“Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. (2Peter 1:3,4)
We have been given exceeding great and precious promises. It’s by these promises that we can be partakers of the divine nature and escape the corruption of the world. What are these gifts that have enabled us to partake of God’s divine nature? They are all those miracles in our spirit that transformed us into God’s children and that will transform our human earthly bodies to be like Jesus and to be with Jesus.
In the Old Testament God was also known as the Redeemer. There are two words that mean redeem. One refers to redeem as deliverance, liberate or extract from control. The other means saving from dangerous control. The difference is that the saving from dangerous control refers to God’s redemption and is the word used when God redeemed the Israelites from Egyptian slavery. The other is deliverance such as when Abraham rescued Lot from captivity. No ransom and no negotiation were required on those two occasions.
In the New Testament, the Greek word means the release by the payment of a ransom. Our release from the kingdom of darkness was the result of the payment of the sacrifice and death of Jesus. “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23) Jesus paid the ransom for us.
This redemption includes the forgiveness of our sins and the gift of a new and reborn spirit from God which is eternal. It’s the redemption that enables us to have a divine nature in the reborn spirit given by God, which is divine, holy and pure. But we’re still in this temporal earth suit which is very carnal and not redeemed nor changed. This flesh fights against the spirit God gave us which sides with God and with righteousness. The flesh wants comfort in every area. The Bible calls it lust defined as ardor, passion and desire. It’s lust for comfort, recognition and glory. It defies the glory of God for its own glory at any cost, even the cost of destruction because it’s impatient and wants all of it now. And it tempts the soul (mind, will, emotions) to side with it and make decisions based on its lust.
This is where discernment is needed. The enemy of God, satan, has already been defeated. He is a conquered enemy. He cannot even bring his destruction on us. What he does is bring lies to your mind and emotions. The flesh sides with him if your mind is not renewed and transformed. It will believe those lies and resolve a decision that is not righteous, that is against God’s commandment, and which brings death and destruction because that is the payment for sin. Wait a minute you say! Didn’t Jesus pay the ransom already? Yes indeed He did. But one has to receive that gift. And in my heart, I believe that the Holy Spirit indwells and seals us for God, eternally when we make Jesus Lord over our lives. But if one’s mind is not renewed and transformed, one will open the door and take a step into the other side where there is grief, calamity and darkness. Our hearts become hardened against God’s sovereignty and will, ensuing a miserable life. But here is the clincher. Anyone who has truly received Jesus and given Him Lordship over their lives, cannot go to the length of entering the kingdom of darkness. I truly believe that their salvation was not genuine, was probably emotional and that they are not saved at all. One cannot go that far into the kingdom of darkness if one has the Holy Spirit indwelling. “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for His seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” (1John 3:9) And if one is truly saved, one cannot deny Jesus. “ Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: (but) he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.” (1John 2:23) And further on John writes again about denying Jesus. “Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.” (1John 4:2-3)
This is a hard pill for Christians to swallow. We all know someone who professed to love Jesus who went to the other side. Although they professed Jesus as Lord, their heart was not in it. Their flesh eventually won over and what we see as a sudden fall was really long in coming. Their words and actions had been hard efforts to convince themselves of salvation. And as John writes, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.” (1John 2:19)
The Father’s gift of His promises are sure and unchanging. (2Corinthians 1:20) We can be secure in the knowledge that no matter the difficulties we encounter in this world, He will not allow us to fall into destruction. We may slip and slide, but the Lord’s promise is that no one will snatch us out of His hand, that He will never leave us and that we will be with Him for eternity. (John 10:28; Matthew 28:20) We have the promise of a divine life eternally with Him. And we have been sealed with the Holy Spirit as a deposit of that miraculous and divine life with Him. “In Whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of His glory.” (Ephesians 1:13-14)
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