That We May Become What He Is

Our Lord Jesus Christ became human, that humankind may become divine. Though Christ was rich, for our sake, he became poor, just as we are, that through his poverty we might become rich. Christ had no sin, and knew no death or corruption, but he became what we are and shared in our condition, that we might  become the righteousness of God in him, escaping the power of death and know divine life. In Jesus Christ, we become partakers of, participants in, the divine nature.

Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death — that is, the devil — and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. (Hebrews 2:14-15)

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. (2 Peter 1:3-4)

The early Church Fathers grasped this well, and taught it without hesitation. It is what they understood the Scriptures and the Gospel to mean concerning Christ, the Cross, and our Salvation.

• “Our Lord Jesus Christ, who did, through His transcendent love, become what we are, that He might bring us to be even what He is Himself.” (St. Irenaeus of Lyon, Against Heresies)
  
• “For we hold that the Word of God was made man on account of our salvation, in order that we might receive the likeness of the heavenly, and be made divine after the likeness of Him who is the true Son of God by nature, and the Son of man according to the flesh, our Lord Jesus Christ.” (St. Gregory the Wonderworker)
• “For He was made man that we might be made God.” (St. Athanasius, On the Incarnation)
  
• “He Himself has made us sons of the Father, and deified men by becoming Himself man.” (St. Athanasius, Against the Arians)
• “For therefore did He assume the body originate and human, that having renewed it as its Framer, He might deify it in Himself, and thus might introduce us all into the kingdom of heaven after His likeness.” (St. Athanasius, Against the Arians)
• “For as the Lord, putting on the body, became man, so we men are deified by the Word as being taken to Him through His flesh, and henceforward inherit life everlasting.” (St. Athanasius, Against the Arians)
• “But the Incarnation is summed up in this, that the whole Son, that is, His manhood as well as His divinity, was permitted by the Father’s gracious favor to continue in the unity of the Father’s nature, and retained not only the powers of the divine nature, but also that nature’s self. For the object to be gained was that man might become God.” (St. Hilary of Poitiers, On the Trinity)
• “Believe that the Son of God, the Eternal Word, Who was begotten of the Father before all time and without body, was in these latter days for your sake made also Son of Man, born of the Virgin Mary ineffably and stainlessly (for nothing can be stained where God is, and by which salvation comes), in His own Person at once entire Man and perfect God, for the sake of the entire sufferer, that He may bestow salvation on your whole being, having destroyed the whole condemnation of your sins: impassible in His Godhead, passible in that which He assumed; as much Man for your sake as you are made God for His.” (St. Gregory Nazianzus, Oration 40:45)
• “If the divine Logos of God the Father became son of man and man so that He might make men gods and the sons of God, let us believe that we shall reach the realm where Christ Himself now is, for He is the head of the whole body, and endued with our humanity has gone to the Father as forerunner on our behalf.” (Maximus the Confessor, The Philokalia, On Theology)

Through the Incarnation, in which our Lord Jesus Christ has united divinity with humanity, God with humankind, He has become what we are, that we may become what He is.

The Final Word is the First Word Fulfilled

In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, God said, “Let us make humankind in our image and according to our likeness.” And so God did.

St. John the Evangelist puts it this way: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was (and is) God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made, and without him nothing was made that has been made. The True Light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world: “Now the Word became flesh and took up residence among us. We saw his glory – the glory of the one and only, full of grace and truth, who came from the Father.” Here we see the creation of human being and the divine glory, and the union of the two in one Person.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Word, by whom, through whom, for whom, and in whom all in heaven and on earth have been created. He is the Image of the Invisible God, in whom all the fullness of divinity dwells in bodily form. And so have God chosen us in Christ from before the foundation of the world. This is the Incarnation, by which Christ the Word who became flesh has united divinity with humanity, God with humankind. In him we are made complete, and in him we become “partakers of the divine nature,” and so, conformed to the Image of the Son.

St. John, in pondering the depths of the Gospel, draws us back to the Creation account in Genesis. Christ is the Creator, who by the Incarnation has also become the Created. At the trial of Jesus near the end of the book, Pontius Pilate forever directs our attention to him: “Behold the Man!” This is human being created in the image of God. And from the Cross, just before he bowed his head and handed over the Spirit, our Lord Jesus declared, “It is finished.” And so we see what it means to be human being in the image of God.

Scriptures referred to above include: Genesis 1:26; John 1:1-3,9,14; 19:5,30; Romans 5:29; Colossians 1:15-18; 2:9-10; Ephesians 1:4; 2 Peter 1:4. I am indebted to Fr. John Behr for these insights into John’s gospelling.

Grace and the Gift That Is God

Grace is God giving Himself to us, thoroughly and completely, by uniting with us through our Lord Jesus Christ. For Christ is the Image of the Invisible God, in whom all the fullness of divinity dwells in bodily form, and in whom we are made complete and become partakers of the divine nature.

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)

“Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death — even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name.” (Philippians 2:5-9)

“The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation ... For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” (Colossians 1:15,19-20)

“In Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness.” (Colossians 2:9-10)

“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.” (2 Peter 1:3-4)

The Essence of Human Being

Creation and the Incarnation reveal the true and inherent nature of humankind, the essence of human  being. The creation of humankind reveals that we are made in the image of God and to be like God:

Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
     So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:26-27)

This is what it means to be human, and the essence of who we are. Though through the disobedience of Adam death entered into the world and came upon all, whereupon all sinned (Romans 5:12), yet this did not change our true, inherent nature. Indeed, it could not, for nothing can change the nature of anything God has made. Though mortality and sin did distort and obscure the image of God in us, but could not destroy or remove it from us. Nor did they become part of what it means to be human; though all are affected by them, they are not essential to human nature. We remain made in the image of God, and to be like God.

In the Incarnation, our Lord Jesus Christ united divinity with humanity, God with humankind. This shows that human nature is able to bear the image of God and to be like God. For Christ, who united himself with human nature, and so with all humankind (for we all partake of the same human nature, the only one there is) is God.

The Incarnation also shows that sin is not inherent to being human. For though Christ was fully human as well as fully divine, he did not sin.

Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death — that is, the devil — and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. (Hebrews 2:14-15)

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are — yet he did not sin. (Hebrews 4:15)

Sin is not essential to what it means to be human but, quite the opposite, takes away from it. It is the same with mortality; it is not essential to human being but is an aberration. We are made in the image of God and to be like God. Death is not essential to God, and so it is not essential to us. Death does not even come from God. It is not a creation of God. It has no being but is a lack of being. Just as darkness is not a thing in itself but is the absence of Light, so death is not a thing in itself but is the absence of Life. Likewise, sin and mortality are a lack of human being and not inherent to it.

By the Incarnation, our Lord Jesus Christ defines what it means to be human. For he did not become merely a human being but he has become human being itself. All humankind is summed up in him. United with us by the Incarnation, he is what God intended from the beginning for humans to be, and in him we are made complete and become partakers of the divine nature. It is, then, in Jesus Christ that we are made in the image of God and become like God.

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. (Colossians 1:15)

For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. (Colossians 1:9-10)

Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. (2 Peter 1:4)

What We Become By Grace

We are created by Christ, through Christ, for Christ and in Christ, as indeed are all things. “For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:16-17).

By the Incarnation, all humankind is united with Christ — divine being made one with human being. “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” (John 1:14). “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death — that is, the devil — and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death” (Hebrews 2:14-15).

So are we included in the death of Christ on the Cross, and so also in his resurrection. “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again” (2 Corinthians 5:14-15). “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22). 

Through the Creation, the Incarnation and the Cross, we become by grace what Christ is by nature. Indeed, in Christ, we become partakers, participants, sharers in, the Divine Nature. 

His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. (2 Peter 1:3-4)

The Light Who Makes Us Divine

You are the Light of the World,
O Christ, in Whom we become
Partakers of the Divine Nature.

In the Gospel of John, the Logos, the Word who has always been with God and is God, is “the True Light which gives light to everyone coming into the world” (John 1:1,9). And it is of him that the psalm writer sings, “With You is the fountain of life; in Your Light we see light” (Psalm 36:9).

Paul exclaims and exhorts, “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord” (Ephesians 5:8-10). And, “When Christ (who is your life) appears, then you too will be revealed in glory with him” (Colossians 3:4). Other New Testament letters speak similarly:

His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature. (2 Peter 1:3-4)

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2)

Our Lord Jesus Christ is the True Light who gives Light to everyone who comes into the world. In His Light, we see light and become light, participating in his Glory, and in him we become partakers of his divine nature.

Christ is Our True Nature

We are already in Christ as much as we are ever going to be, and Christ is already in us as much as he is ever going to be — which is 100%! It is irrevocably so because to undo it would require undoing the Incarnation, in which Christ has united with all humankind. Indeed, it would require the dissolution of creation itself, for all things are created in Christ and hold together in him.

Our salvation in Christ is settled from the beginning. For Christ is the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world, and we are chosen in him from the beginning (Ephesians 1:4).

But there is a sense in which our salvation is progressive as we continue to be transformed, by the life of Christ and the Holy Spirit in us, in our experience of salvation and the redeemed nature we have in Christ.

And there is a sense in which our salvation is future, for we have yet to experience the transformation of our mortal, corruptible bodies into immortal, incorruptible bodies, like that of Christ in his resurrection.

Yet our identity in Christ remains the same throughout. We neither increase nor decrease in him, and he neither increases nor decreases in us. What increases is our awareness and experience of him and our awakening response to him. Our true nature in Christ remains constant, created in the image of God and to be like God, to participate in the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4).

There is only one human nature, of which we all partake, and it is redeemed in Christ, by his participation in this nature with us. And though we do agree with God about sin, the things that do not belong in us and in our life (this is called confession), we do not agree with any false idea that we are of a sinful nature. For Christ is now our life (Galatians 2:20) and through the Incarnation, he shares with us in the only human nature there is and has healed it, so that Christ is our true nature. So instead of agreeing with the false idea that we have a sinful nature, we agree with the gospel, and with the Incarnation, which is foundational to the gospel.

Humanity As the Likeness of God

From the beginning, the purpose and project of creation was to make Man in God’s image and to be like God (compare Genesis 1:26 with Genesis 1:27). It is important to understand that God’s plan was not just to make us in the image of God but also in the likeness of God. Before that happened, though, humankind fell to sin and mortality.

But in the Incarnation, Christ came and joined himself with humankind, uniting with us even in all our brokenness and mortality. Being life, when he finally met death on the cross, he destroyed it, not only for himself but for all humankind. For even at the cross, Christ was joined with all of us.

That is the glory of the Incarnation; it means that Christ did not die on the cross instead of us but as us. His death is not merely counted as ours (a legal reckoning), but his death truly is our death (an ontological reality), so that his resurrection likewise truly becomes our resurrection. “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22).

Christ restores us to the image of God, as we are conformed to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29). Through him, we become “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). That is, through Christ, we become like God, becoming through grace what Christ is by divine nature.

Some have wondered what might have happened if man had not sinned, and the Fall, however we think of it, had not occurred. But we have not been given to know that; we have only been given what actually happened in the economy of God. Whatever happened and however it happened, it happened. Yet God used it to fulfill his divine purpose in Christ, to bring all things in heaven and in earth to unity under the headship of Christ (Ephesians 1:9-10).

The cross, then, was not a waste of any kind. Nor was it God’s Plan B, a contingency in case Plan A failed. For it is precisely at the cross that we see the full glory of God revealed as other-centered, self-giving, co-suffering love. There also — and for the same reason — we see the full glory of humanity as both the image and likeness of God.

Becoming Divine

In Jesus the Messiah, we “participate in the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4), which is what God intended for us from the very beginning when he created humanity in his own image and likeness. The implication of this, however, is one that many Christians shy away from, for it means that in Christ we become divine. Yet this was the understanding of the early Church Fathers. For example:

• Irenaeus. “Our Lord Jesus Christ, who did, through his transcendent love, become what we are, that he might bring us to be even what he is himself” (Against Heresies, Book 5, Preface).
• Clement of Alexandria. “And now the Word himself clearly speaks to thee, shaming thy unbelief; yea, I say, the Word of God became man, that you may learn from man how man may become God. Is it not then monstrous, my friends, that while God is ceaselessly exhorting us to virtue, we should spurn his kindness and reject salvation?” (Exhortation to the Heathen, Chapter 1)
• Athanasius. “For he was made man that we might be made God” (On the Incarnation, chapter 54). “Therefore he was not man, and then became God, but he was God, and then became man, and that to deify us” (Against the Arians, Discourse 1, Chapter 11). “For he has become Man, that he might deify us in himself, and he has been born of a woman, and begotten of a Virgin, in order to transfer to himself our erring generation, and that we may become henceforth a holy race, and ‘partakers of the Divine Nature,’ as blessed Peter wrote” (Personal Letter 60:4).

The doctrine of our divinity in Christ rests quite soundly within the orthodoxy of the historic Christian faith. More importantly, it is found in Scripture at every turn, especially in the New Testament. For example:

• God created us in his image and according to his likeness — that is, to be like him (Genesis 1:26-27). Jesus, who is God in the flesh, the express image of God in human form (Hebrews 1:3) came to restore us to that image, that godlikeness.
• In Christ, we have the right to become the children of God (John 1:12). As the child of a bird is a bird and the child of a lion is lion, so the children of God are divine.
• In Christ, we have union with the divine, with God — we become one in him and with him (John 17:20-23)
• In Christ, we are being conformed to the image of the Son of God, Jesus (Romans 8:29), who is the express image of God.
• In Christ, we have the very life of Christ, who is living his divine life in us (Galatians 2:20).
• In Christ, we have the very Spirit of God dwelling in us, producing in us his divine fruit — love, joy, peace, etc. (Galatians 5:22-23). By his divine Spirit, God, who is love (1 John 4:8) brings forth in us that which he is: love.
•  In Christ, we participate in the divine nature, that is, the nature of God (2 Peter 1:4).

All of this adds up to nothing less than our divinity in Christ. No wonder, then, that Athanasius and the others affirmed that Christ was made man that we might be made divine. But they are also understood quite clearly that this does not mean that we are identical with God. For some of God’s attributes are incommunicable (that is, not able to be shared), such as God’s omniscience, omnipresence and omnipotence. But in Christ and through the Holy Spirit, we partake of God’s communicable attributes, such as his immortal, incorruptible life, and the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy peace, etc.).

The reticence many Christians seem to feel about being identified so with the divine nature is often, I think, because they do not have a very good understanding about the hypostatic union of the divinity and humanity of Christ. Jesus is not a divided being, half half-human and half-divine. He is fully human and fully divine. He is the perfect expression of God in human form, and in him we have the perfect union of God and man. However, this could not be unless it were possible not only for God to be humanized but also for humanity to be divinized. In affirming the Incarnation, then, we are also necessarily affirming that humanity can become divine. And so it is for us through Christ: he participate in our human nature so that we may participate in his divine nature.

No doubt, it is hard for us to wrap our minds around this truth, just as it is hard for us to wrap our minds around the truth of the Incarnation, that God became human. Many Christians today are often not taught very well about either one, but for the early Church, it was a very important part of the Christian faith. Yet, our divinity in Christ is, like the Trinity and the hypostatic union, a mystery. The early Church did not try to explain these mysteries (such explanations usually ended up in heresy), but they identified them and preserved them for us. For example, we can define what the doctrine of the Trinity is, but we cannot adequately explain the mystery of it. Likewise our participation in the divine nature: we can identify the truth of it in Scripture, but we cannot adequately explain the mystery of it.

So it is with the language in 2 Peter, about participating in the divine nature. It is quite stunning, yet mysterious, for how can we fully understand what it means to partake of the divine nature if we cannot fully understand God himself? We can only affirm, with Scripture and the Church, that it is so: To participate in the divine nature means that we are divine beings, just as surely as participating in human nature means we are human beings.

God Will Be All in All

Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For he “has put everything under his feet.” Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all. (1 Corinthians 15:24-28)

The day is coming when God will be “all in all.” It is the consummation, the culmination, the ultimate fulfillment of the gospel. God will not just be all in some, or some in all — he will be all in all. But before we talk about what that means, let’s take a moment to realize what it does not mean.

First, “all in all” does not mean that God will become his creation, or that the creation will become God. In another letter, Paul says, “For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen” (Romans 11:36). Everything that has been created comes from God, through God and for God. This does not mean, however, that everything is God or that God is everything. God remains God and the creation remains the creation. Creation reflects the glory and attributes of God, but it is always dependent upon God. Its existence is not inherent within itself but is purely a matter of God’s creative love and sustaining grace.

Second, “all in all” does not mean that we somehow lose our own identity in God. God has always existed as the divine community of the Trinity — Father, Son and Holy Spirit. None of the Three ever lose their own identity but each remains who he is, ever and always. Likewise, when God becomes all in us, we do not lose our identity. God remains who he is; we remain who we are.

So what does “all in all” mean? In 1 Corinthians 15, we see that there are some things that are to be destroyed: all dominion, authority and power — and death. This is not the destruction of persons, human or otherwise, but of the evil that influences kings and cultures and is behind all the oppressive structures that afflict humanity. Their power, even the power of death, was broken at the cross of Christ. They will not prevail against the purpose of God.

“All in all” means that everything will be in perfect alignment with God. What cannot be brought into line with him — dominion, authority, power and death — will be destroyed. But everything God has created will be reconciled to him. Notice the all-inclusive nature of what Paul says about Christ in his letter to the Jesus-followers at Colosse:

For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. (Colossians 1:16-20)

This is what the cross and the atonement is about: reconciliation. Everything that has been created by God, whether in heaven or on earth, is being turned back to God, brought into proper relationship with him through King Jesus the Messiah. This is God’s pleasure and purpose, and no dominion, authority or power, not even death itself, can stop it.

“All in all,” then, is about everything and everyone — all creation — being restored and brought into fellowship with God. “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22).

Drawn Up Into the Divine Dance

We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. (1 John 1:3)

Our fellowship, says John, is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus. The Greek word for “fellowship” is koinonia, and speaks of partnership and participation, of community and what is shared in common.

The Trinity is its own community, its own koinonia. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit have joyful and eternal fellowship with each other. Early Church Fathers referred to their relationship as a perichoresis, a divine interpenetration or interweaving with each other. Three persons, perfectly united in One — God.

How is it, then, that we could even begin to have fellowship with the Three-in-One? What could we possibly have in common that would enable us to enjoy partnership and participation with God? The answer is found in Jesus the Messiah. 

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched — this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. (1 John 1:1-2)

John and the apostles experienced him in his humanity. They could see him, hear him, touch him — he was as real to them as they were to each other — yet they came to understand that he is the Word of life who was from the beginning, who was with God and, indeed, is God (John 1:1). They recognized him both in his divinity and in his humanity, the two perfectly joined together in one — Jesus the God-Man.

Our fellowship with God, however, is not simply that Jesus participates in human nature with us. It goes much deeper than that: Through Jesus the Messiah, we participate in the divine nature.

His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. (2 Peter 1:4)

The Greek word for “participate” here is koinonos, from which comes koinonia, the word for “fellowship.” In Jesus the Messiah, we who were created to be like God in the first place now share in the divine nature — he gathers us up into himself. By his divine nature, the life of Messiah at work in us by the Holy Spirit, we participate in holy community with God, drawn up into the divine dance of the Three, to enjoy loving fellowship with them forever.

Spiritual Growth and the Divine Nature

His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. (2 Peter 1:3-4)

Partaking of the divine nature is not instantaneous but a process that takes place over time. Peter clearly has spiritual growth in mind, as we can see from the verses that follow, about adding to our faith. By this he indicates the progressive and ongoing nature of salvation, the outworking of the salvation we initially entered into through faith in Christ. One day we will experience the fullness of salvation when our bodies are glorified and raised immortal just as Jesus’ body has been. So we can say, as Paul did, that we have been saved, we are being saved and we will be saved.

But it is also true that the progressive spiritual growth aspect (as well as our final glorification) are inherent in the salvation we entered into when we first came to know the Lord Jesus. From the beginning of our salvation, we have the ability to partake of the divine nature. It is there for us all along the way, and sums up all we need for life and godliness. But learning how to walk in (or live out) the reality of that is what our spiritual growth is about. And that is what Peter encourages us to in verses 5-9:

But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.

Because access to the divine nature is inherent in salvation from the beginning, it is part of the atonement — what the work of Christ in the cross and resurrection secured for us. In verse 9, Peter speaks of being “cleansed” of our old sins. That certainly is an atonement reality and an important aspect of our salvation — Jesus washed our sins away. But in verse 4, Peter takes it a step farther when he speaks of escaping the “corruption that is in the world through lust.” In that, we can see that the power of sin has broken so that we no longer have to be corrupted by it. Through the cross, Christ offers us escape from corruption and lust , an escape we can learn to appropriate and live by. This present escape from corruption is also part of the atoning work of Christ.

We appropriate this escape by faith (which is more than mere mental assent to the propositions posed by the atonement), and that is where Peter begins in verse 5: “add to your faith.” What then follows in verses 5-8 (knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love) are not meritorious works but the outworking of faith and the outworking of salvation. It is ultimately expressed as love (last in Peter’s list, but certainly not least). As Paul shows us in Galatians 5:6, faith “works” through love. Again, this not a meritorious work by which we earn anything from God but is the expression of faith. It is love that fulfills the commandments and manifests the divine nature, and by it we really do partake of the divine nature — for God is love.

In Galatians 5, Paul talks about “walking in the Spirit,” and the “fruit of the Spirit.” The “fruit” listed in Galatians 5:22-23 is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Love heads the list, and all the rest can be described in terms of love. This sounds very like the things listed in 2 Peter 1:5-8, which all seem to lead up to love. These things portray for us the character of Christ, and they come forth in us through the Spirit of Christ.

The way Paul speaks about the Holy Spirit in Galatians 5, then, is very like what is described in 2 Peter as being a “partaker of the divine nature.” For how can we bear the fruit of the Spirit of God without being a partaker of the divine nature? Walking in the Spirit of God, bearing the fruit of the Spirit, partaking of the divine nature — this is salvation, central and profound and dynamic.

Godlikeness

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” (Genesis 1:26)

God created us in the image and likeness of God — to be like Him. His plan was for us to represent Him on the earth and exercise dominion on His behalf. However, that image was marred when Adam rebelled against God, and through Adam, all humanity was bent toward evil and made subject to death. And the expectation of godly dominion on the earth was shattered.

Which is why Jesus came. The eternal Son of God “became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14) in order to redeem us and restore creation to godly dominion. Paul says that Jesus is “the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation” (Colossians 1:15). The author of Hebrews calls Him the “express image” of God’s person.

In Jesus Christ, not only is our humanity restored but so also our godlikeness. All who believe on Him are part of that restoration; Paul says that we are “predestined to be conformed to the image of [God’s] Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8:29). So then, we are being conformed to the image of Jesus, who is the express image of God. We have “put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him” (Colossians 3:9-10).

Though Peter does not use the word “image,” he does indicate the same reality concerning our restoration to godlikeness:

Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. (2 Peter 1:2-4)

Through the Lord Jesus Christ, we become partakers of the divine nature, participants in what God Himself is like. This does not mean, however, that we become God Himself. We do not participate in who God is in His infinite powers — His omnipotence, omnipresence, or omniscience, for example. But we do share in the life of God, who is immortal. “And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son” (1 John 5:11). And we partake of the character of God, which can be summed by one word, love, “for God is love” (1 John 4:8).

This is the direction Peter moves in. Directly after the promise of being partakers of the divine nature, he adds, “But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love” (2 Peter 1:5-7). Love is what caps it all off, bringing faith to completion.

Paul also speaks of the divine nature of love, in the book of Galatians, where he identifies love as the fruit of the Spirit: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23). This is the character of the Lord Jesus Christ, and is perfectly fulfilled by Him. Love heads the list, and all the other “fruit” that follows can be understood as manifesting love.

We were created to be like God, who is love. In Jesus Christ, and through the Holy Spirit, we are being restored to that likeness. And that changes the world.

Created to Be Like God

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” (Genesis 1:26)

Put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:24)

In the beginning, God created humanity, not according to its own unique “kind,” as were all the plants or animals of sky, earth and sea, but in His own image and according to His likeness — that is, to be like Him. Another way to say this is that we were created to reflect and reveal the glory of God.

The problem is that mankind, in the person of the first pair, rebelled against God — and we have all been corrupted by that rebellion. Paul put it this way: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Though created to bear the glory of God, which is the highest calling, we fell short. But that is why Jesus the Messiah came, to restore us back to God, so that we might once again reflect His glory, “being justified by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24).

This is not automatic, however. We take hold of this grace, this redemption, this restoration, by faith in the Lord Jesus. We are new beings in Christ, who is in the process of making all things new. We are new creations, part of His new creation. In Him we are no longer the same beings we once were. So we must put off the old ways we used to live and think, and allow the Spirit of God to renew our thoughts and attitudes, will and emotions. And as the NIV says, we must “put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:24).

Divine Union with God

I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that they world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given to them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. (John 17:20-23)

This is a prayer Jesus prayed for His disciples and, by extension, all who believe in Him through their witness. It is a prayer for union with God, that we may be one with Jesus and each other, just as Jesus is one with the Father. If Jesus is in union with the Father, and we are in union with Jesus — well, you do the math.

We were created for union with God from the very beginning, when God created man in His image and according to His likeness. No other creature, not even the angels of heaven, are said to be created this way. This likeness gives us the capacity to enjoy union with God. Like joins to like.

Of course we know that Adam rebelled against God in the Garden of Eden and lost vital connection with God. In Jesus Christ, that connection is restored for all who believe. We are reconciled through Him to enjoy fellowship with the Father once again.

When mankind fell into the bondage of sin, Jesus “became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). The reason He could do this was because man was created in the image and likeness of God. He did not become an angel when satan and his angels rebelled against God; they were not created in the likeness of God, as man was.

Man is unique among all God’s creatures, and uniquely fitted for union with Him. Second Peter speaks about this union in terms of divine nature. 

His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. (2 Peter 1:3-4)

We are “partakers” of the divine nature. The Greek word is koinonia, which can also be translated as “fellowship,” “partners,” “companions,” and “communion.” It speaks of union. Here it is used of our participation in the divine nature.The early Church Fathers recognized this reality and spoke of it in ways that are quite breathtaking. Here are a few examples:

• Justin Martyr, an early Christian apologist martyred at Rome:

Let the interpretation of the Psalm [81:1-7] be held just as you wish, yet thereby it is demonstrated that all men are deemed worthy of becoming “gods,” and of having power to become sons of the Highest. (ANF Vol. 1, Dialogue with Trypho, Chapter 124)

• Irenaeus (120-202), a disciple of Polycarp, who in turn was a disciple of the apostle John:

Our Lord Jesus Christ, who did, through His transcendent love, become what we are, that He might bring us to be even what He is Himself. (Against Heresies, Book 5, Preface)

• Clement of Alexandria (c. 150-215), early Christian theologian and head of the catechetical school in Alexandria:

And now the Word Himself clearly speaks to thee, shaming thy unbelief; yea, I say, the Word of God became man, that thou mayest learn from man how man may become God. Is it not then monstrous, my friends, that while God is ceaselessly exhorting us to virtue, we should spurn His kindness and reject salvation? (ANF Vol. 2, Exhortation to the Heathen, Chapter 1)

But that man with whom the Word dwells does not alter himself, does not get himself up: he has the form which is of the Word; he is made like to God; he is beautiful; he does not ornament himself: his is beauty, the true beauty, for it is God; and that man becomes God, since God so wills. (ANF Vol. 2, The Instructor, Book 3, Chapter 1)

• Athanasius (296-373), bishop of Alexandria, called a “Doctor of the Church” and “Father of Orthodoxy”:

For He was made man that we might be made God. (On the Incarnation, chapter 54)

Therefore He was not man, and then became God, but He was God, and then became man, and that to deify us. (Against the Arians, Discourse 1, Chapter 11)

For He has become Man, that He might deify us in Himself, and He has been born of a woman, and begotten of a Virgin, in order to transfer to Himself our erring generation, and that we may become henceforth a holy race, and “partakers of the Divine Nature,” as blessed Peter wrote. (NPNF Vol. 2, Personal Letter 60:4)

We were created in the image and likeness of God to enjoy divine union with Him.We enter into this union through faith in Jesus Christ, God who became man. 

Partaking of the Divine Nature (Part 1)

Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. (2 Peter 1:2-4)

Peter encourages and exhorts believers with the prospect of sharing in the divine nature. James R. Payton Jr. probes the matter in a recent article in Christianity Today. He asks the question, “Is salvation solely about us and our need to be forgiven and born again, or is there a deeper, God-ward purpose?” From a study of early Church Fathers, he answers,

The leaders of the ancient church thought so, speaking regularly of salvation in a way that may sound strange to many evangelicals, but which Wesley alluded to in some of his hymns. In particular, they envisioned salvation as theosis, an ongoing process by which God’s people become increasingly “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4), formed more and more in God’s likeness. As the 2nd-century theologian Irenaeus urged in Against Heresies, “Through his transcendent love, our Lord Jesus Christ became what we are, that he might make us to be what he is.” The great 4th-century defender of Jesus’ divinity, Athanasius, put it even more forcefully: “[God] became man, that man might become god.” [James R. Payton Jr. “Keeping the End in View: How the Strange yet Familiar Doctrine of Theosis can Invigorate the Christian Life.” Christianity Today, October 2008, 67.]

Clearly, there is a moral component to Peter’s words, having to do with God’s “virtue” or goodness and believers escaping “the corruption that is in the world through lust.” Believers are enjoined, accordingly, to add virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and love to their faith (2 Peter 1:5-7). However, that does not exhaust our participation in the divine nature, for Peter also speaks, in verse 3, of divine power, and what has been given to us by it, as well as the divine glory by which we have been called.

Peter was no stranger to this divine power and glory, and it was more than a theoretical construct to him. He experienced it firsthand. Along with James and John, Peter saw the Lord Jesus transfigured before his eyes. “His [Jesus’] face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light” (Matthew 17:2). Certainly, Jesus partook of the divine nature by reason of being the Second Person of the Trinity, but here He was in his humanity, His body revealing the glory of God in a tangible way. There is no inherent contradiction in the human body partaking of the divine glory, as indeed the Incarnation as well as the Transfiguration demonstrate.

Peter also witnessed the power of God at work through the human body of Jesus and the many miracles He performed. Indeed, Peter preached to Cornelius that “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him” (Acts 10:38). Though Jesus was and is the Son of God, in His earthly ministry He was anointed by God with the Spirit and power, and it was because “God was with Him” that He went about doing good and healing. Here again, we see Jesus in His humanity partaking of the divine nature and power.

Before He ascended to heaven, Jesus promised the disciples, of whom Peter was one, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you” (Acts 1:8). The same Holy Spirit and power that was on Jesus to go about doing good and healing would also be upon them. Their witness came not only by word but also by power, as the balance of the book of Acts demonstrates. Again, there is no inherent contradiction in a human being partaking of and manifesting divine power. Peter experienced this divine power, for example, when he and John healed the lame man (Acts 3:1-10), and when he raised Dorcas from the dead (Acts 9:36-42). There is also the unusual example of when people brought their sick out into the streets where Peter’s shadow might pass over them, and they were healed (Acts 5:14-16). This was not Peter’s doing, but the power and glory of God at work in Him, accomplishing it through him.

In his first letter, Peter recognized other aspects of the divine nature at work in God’s people. He blessed God, “who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you”(1 Peter 1:3-4). Believers share in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, to partake of divine immortality. As Paul said, “This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:53).

First Peter 1:23 reminds us that we have been “born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever.” This is a heavenly birth, brought about by God’s own word, and as Jesus taught Nicodemus, by the Spirit of God (John 3:3-8). Believers partake of a divine conception and birth.

[Part 2]

Partaking of the Divine Nature (Part 2)

[Part 1]

Believers also partake of divine ability. Peter’s discussion of charismata (grace gifts) is found in 1 Peter 4:10-11 and is very succinct:

As each one has received a gift [charisma], minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.

Where Paul gives a more extensive list in his discussion of the gifts in Romans 12:6-8 and 1 Corinthians 12:14, including gifts of utterance (e.g., prophecy, exhortation, tongues and interpretation of tongues) and gifts of action (e.g., showing mercy, helps, administrations, gifts of healings, working of miracles), Peter has two categories: speaking and ministering. These are not to be done in our own natural wisdom, ability and strength, but in that which God supplies.

Edwin A. Blum sees a connection between spiritual gifts and the immediate context of 1 Peter 1:4. Commenting on verse 3, he says,

God has called believers “by his own glory [doxa] and goodness [aretē]” — that is, God in salvation reveals his splendor (doxa) and his moral excellence (aretē), and these are means he uses to effect conversions. In bringing people to the knowledge of himself, God’s divine power supplies them with everything they need for life and godliness. Probably what is in view is the work of the Spirit of God in believers, providing them with gifts and enabling them to use these gifts. [The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, 12 vols. 12:267-68.]

What does it mean to partake of the divine nature? James Starr asks,

Does 2 Peter mean deification? The answer to that is it depends on what is meant by deification. If the term means equality with God or elevation to divine status or absorption into God’s essence, the answer is no. If it means the participation in and enjoyment of specific divine attributes and qualities, in part now and fully at Christ’s return, then the answer is — most certainly — yes. [James Starr, “Does 2 Peter 1:4 Speak of Deification?” In Partakers of the Divine Nature: The History and Development of Deification in the Christian Traditions, ed. Michael J. Christensen and Jeffrey A. Wittung (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2007), 90.]

Robert M. Bowman draws these conclusions:

The point is that the phrase “partakers of the divine nature” need not, on the assumption that “divine nature” refers to God’s essence, mean that Christians are to possess God’s essence in themselves ... Rather, God’s essence will dwell in them (through the Holy Spirit) and in so doing will transform their lives. [Robert M. Bowman, The Word-Faith Controversy (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2001), 192.]

Lastly, some comment on the meaning of “nature” (physeōs) is needed. The word is used quite rarely in the New Testament (eighteen times, counting adjectival and adverbial forms) and always with the simple meaning of what is intrinsic or essential or “natural” ... Peter, then, is speaking of God’s essence and is saying that Christians are to experience the benefits of having the essence of God dwelling in them. This is a reality that has already begun, but its full realization will come when we have fully “escaped the corruption in the world by lust,” that is, when we are made incorruptible and immortal. It is a marvelous truth that the actual essence of God dwells in the believer. [Ibid.]

Contrasting how the early Eastern Church differed from the Hellenistic viewpoint on divinization, James Payton notes this important distinction,

The leaders of the ancient church in the East seized on this familiar concept but filled it with new content. Whereas the usual notion entailed being absorbed into God like a drop in an ocean — losing consciousness and individuality forever — Eastern church leaders insisted that in deification we are made like God yet remain distinct from him. The way they put it is that we experience his “energies” but do not share his “essence.” This distinction is crucial, because it clarifies that for the Orthodox, becoming like god is not the same as becoming identical with God. We can never become the same as our Creator (the Uncreated), though we can take on crucial aspects of his character and being. [James R. Payton Jr. “Keeping the End in View: How the Strange yet Familiar Doctrine of Theosis Can Invigorate the Christian Life.” Christianity Today, October 2008, 68.]

Partaking of the divine nature is more than a matter of moral likeness to God. Believers in Jesus Christ are born of a divine word, with the anticipation of sharing in the divine immortality of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have the capacity to experience and manifest divine power and glory. We partake of the divine Spirit who has gifted us with divine abilities. Just as Paul taught both the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) and the gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12-14), Peter likewise demonstrates an awareness of both. We should not think that our participation in the divine nature is limited to one or the other.

It is also important to recognize that partaking of the divine nature does not mean that we lose our identity and distinctiveness. We become like God, just as Adam was created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26-27), but we do not become identical with God. That is, we do not become God Himself. The Creator/creature distinction always applies.

God is infinite; we are finite. Though we may partake of divine knowledge, wisdom and power through the gifts of the Spirit (e.g., word of knowledge, word of wisdom and working of miracles in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10), that does not make us all-knowing, all-wise and all-powerful.

If the divine nature is God in His essence, we may partake of it only in the sense that He indwells us, but not in the sense that we actually become Him. The distinction between the “energies” and the “essence” of God is helpful. We may actively share in His energies, the communicable attributes of God (e.g., the fruits and gifts of the Spirit), but we can never fully comprehend who He is in Himself. We are vessels and reflectors of His glory, but the essence of it is His alone.

The Table of Divine Partaking

By which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature. (2 Peter 2:4)

Peter reveals a startling truth: In Jesus Christ, we are partakers of the divine nature. One who partakes is one who takes part. The Greek word is koinonia, and refers to partnership, participation, fellowship. See how it is used in the following passage:

The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion [koinonia] of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion [koinonia] of the body of Christ? For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of the one bread. Observe Israel after the flesh: Are not those who eat of the sacrifices partakers [koinonos] of the altar? (1 Corinthians 10:16-18)

Here, communion refers, of course, to the Table of the Lord—the bread and the cup. It is the sign of our participation in the body of Christ, our union with the Lord Jesus. We are identified with Him; He is identified with us. We are part of Him; He is part of us, even as the bread and wine we consume at His Table becomes a part of our body and blood.

What does it mean to be a partaker of the divine nature? The Greek word for “divine” is theios, and literally means “god-like.” The early Church understood Peter’s phrase, “partakers of the divine nature” as theosis: deification, being made divine, or “becoming god.” Athanasius of Alexandria, a fourth century Father of the Church, said, “For He has become Man, that He might deify us in Himself … that we may become henceforth a holy race, and ‘partakers of the Divine Nature,’ as blessed Peter wrote.” (Personal Letter 60:4). “For He was made man that we might be made God” (On the Incarnation, chapter 54). “Therefore He was not man, and then became God, but He was God, and then became man, and that to deify us” (Discourse 1 Against the Arians, chapter 11). Ireneaus, an important Christian theologian of the second century, speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ, “who did, through His transcendent love, become what we are, that He might bring us to be even what He is Himself” (Against Heresies, Book 5, Preface). The Church has long embraced this understanding as part of the orthodox Christian faith.

What does it mean to participate in the divine nature? First, we need to understand that there are some aspects of the divine nature in which we could never share. For example, God is all-powerful, all-knowing and everywhere present. These are attributes which cannot be communicated to us. That is, we are incapable of experiencing them; they belong to God alone. But there are other divine attributes in which we may share with Him. Peter tells us that the divine power of the Lord Jesus Christ has given to us “all things that pertain to life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3). He then lists some of these gifts in verses 5-7: faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and love. Paul offers a similar list, which he calls “the fruit of the Spirit”: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). These are all attributes by which we are participants in the divine nature.

The Incarnation is not just about redemption from sin, and reconciliation with God. It is the restoration and fulfillment of God’s purpose for us in creation, when He said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth” (Genesis 1:26). That is why, as Paul says, “the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God” (Romans 8:19). “Sons” speaks of like nature. Just as sons of men share in the nature of men, sons of God share in the nature of God.

As we take the bread and the cup at the Table of the Lord, we partake of the divine nature. We partake of Jesus Christ, His body and His blood. As Jesus partook of our human nature, we partake of His divine nature. For we are being conformed to the likeness of Jesus, just as Adam was created in the likeness of God, and we receive His divine spirit, the Holy Spirit, just as Adam received the breath of God.

The Table of the Lord displays the Incarnation of Jesus, His participation in our human nature and our participation in His divine nature, and shows us to be the sons of God. All creation is waiting for this revelation.

Divine Beings

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:26-28)

The amazing truth about mankind is that, from the very beginning, we were created as divine beings — to be like God. That is what the Scripture means which it says, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” That is such a mind-blower that even many Christians have a difficult time believing what it says. But we see this truth consistently through the Bible.

In Psalm 82:1, for example, we see calling together the judges of the earth to rebuke them for failing so miserably in their duties. “God stands in the congregation of the mighty; He judges among the gods.” The Hebrew word for “gods” is elohim, usually translated as a reference to God Himself. But from the context, we see that it is here talking about men, calling them “gods.”We see it again in verse 6: “I said, ‘You are gods,’ and all of you are children of the Most High.”

Was that a slip-up on the part of the psalm writer? Maybe some sort of typographical error? No, not at all. Writing by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the psalmist really meant to refer to them as gods. These were human beings whom God expected to operate in a divine capacity, but He would not have done so had He not created man to be like Him.

The Lord Jesus references this passage in John 10:34-36:

Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, “You are gods”’? If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?”

Jesus did not dispute this verse, or the fact that God spoke to men and said, “You are gods.” Rather, He confirmed it! He used it as a point to talk about His own divinity: If God said to men, “You are gods,” then why should the Jewish leaders get so bent when Jesus claimed to be the Son of God?

Now, we understand from other Scriptures that Jesus is uniquely the Son of God, that is, in such a way that is not true of anyone else (see John 3:16, for example). That is because He is the eternal Word of God who took on human flesh (John 1:1-18). Jesus is God in human flesh, and He did not think it took anything away from Him for men to be called “gods.” He was not offended by it one bit; He affirmed it.

God created man to be like Himself, a divine class of being. But where God is infinite in all His divine attributes, man finite in his god-likeness. God exists of Himself, but man is completely dependent upon God for his existence. God’s divinity is absolute; man’s divinity is derivative from God.

From Genesis 3, we know that Adam rebelled against God, believing the promise of the devil that he could be a god apart from Almighty God. But in that day, man died, having disconnected himself from the very source of his divine existence. That is why Jesus came, to destroy the works of the devil and reconcile man back to the Father. His redemptive work makes it possible for us to take up, once again, the divine nature God intended us to have from the beginning.

Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. (2 Peter 1:2-4)

To those who have received the Lord Jesus Christ, the divine power of God has restored everything required for life and god-likeness, so that we might be “partakers of the divine nature.”

Throughout the New Testament, those who receive Jesus are called “sons of God,” and “children of God.” “As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name” (John 1:12). “Beloved, now we are children of God” (1 John 3:2). “For as many as are lead by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God” (Romans 8:14).

What does it mean to be “children of God” and to partake of the divine nature? It is the law of reproduction:

• A dog has puppies. The puppies partake of the canine nature of the parents. They are a canine class of being.
• A sheep has lambs. The lambs partake of the ovine nature of the parents. They are an ovine class of being.
• A pig has piglets. The piglets partake of the porcine nature of the parents. They are a porcine class of being.
• A bear has cubs. The cubs partake of the ursine nature of the parents. They are an ursine class of being.

All this is how God planned it from the beginning — everything reproduces after its kind. That means that a dog does not have pups that are not canines, and a cat does not have kittens that are not felines.

What does it means, then, that we are called “sons of God,” and “children of God?” It means that we are beings like Him, we partake of His divine nature. We are a divine class of being — created by God to be so; redeemed by Jesus Christ to be so.

Why is this important? Because it is who we are in Jesus Christ. Not only that, but all of creation is waiting for us to get this revelation. For when Adam sinned, he brought the world under a curse. But in Jesus Christ, we have redemption, not only for ourselves, but for the creation as well.

For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. (Romans 8:19-22)

You and I were created as diving beings. Though we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), the Lord Jesus has come to reconnect us to Father God, so that we may once again partake of the divine nature, to fellowship with God and do His will upon the earth. All of creation is waiting for you and me to get this revelation so that it, too, can be redeemed.