2 Peter 1:2-11
I would like to consider how we have an abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To come dragging into heaven — just squeezing in — is not characteristic of Christianity, for instead of divine love being there, it is rather a fear of judgment. God has equipped us with a nature which can be satisfied only with divine glory, and every Christian is going to “make port.” But what kind of an entrance are we going to have? I trust that we all desire to have an “abundant entrance,” and we have the recipe for it here in this chapter.
Being made “partakers of the divine nature” is not so much here the new birth, but rather the practical result of it. We get it in the first part of the fourth verse, for if the soul lays hold on these promises which belong to it, living in the enjoyment of them, the result will be the manifestation of the divine nature.
When one comes down to the time of leaving this world, the kind of an entrance he is going to have at the end will largely depend upon the kind of an entrance he had during his life — the Christian experience he had been enjoying. The way to look forward with confidence to that change is to have operative in the soul these virtues that are spoken of in the intervening verses of our chapter (vss. 3-10).
Lay Hold of the Promises
The third verse reads, “According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue.” As young Christians, we sometimes excuse ourselves for our shallowness on the ground that our circumstances are not advantageous to the kind of a life we would like to live. You may have reasoned it out and think that it would be different if you were living in a different position. But here there is not one thing lacking; we have a complete equipment. God is not going to ask us to live for Him and then put us into a position where we cannot do so. No! Right in our present position God has given us the fullest resources to live for Him. We do not have to wait until we are older, or know our Bibles better, before we begin to live for Him.
How do these “exceeding great and precious promises” make us “partakers of the divine nature”? It is the entering into and enjoying these promises as realities. The result is that I am so under the power of them that other things lose their charm. When we really lay hold on the promises that are ours, that hope works out in our lives in a practical way, and we are seen to be “partakers of the divine nature.”
Escape Corruption
The latter part of that verse says, “Having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” As young people, we cannot value it too highly. If that were true in the days of Peter, how doubly true today. What is lust? It is unsatisfied desires, and this world is one constant succession of new desires. How different with those who know the Lord Jesus Christ! Divine realities give peace and quiet to the soul. I grieve to see the pace of the young in this world — the shamelessness of the age, without restraint; they are turned loose to glut themselves with what this world has to offer. We have been graciously taken out of it, and such a worthy Object as we have found cannot help but have a tremendous effect upon our lives. How we ought to value the blessed place in which we find ourselves! Could we think of a more blessed place than to have the association of those who love Him in sincerity and truth? It is a wonderful privilege.
Diligence
In verses 5-7 we are told, “Besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to patience, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, charity.” None of us want to get the reputation of being lazy in material things, but there is much in Scripture about being diligent in divine things. So this verse says, “Giving all diligence.” There must be purpose of heart. That is true with anything in this world wherein people succeed; people do not stumble into success. It is a matter of hard work, of having a purpose and letting that purpose form and control the soul.
Now verse 8: “If these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” I know the Lord does not occupy us with the fruitfulness or unfruitfulness of our lives, but none of us want to be unfruitful. Here is the way to bear fruit, to be a fruitful branch for the Lord Jesus.
Suppose we lack these things? “He that lacketh these things is, blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins” (vs. 9). There is a government of God operative among His people, and if a Christian becomes indifferent and worldly minded, lets divine things slip, and becomes taken up with this world, in a corresponding measure he loses the consciousness of the blessedness there is in Christ. He does not lose the blessedness, but the consciousness of it. It is possible for a Christian to forget that he was purged. He does not even know whether or not he is a child of God. We want to escape that, do we not? We want to have the constant assurance in the soul that we are headed for glory. Here is the way we get it: “If these things be in you, and abound, they shall make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Never Fall
“Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall” (vs. 10). God knows that we are going to be there, but this is the way to have constantly fresh in our souls the assurance of it — to make it sure to ourselves. Just as surely as we are careless and involve ourselves in this world, we lose that assurance and, perhaps, even get into a state where we forget that we were purged from our sins. We do not have to fall. It does not bring any glory to the Lord Jesus for us to fall. It brings dishonor on Him, on the truth, and on the church of God.
“If ye do these things, ye shall never fall: for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Is not that a glorious entrance? That is the privilege of every Christian. It is not a question of endowment, gift or ability, but of the heart being occupied with Christ — living in the enjoyment of what we have as God’s people. Each one of us here is privileged to have an abundant entrance. It is put into our own hands, but at the same time we all know that the ability must come from Him. It is a matter of grace from first to last, and none of us are going to take any credit in the matter, but may we not rather claim the grace He so gladly gives, that we may have the joy of an abundant entrance “into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
C. H. Brown (1927 Chicago Conference; adapted)