d which is the superlative form of \u201cmega<\/span><\/em>\u201d (big or great), so the text tells us that He has given us the greatest<\/strong> promises which are of great value.<\/p>\n \u201cMay participate<\/span>\u201d seems to imply that there is a chance that we might not as well. This is not what the Greek says. It is from the Greek hina ginesthe koinonoi<\/span><\/em>. The construction denotes the \u201ctelic subjunctive\u201d mood of the verb, which means it is an act of purpose. That is to say, \u201cit is certain that we will participate in the divine nature.\u201d<\/p>\n Meaning Explained<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Peter starts out this verse with \u201cThrough these<\/span>,\u201d which is one of those connective phrases that we need to look at more carefully. This phrase is translated from the Greek words di h\u014dn<\/span><\/em>, which literally mean \u201cthrough which things.\u201d Well, what \u201cthings\u201d is he talking about? It could be \u201cglory and virtue,\u201d it could be the \u201cgrace and peace\u201d referred to in verse 2, it could be all of these, or it could refer to \u201cHis divine power\u201d and \u201cthe knowledge of him.\u201d Why? Because Greek is very particular in that a relative pronoun (these) must agree with the noun(s) it is referring to in both gender and number. All of these things are feminine nouns and the Greek pronoun translated \u201cthese\u201d is a feminine, plural, relative pronoun, so it can\u2019t refer to only one of these things alone, and may refer to them all. However, as I read it, Peter seems to be referring specifically to His divine power and our in-depth knowledge of Him from verse three.<\/p>\n Through these things, Peter tells us, God has given us the greatest of precious promises. And what are these promises? They are promises of salvation by grace through faith, of a Savior who will never leave us nor forsake us, of eternal blessing in the presence of our divine creator, and of peace and protection in times of suffering, plus many more.<\/p>\n He then tells us that through these things we will \u201cparticipate in the divine nature.\u201d This verse is not telling us that we will be gods some day as some false religions erroneously teach. It tells us that we will experience the godliness of God in a very special way, which is reserved only for those who are saved. Peter tells us that we will experience it \u201c\u2026 having escaped the corruption <\/span>(literally \u201cdecay\u2019) that is in the world through lusts.<\/span>\u201d <\/span>In other words, we will experience this sharing in the divine nature after we die and are glorified with Christ.<\/p>\n As if the mere thought of being in Heaven and being in His presence eternally wasn\u2019t enough, we will also, somehow, experience the godliness of God in a unique and special way. This, alone, should make the fear of death disappear for any born-again believer!<\/p>\n Application<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n This participation in the divine nature is a privilege that is reserved only for those who have professed Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. And, if we will share in God\u2019s divine nature some day, shouldn\u2019t our current behavior reflect that fact?<\/p>\n In God\u2019s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n Copyright \u00a9 2009 Will Krause. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n <\/span>If this message or this link was forwarded to you by a friend and you wish to receive future verses directly to your inbox, you can call the church phone <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 2 Peter 1:4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. Truth to Learn In eternity, we will share in God\u2019s divine nature. Behind the Words The expression \u201cexceedingly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[213,214],"class_list":["post-819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-divine-nature","tag-precious-promises"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-dd","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"signature\"](\"\/signature.gif\")
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