The Debbie Taylor Williams Podcast

Debbie Taylor Williams: Welcome to our study of Second Peter, how to live by the divine nature instead of our fallen nature. Do you ever feel like you're swimming against the current in our culture? Or have you had that experience literally? I did once when my husband and I were on vacation. We took a catamaran snorkeling excursion and quickly became absorbed with the beauty so much that we drifted with the current a good distance from our boat.

After some time, Keith tapped me on the shoulder and motioned to a school of hundreds, it seemed like thousands, of barracudas. In case you're not familiar with them, they are large predatory fish with fang-like teeth known for their ferocious behavior. He then motioned that we needed to swim to the boat. My heart started beating rapidly and I began swimming but went nowhere. I was swimming against the current and in fact being carried out further to sea toward the barracudas.

You may have felt or feel that way, back to our analogy of swimming against the current with our culture. Or have you ever felt like you were swimming against the current with your own human nature and habits? We may vow to be more disciplined, but then the old pull for that food or drink or temper takes over. We may vow to be more nice, understanding, or kind, but our quick temper kindles words that blaze out of control and we hurt a person or damage a relationship.

What's our hope? We can say the right answer: Jesus. But we often have a disconnect between what we know what to do and what we actually do. Peter, Jesus's closest disciple who first professed that Jesus was the Christ, often felt that disconnect as we saw by his actions and heard in his words. His failures are splashed before us in living color in the Bible. His know-it-all attitude: "God forbid that you go to the cross." His braggadocious words: "Even though all others fall away, I will not."

Him sinking in his faith walk to Jesus on the water. Peter ignoring Jesus's warning that Satan was going to sift him like wheat. Peter denying he knows Jesus not just one time, but three times the night of Jesus's arrest. Peter even after being restored to Jesus, looking around at John and asking Jesus about John, wondering what others were going to have happen to them instead of keeping his focus on what Jesus told him to do.

The Holy Spirit needed to look no further than Peter to find the perfect vessel through whom to write on how to live by the divine nature rather than our fallen human nature. We know what Peter writes is possible because we see Peter before receiving the Holy Spirit and we see Peter after he receives Christ's divine nature. The difference is staggering for Peter, and it can be for us as well.

Are you ready to embark on a great four-week study of how we can live by God's divine nature? Let's get started. And what better place than to hear a word from Billy Graham who said what I think is very poignant: "Man has two great spiritual needs. One is forgiveness and one is goodness. The need for forgiveness was met at Calvary. The need for goodness was met at Pentecost with the sending of the Holy Spirit from heaven into believers."

Today, our focus is on Peter's greeting and the first four verses. First, Peter identifies himself, and second, Peter identifies those to whom he is writing. In verses three and four, Peter calls believers to recognize that they have a divine nature and power, everything they need for life and godliness.

Let's read together Second Peter 1 verses 1 through 4. Beginning in verse 1: "Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours by the righteousness of God and Savior Jesus Christ. Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. Seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust."

Now, let's be honest. If we were reading through our Bible and read those four verses, how much would you have gotten out of it? Probably not much with a quick reading. That's why the Bible says blessed is the one who meditates on it, which is why we're going to take Peter's words in bite-sized pieces. We want to digest them and in being nourished by them, be transformed from the inside out.

Let's begin by looking at the way Peter identifies himself: Simon Peter. Simon is the name his parents gave him. Peter is the spiritual name Jesus gave him. And his two names indicate his two natures: the first human and the second the divine nature of God in him. Like Peter, Christians have two natures. We have our human nature that we were born with and believers also have a second nature, the Holy Spirit's divine nature, living in us.

Look around on a busy street, in a classroom, boardroom, or packed stadium and there probably is nothing that jumps out at you about people's outer appearance. But from heaven's view, a few in the population have God's divine nature in them that marks them and sets them apart, sets you apart as His. They are the few about which Jesus spoke who have entered the narrow way of salvation by believing on Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins.

Since Peter is writing to believers who have the seal of the Holy Spirit in them, he writes: "To you who have a faith the same kind as ours." His letter is to those who had once been despised Gentiles, but now as Christ followers, they have equal rights of citizenship in heaven with the Jews and himself even as an apostle. Okay, so so far we don't have any new stunning information, do we?

However, as we continue in verse 2, when Peter writes, "Grace and peace be multiplied to you," we have to stop and think. Is this simply a cursory greeting or is it more? I have news for you: it's more. When we look at this word grace in the Bible in this verse, this word grace means the divine influence on the heart. Think about that again with me: the divine influence on the heart.

I love that visual because we have so many things targeting us, pushing our way of thinking, behavior, and how we even speak. The imagery of the world's influence being countered with God's divine influence on our heart is a positive word of encouragement. So Peter is saying in this verse in his greeting: "God's divine influence on your heart be multiplied to you."

The inspired use of the word multiplied tells us we can experience more of God's divine influence. God wants us to experience more of His grace, more of His divine influence. How exciting! We don't have to settle for a mediocre walk with Jesus through our days. Peter wants us to hear his blessing and spiritual rally cry because he knows the difference between believing Jesus is the Christ and then also being empowered by the dynamic Holy Spirit.

He says the Spirit's influence can be multiplied. I hope you think it's as exciting as I do. Let me ask you something: how many of you have ever had slow internet speed at your home? And then perhaps you visited a friend and they had fast internet. When you returned home, were you satisfied with your slow internet? Probably not. You wanted that fast internet speed.

Peter had experienced a faltering walk with Christ and then he experienced the speedy Holy Spirit influencing his life. And he tells us there's a difference and we should want Christ's multiplied divine influence rather than the quenched one that we may have had or have even today. Listen to his words again. This is Peter's blessing on you, inspired by God: "May grace, the divine influence on your heart, be multiplied."

Do you want God's divine influence multiplied? I do. And I do increasingly the more I experience the Lord. We can pray: "Heavenly Father, multiply Your divine influence on my heart. I lay my heart before You." Can you think of anyone who would be glad if there was more of God's divine influence in your life?

Peter blesses us with more, that not only grace can be multiplied, but that peace can also be multiplied, which we all want more of. He's not talking about peace between nations. He's talking about our heart being at rest. Not just the absence of strife, but rather being at one with God. As we look at verses one and two, we can summarize several important points in Peter's greeting.

First, every Christian has two natures: a human nature and a divine nature. Two, and most importantly, we are to live by the divine nature of God in us. Three, grace, the divine influence on the heart, and peace, our being at rest with God and within ourselves, can be multiplied, increased. But how? How does this multiplication, this increase of God's divine influence, His grace and peace, occur?

We're given the answer in verses two and three. "Through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord," he writes in verse two. "Through the knowledge, the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence" in verse three. Did you catch that? Twice Peter speaks of knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord as being the key, the catapult to our experiencing more of His divine grace, His influence and peace.

How do we get this knowledge? That's our question. Certainly, we know the importance of reading the Bible. It teaches us Christ's character and it teaches us Christ's ways. But, as we well know, the quote "knowledge is power" is only partially true. The truth is applied knowledge is power. Only when we apply the knowledge do we then experience the power and this is so the case in Christianity.

No doubt you've known someone raised in a Christian home or who spent their time at Christian school and they have a lot of knowledge of the Bible, but it's here, not here. In their head, not their heart, not their actions. The Greek word Peter uses for knowledge in verses two and three is epignosis, which means knowledge that powerfully influences and enables to avoid error. It's experiential knowledge. Say that with me: experiential knowledge.

For instance, you might say you know my husband Keith. You don't know my husband like I know my husband. You don't experience Keith like I do. Peter explains in verse two where it says grace and peace, that they are multiplied in the experiential knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. He says in verse three, "Seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness."

And he goes on and says, "Through the true knowledge, through the experience of knowing Jesus, who called us by His own glory and excellence." Here's the question: how intimately do you know Jesus? Do you study His ways? Do you call on Him to help you walk them out? Do you know what He doesn't like and you guard your heart and mind to stand against those things?

How quickly do you distinguish between your fleshly wants, your human nature wants, and what Christ wants in the moments of your day and evening? His higher purposes, not what you had intended on doing. In our day of cultural decline, marital challenges, parenting challenges, political upheaval, church scandals, mob mentality, and social injustice, to go on and on, every Christian is called on to be Christ's light, His witness.

You are important. The degree of Christ's influence in your life, my life, has a direct correlation with our peace, our joy, and our relationships. Grace and peace are multiplied when we do more than just know Bible verses. We invite the Spirit to exert an influence on us. We live them. For instance, we may know or even quote Philippians 4:13: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

Great scripture. But when you're stuck, inertia's got you down, you're sad, you can't go on, do you go to that verse and ask the Holy Spirit to do in you what you can't do in yourself? Do you live it out? Do you have an active relationship with the Holy Spirit? Do you believe His divine power has granted to you everything pertaining to life and to godliness?

Are you experiencing the true knowledge of Jesus who called you by His own glory and excellence, or are you a Christian who does church? If your answer was the latter, then you probably aren't experiencing an increasing multiplication of grace, God's divine influence on your heart. You likely aren't experiencing increasing rest and peace in your inner person.

Peter, Jesus, they want us to know that we don't have to live this mediocre life I refer to as we wait for the promise of heaven. Notice the glowing words this past fisherman uses in verse three: divine power, life and godliness, His glory and excellence. In verse four: precious and magnificent promises, partaker of the divine nature. Do those sound like fisherman words?

Peter is experiencing something new and upward, higher level of living, living for and by the King of Kings. He wants us to experience it. As I know what the Bible tells me and then apply it, it becomes personal. I have an intimate relationship with Jesus whose Spirit engages with me as I prayerfully do what He tells me.

The more and more often God's word is applied, layered onto my situations, the more I'm inviting His divine influence on my heart. The same is true for you. Divine is everywhere in these first verses. Peter is calling us to a higher life, a life that includes the word divine, a life that includes the word grace, the divine influence on the heart.

Peter is inviting us to divine peace, divine knowledge. The mind of Christ is revealed in scripture. Divinely experiencing Christ as we apply scripture through the power of the Holy Spirit. Divine power, divine nature, they continue in verses three and four: the holy nature of God in us instead of us struggling with our old fallen nature.

How, again, how is all this possible? As verse three has told us, God has granted it to us, everything pertaining to life and godliness. He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises so that you may become a partaker, a sharer of the divine nature. This is amazing. Have you ever applied for a grant? You needed something you didn't have and somebody else who had it gave it to you?

This is what God has done for us. We don't have it in ourselves, so He granted it. Verse four draws this contrast between the glorious and magnificent and the corruption of the world. When we read verse four where he says, "Having escaped the corruption in the world because of its lust," the first word he uses is escaped. It implies there is something that we need to get and flee from that is right here before us.

What is it? It's the corruption of the world. He tells us we need to escape it. And when he uses that word world, he means the whole mass of people who are alienated from God and hostile toward Christ. He says that is a corrupt population. They have decayed morally, if you would. The choice of Peter's word corrupt is a visual of a body decaying in a grave.

Just like we'd want to jump out of a grave we might stumble upon because there was a decaying body in it, we need to run from or at least stand against the moral decay of our world, Peter says. Why is our world decaying to such an extent morally? He tells us in his choice of the word lust, which means our desire for what is forbidden. It goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden.

We want the other person's spouse. We want... you fill in the blank. We desire what is forbidden. We live by our human sin-ridden nature. And so Peter sets a choice before us: grace and peace, personally experiencing having that knowledge of God, life and godliness, glory and excellence, God's precious and magnificent promises, living by the divine nature, or do you want corruption, the decaying of the world, following your own lust?

When we began today, we talked about how Peter identified himself by his two names and also as an apostle, someone that Jesus had sent out to teach and preach about Him. But as we close, we need to mention an additional and most important way Peter identified himself in verse one. He says that he is a bondservant of Jesus Christ.

A bondservant in Peter's day was a person who was not forced to be a slave or a servant. The person chose to be. He gave himself fully to another person's will. Do we realize how much love, how much trust is exercised in Peter choosing to fully give up his will, his rights to serve Jesus? There is no higher recommendation of another than to do that. And Peter says, "I know this man Jesus. I was with Him nonstop. He is God, and I am in full serving His purposes."

I watched Him die. I saw the resurrected Christ alive. I watched His feet rise from the ground through the clouds into heaven. He gave me His Spirit. He talks with me. And Jesus said He's returning and I believe Him. There's nothing temporal on this earth that can compare. At the beginning of today, I mentioned that I had drifted further from the boat when we were snorkeling than I intended.

When I realized it, I was already in a dangerous situation. You may be there now. You are if you're drifting in your spiritual life. You are if you're not paying attention to whose nature you're living by. Do you want more of God's divine influence in your life? Do you want more peace? Do you want divine power, godliness, glory, and excellence? If so, begin where Peter did, where all the great people God uses begin.

Fully give yourself over to Jesus's will to serve His purposes. Mary, the mother of Jesus, said to the angel Gabriel when he told her she would bear the Messiah, "Behold the bondservant of the Lord." Will you say those words to Jesus now?