What does it mean that He has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3)?

What has divine power given to us? All things relating to life and godliness. We have not merely received life but with it all these things necessary that the new life may be manifested in practical Christian living and godly behaviour. The Apostle does not stop to specify the things given save to remind us that we have promises of an exceedingly great and precious kind. He really uses in fact the superlative word "greatest," for nothing could surpass the hopes of the Christian which centre in the coming of the Lord. Still a few moments' reflection might serve to remind us of some of the gifts that divine power has conferred upon us: — the Holy Spirit indwelling us, the Word of God written for us, the throne of Grace opened to us, to name but three. We have received however, not some but ALL things that have to do with life and godliness. Hence we are sent forth thoroughly furnished. Nothing is lacking upon God's part.

And it is in perfect consistency with the fact of His Divine power having freely given us every provision that has to do with life and godliness. Life is of course the vital spring of spiritual existence, which can only be sustained by Him who gives it. Godliness is the practical manifestation of that life, a reflection therefore of God's own character. The first has to do with God's side of things, the second with our own side.

And again, this is through the knowledge of Him: we must know Him in order to be in any measure like Him. And He has called us "by glory and virtue". Glory is objective, the great prospect outside of ourselves, but unspeakably attractive. Virtue is subjective, and attractive also to the renewed heart, for what believer can fail to desire that his life should be one of true virtue?

(2 Peter 1:3-4,) "According as his divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that has called us to glory and virtue: whereby are. given to us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." See how beautifully you get divine power in verse 3, and divine nature in verse 4. In verse 3 we are the subjects of divine power, a divine operation working in us, and giving us all things that pertain to life and godliness. Eternal life is a life that enjoys God, and is suited to God, and godliness is a character that is like God in all its ways down here, a moral likeness to Him. The first thing is a life that is from Himself, and is never occupied with anything but Himself, and then comes godliness, God-likeness.

But our place is wholly different. Now we find "his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness." There is no restriction whatever in what God gives us. He rises up in His own majesty, and in His divine power gives us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. We have not so much creature gifts for this life — indeed these seem hardly included in what is here said to be given with a spiritual end in view. Outward mercies are around us; and we have whatever share of them God is pleased in His providence to give. We confide in His wisdom, and are sure that He knows what is the very best thing for us, and He never fails. He puts us exactly in that place which is the best for us, as well as for Him. Confidence in Him is what makes the heart perfectly happy, because, whatever comes, whether trial, or difficulty, or sorrow, we can never as believers suppose that it is haphazard. It comes from Himself, and there is not a single form of trial or grief but what God can turn, as He means that we by grace should turn it, to His own glory. This is a part of what He calls "all things that pertain unto life and godliness:" because the dispensation of trial and difficulty is the path in which that life has to be exercised, and that godliness to be maintained.

Here, too, we have the manner of it — "through the knowledge of him that hath called us by glory and virtue." It is not merely certain things around us. When the various animals came before him, Adam knew and gave the appropriate name for each animal that was put under his dominion. He discerned their nature, and assigned to them designations, according to the wisdom with which God endowed him. But our privilege is to know Him who has called us. It is the knowledge of God Himself, and of God Himself, not merely as a Creator, but as the God of all grace. "Through the knowledge of him that hath called us by glory and virtue." What did Adam know then about these things? There was not even a question of a "call" of God in Adam's case at that time. There could not be the call of a man unfallen. Calling does not apply to an innocent, but necessarily to a fallen, creature; because calling means that God speaks to take that creature out of the condition in which he then is, and put him into a better. Adam was to magnify God by honouring Him where he was, and by enjoying what was given around him, not by seeking something unseen or greater, and that was why Adam, seeking in disobedience to be greater, lost everything he had so bountifully. Listening to Eve, and really to the devil, he sought to be as God; but in this vain search after becoming as God, he became a sinner. In a certain sense he did become as God, namely, as knowing good and evil; but this is what the creature, as such, could not bear. Only God can have in Himself the knowledge of good and evil, without leaving the good and falling under the power of the evil. If the creature, left to itself, have the knowledge of good and evil, the result is that the evil overpowers and carries him away: he gives up the good, and falls a prey to the evil. The intuitive knowledge of good and evil, apart from law, was what Adam gained by sin. This is not lost to the Christian.

Ans.—In verse 3 he testifies that God, in His divine power, “hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness.” Life first, of course. We are born of God through faith in Christ. A new and divine nature dwells in us, which enables us to love what once we hated, and hate what once we loved. But the power of God does not stop here. In Christ is provision also made for godliness. He is God manifest in flesh, and in Him the glories of God are so revealed that the believer's heart is captivated and drawn after Him. 2 Cor.3:18 says: “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” This, we believe, is what is meant by being “partakers of the divine nature.”

The knowledge of God is in Jesus Christ; through Him we know God in all His gracious fullness. (See 1 John 5:20.) The real heart knowledge of Him produces fruit because it carries with it divine power, which has given to the believer "all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us by glory and virtue." Life and glory are the gifts of grace; life is bestowed in the new birth which fits for glory, but godliness and virtue are the practical results of that grace in the life of the believer. The divine power for godliness and virtue which are to be manifested in the believer's life, that power which is able to act in us and give us the victory, must be laid hold on by faith. "How precious it is to know that faith can use this divine power, realized in the life of the soul, directing it toward glory in the end! What a safeguard from the efforts of the enemy, if we are really established in the consciousness of this divine power acting on our behalf in grace! The heart is led to make glory its object; and virtue, the strength of spiritual life, is developed on the way to it. Divine power has given all that is needed" (Synopsis of the Bible.)

Having called us by glory and virtue, He has in connection with it given us exceeding great and precious promises. These promises relate to both, glory and virtue. Through these promises we are made partakers of the divine nature, by the divine power acting in us, with the glory as the blessed goal. But by the same power promised unto us, we escape and are delivered from the corruption that is in the world through lust. Here is the real victorious life of a believer. It is not in some kind of a fixed "holiness experience" by which the old nature is eradicated, a teaching which is altogether against Scripture. The heart must be occupied with Christ and the glory by which we are called, as a result the divine power, the Holy Spirit in us, acts and victory over sin results.

Secondly, we learn that not only are we as believers saved, but that God by "His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness." We have to face the power of the flesh within, the power of the world around, and the power of the devil against us; but the power of God, which is far above every adverse power, is for us, and in this power it is possible to live the life of godliness.

He wishes them, as is the custom, "Grace and peace," adding, "through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord." It is the knowledge of God and of Jesus, which is the centre and the support of faith, that which nourishes it, and in which it is developed and divinely enlarged, and which guards it from the vain imaginings of seducers. But there is a living power with this knowledge — a divine power in that which God is to believers — as He is revealed in this knowledge to faith; and this divine power has given to us all that pertains to life and godliness. By the realising knowledge which we possess of Him who has called us, this divine power becomes available and efficacious for all that appertains to life and godliness — "the knowledge of him who has called us by glory and by virtue."

Thus we have here, the call of God to pursue glory as our object, gaining the victory by virtue — spiritual courage — over all the enemies that we find in our path. It is not a law given to a people already gathered together, but glory proposed in order to be reached by spiritual energy. Moreover we have divine power acting according to its own efficacy, for the life of God in us, and for godliness.

How precious it is to know that faith can use this divine power, realised in the life of the soul, directing it towards glory as its end! What a safeguard from the efforts of the enemy, if we are really established in the consciousness of this divine power acting on our behalf in grace! The heart is led to make glory its object; and virtue, the strength of spiritual life, is developed on the way to it. Divine power has given us all needed.

The next 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 by glory and virtue." All that is needful for the saints of God to sustain the divine life that He has communicated to us, so that we might live for His glory in passing through this world, has been given to us by His divine power: but it can only he laid hold of as we enter into the knowledge of God. As we learn that God has called us by glory and virtue, so do we eater into the knowledge of Him in this way, and thereby lay hold of the resources of His divine power that will enable us to live for Himself in this world.

(Vv. 3, 4). It is possible for the believer to escape the corruptions of the world, which is under Satan's power, because “divine power” has given us “all things which relate to life and godliness”. We are also reminded that “all things” needed to live this practical life of godliness are linked with the “knowledge of Him that has called us by glory and virtue”. We have been called by the attractive power of the glory that is set before us, and by the virtue, or spiritual courage, that enables us to overcome the enemy on the way to glory. The glory before us is here viewed as being reached in the spiritual energy of a life of practical godliness.

In connection with this call to glory, God has given to us “exceeding great and precious promises”. Calling and promise are ever found together. If God calls it is in view of some purposed blessing. Later in the Epistle the Apostle refers to these promises, the promise of the Lord's coming, and the exceeding great promise of the “new heavens and a new earth” (2 Peter 3:4, 13). With these great and precious promises in view we have before us what God has before Him, and, in this way, partake of the divine nature. We look on to a scene where love and holiness will be in display in contrast to the lust and lawlessness of this scene. We partake of the divine nature in hating the evil of this scene and in delighting in the coming scene of holiness, love and joy. Thus we escape the corruption that is in the world through lust.