Are Christians "little gods"?

We have been made partakers of the Divine nature, not as being lifted to the level of Deity, that could never be, not that we should be omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent, but sharing the moral qualities of the Divine life, such as love, purity, compassion, holiness, righteousness, possessing a nature that can commune with God.

This Scripture does not state that believers partake of Deity, but are “partakers of the Divine nature,” that is, apart from omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, believers have conferred upon them a spiritual life, which can exhibit the moral features of the life of God, such as love, truth, holiness, righteousness, faithfulness, compassion, tenderness, enabling them to live a life pleasing to God.

We are made “partakers of the divine nature.” That does not mean that we are elevated to Godhead. That is very evident. But it is wonderful that in the divine nature we have moral qualities, which are the reflex of God’s own nature.

But we shall have much more in the way of power and glory by and by. When Christ comes, human nature in us will participate in the victory of the Second Man, the last Adam, as it now shares in the weakness and ruin of the first man. Then indeed is the time when human nature will be promoted to a good degree; that is to say, it will be raised out of all the consequences of the fall of the first man, and will be placed in all the power and incorruption and glory of the Second Man as He is now in the presence of God. Never shall we be made God: this could not be, and ought not to be. It is impossible that the creature can overpass the bounds that separate the Creator from it. And more than that, the renewed creature is the very one which would most abhor the thought. No matter what the church's blessedness and glory may be, it never forgets its creature obligations to God and the reverence due to Him. For this very reason he that knows God would never desire that He should be less God than He is, and could not indulge or tolerate the self-exalting folly which the miserable illusion of Buddhism cherishes, along with many kinds of philosophy which are afloat now as of old in the west as well as the east — the dream of a final absorption into deity. This is altogether false and irreverent. All approach to such thoughts we see excluded in the word of God. In heaven the lowliness of those whom the sovereign grace of God made partakers of the divine nature will be even more perfect than now while we are on the earth. Human nature under sin is as selfish as proud. Fallen humanity always seeks its own things and glory; but the new nature, the perfection of which is seen in Christ, (that is to say, the life given to the believer, what we receive in Christ even now, and by and by when everything is conformed to it) will only make perfect without a single flaw or hindrance that which we now are in Christ Jesus our Lord.

But we shall have much more in the way of power and glory by and by. When Christ comes, human nature in us will participate in the victory of the Second Man, the last Adam, as it now shares in the weakness and ruin of the first man. Then indeed is the time when human nature will be promoted to a good degree; that is to say, it will be raised out of all the consequences of the fall of the first man, and will be placed in all the power and incorruption and glory of the Second Man as He is now in the presence of God. Never shall we be made God: this could not be, and ought not to be. It is impossible that the creature can overpass the bounds that separate the Creator from it. And more than that, the renewed creature is the very one which would most abhor the thought. No matter what the church's blessedness and glory may be, it never forgets its creature obligations to God and the reverence due to Him. For this very reason he that knows God would never desire that He should be less God than He is, and could not indulge or tolerate the self-exalting folly which the miserable illusion of Buddhism cherishes, along with many kinds of philosophy which are afloat now as of old in the west as well as the east — the dream of a final absorption into deity. This is altogether false and irreverent. All approach to such thoughts we see excluded in the word of God. In heaven the lowliness of those whom the sovereign grace of God made partakers of the divine nature will be even more perfect than now while we are on the earth. Human nature under sin is as selfish as proud. Fallen humanity always seeks its own things and glory; but the new nature, the perfection of which is seen in Christ, (that is to say, the life given to the believer, what we receive in Christ even now, and by and by when everything is conformed to it) will only make perfect without a single flaw or hindrance that which we now are in Christ Jesus our Lord.

It is very clear that the believer cannot be a partaker of the Divine Nature in the sense of partaking of Deity. He cannot share in the attributes of God. He cannot have "life in Himself," for that Would lift him into Godhead. He cannot have the attributes of Godhead,—omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence. As creatures believers must ever be dependent on God for the life they have, either as connected with the old creation, or the new creation.

John 10:34-36. Had their interpretation been wrong, the Lord would surely have at once corrected such a terrible mistake and repudiated the claim to Deity. He does neither; on the contrary the Lord confirms His claim by an appeal to their own Scriptures, thus condemning them out of their own mouth for refusing His claim to Deity. Quoting from Psalm 82:6, the Lord asks, "Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?" If, then, men, who were set apart to be judges in Israel, as God's representatives, and to whom the word of God came, are called gods, can it be blasphemy for the Son, Whom the Father has set apart and sent into the world, to claim to be a divine Person?

But He meets them on their own ground by an à fortiori argument, which left His personal glory untouched. "Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? If He called them gods to whom the Word of God came202 (and the Scripture cannot be broken), say ye of Him Whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest", because I said, I am Son of God?" (verses 34-36).203 Thus does He reason most conclusively from the less to the greater; for every Jew knew that their inspired books, as for instance, Ps. 82, calls judges elohim, (gods), as commissioned by God and responsible to judge in His name. If such a title could be used of a mere magistrate in Scripture (and its authority is indissoluble), how unreasonable to tax with blasphemy Him Whom the Father set apart, and sent into the world, because He said He was God's Son! He is not affirming or demonstrating what He is in this, but simply convicting them of their perverseness on the ground of their law. They had not the least excuse whilst they claimed adherence to their law of Divine authority. If God called the judges by His name as being His representatives, how much more was it due to Him Who had a place so unique? It is well to note that the Lord predicates sanctification of Himself in John 17:19 as set apart now in heaven, the model Man in glory, and here by the Father for His mission into the world, quite distinct from the application of the word to us who were sinners, and even dead in sins. Sanctification, in the case of the Holy One, resolves itself into its pure and abstract sense of setting apart.

I desire because of the importance of the subject to refer to the 82nd Psalm for illustration of the truth, that any honour conferred by God on men brings them out of obscurity, taken away it sinks them into their own proper nothingness. On the other hand, honour conferred on the Son adds nothing really to Him: — if it be taken, from Him or disowned by man, it only leads to His exaltation by God to every office in which man has failed, "that in all things He might have the pre-eminence." "God standeth in the congregation of the mighty: He judgeth among the gods. How long will ye judge unjustly and accept the persons of the wicked? … I have said, Ye are gods, and all of you children of the Most High: but ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes. Arise, O GOD, judge the earth: for thou shalt inherit all nations."

The reference of the Lord Jesus to this Psalm, in the tenth chapter of John, is very remarkable. He had asserted in the most unequivocal manner His own proper divinity, "I and my Father are one" (John 10:30). This they said was making Himself God (John 10:33). Afterwards, in John 10:38, Jesus again asserts this, and again they sought to take Him (John 10:39). But He had previously (John 10:34-35) referred to this Psalm, to prove that they ought at least to have owned Him in His official authority and power. His works testified of Him that He was the Sent One of the Father. Not one "unto whom the word of God came," merely, but Him Whom the Father had sanctified and sent into the world. He could say "I am the Son of God." They should have believed Him for His works' sake, for He did the works of His Father, and He and the Father were one. To others the word of God has only come, "I have said, Ye are gods." They had no dignity at all in themselves, they were of the earth, earthly, raised in official dignity by God. But He was the SON; He had been "sanctified and sent into the world;" He was "the Lord from heaven." How infinitely contrasted, then, is Jesus the Son of God with all those of whom God has said, "Ye are gods." The moment their conferred dignity was taken from them, they would die like the common herd of men. They had no essential, inherent power or dignity. But He was one with the Father, He was in the beginning with God; nothing therefore could really touch His dignity, for it was intrinsically divine. It was not the word coming to Him which made Him what He was, though He had indeed been sanctified and sent into the world; it was what He ever was in Himself, which enabled Him to be so sent, and to sustain and give efficiency to all that was laid upon Him. Hence, though in His humiliation His judgment was taken away, yet God would divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong. This shall be manifestly true, when all official and delegated power shall be taken out of the hands to which God has entrusted it, and actually assumed by Jesus: — then shall that word be proved true of Him, "Arise, O God, judge the earth, for Thou shalt inherit all nations."

Fallen human nature has not, and cannot have, one like thought, wish, or feeling with God; nor has man in the flesh one aim, purpose, or action according to the divine nature. Not only is this true of the time when the children of God were in the flesh — that is, before they were born of the Spirit — but it is also true of the fallen nature in them so long as they are upon earth; for the flesh in them ever remains flesh. The fallen nature, the flesh in the child of God, maintains its character to the end; in the glory, the flesh, the evil principle in us, will be no more.