A missionary named Herbert Jackson got a car that wouldn’t start without a push. So, for two years, whenever he needed the car, he would ask people to push it so that it would start. During his rounds, he would park it on a hill or leave the engine running. When Jackson retired, he turned over the car to the new missionary. While he was explaining how he would get the car started, the new missionary looked under the hood. Then, he said, “I believe the only trouble is this loose cable.” After securing the cable, when he started the car, lo and behold the engine roared to life, much to the surprise of Jackson! For two years, Jackson endured unnecessary trouble. The power was there all the time. Only a loose connection kept Jackson from putting that power to work.[1]
I think that happens to many believers also. God’s power is there all along but we fail to tap into His power. That’s why we live lives that do not please Him. This morning we will talk about “Our Power for Our Pursuit.” Let us pray…
We already saw the reasons why we should grow spiritually in 2 Peter 1:8-11. “For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”[2] We saw that when we grow spiritually we become fruitful and effective, we become focused and not forgetful, we have a firm footing and we will finish well.
This morning we will look into the resources for our spiritual growth. Let us read 2 Peter 1:3-4. “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.” God gave us everything we need so we can live a godly life when we believed in the Lord Jesus as Savior.
Verse 3 tells us, “His divine power has granted to us”. If we look up to verse 2 we will see that the pronoun “His” refers to “Jesus our Lord.” Here we see the SUFFICIENCY of our resources for spiritual growth because it came from our Lord Himself. When God calls, He empowers. The power was there all the time. We just need to tap into that power. Note that the verse says “has granted”. In the Greek, the word means, “to give as a gift”.[3] God gave because of His grace, not because of any merit on our part. Also, Peter did not say “His divine power will grant it.” It is in the perfect tense, which “emphasizes the continuing nature of what was given.”[4] At one point in our lives, God gave us “all things that pertain to life and godliness” and we will never be the same again because it has a continuing effect. What His power gave us is already in our possession and it is permanently ours.
Verse 3 continues: “His divine power has granted to us all things”. Look at the phrase “all things”. This is the SCOPE of the resources that God gave us. Ephesians 1:3 tell us, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places”. See the word “every”? All means all. It means everything included and nothing excluded. That’s why Paul can declare, “…and in Him you have been made complete”.[5] One famous vitamin commercial says, “I want to be complete.” We are already complete in Christ Jesus. Someone wrote, “Nothing has to be added. Nothing could be added.” When a child was born, he was already complete and he just needed to grow. When we are born again spiritually, we are already complete. We have the potential for growth. So we all need is to focus on growing.
Now, how do we know what God gave us? Look at verse 4: “by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises”. The phrase “has granted” here is the same verb used in “has granted” in verse 3. The word “carries with it the idea of the worth of the gift.”[6] That’s why Peter called them God’s “precious and very great promises”. Through these promises, we could know the things that God gave us. It’s like God giving us manager checks that are good as cash because they already have funds backing them up. They are not post-dated checks. These promises are not empty promises because they are backed up by God’s power.
That is the reason why Peter wrote that believers today “have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours [the apostles] by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ”. We are not second-class citizens in the kingdom of God. The phrase “equal standing” is from a Greek word that could be translated “equal honor or same value” and it “was used for foreigners who had been granted the privileges of citizenship which were equal to those of the native born. The faith given them by God was of equal honor or privilege with that of the apostles’ faith. Here Peter foreshadowed his purpose by stressing that the faith of the apostles was no different from the faith of any believer.”[7] We are on an equal footing with the early believers before God. Our faith is just as precious as theirs.
Verse 3 continues: “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness…” Here we see the STANDARD for spiritual growth. Because God gave us everything we need, we can live a godly life. Verse 4 tells us, “so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.” The purpose why God gave those promises is so that we would not be corrupted by the world-system and we would become conformed to the image of Christ.
Therefore, we are not actually weak. We are just not really willing to obey. It’s not a matter of weakness. It’s a matter of the will. That’s why in his “The Pursuit of Holiness,” Jerry Bridges wrote, “It is time for us Christians to face up to our responsibility for holiness. Too often we say we are ‘defeated’ by this or that sin. No, we are not defeated; we are simply disobedient.” It is not that we can’t obey. It is because we won’t obey. Allow me to share a very realistic assessment of that kind of attitude. “In private, Christians will often admit to envying non-Christian friends in their free-wheeling lifestyles and morality… They might feel sure that such behavior is wrong, but secretly wish they could join in. They are paralyzed into indecision, sometimes wishing they had the courage to enjoy a fully committed Christianity, and other times wishing they had the courage to forget it, and enjoy being utterly pagan. Peter warns that obedient Christians are not killjoys or repressed, and that a Christianity which wants to have the best of both worlds will actually have the best of neither.”[8] We no longer belong to this world. We are now called to become more like Christ.
Verse 3 tells us that God gave us all that we need for a godly life “through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence”. That’s the SOURCE of our spiritual growth. Peter was not talking about a superficial, head knowledge. The word “knowledge” in the Greek “implies an intimate and personal relationship.”[9] Spiritual life made spiritual growth possible. Before we put our faith in our Lord Jesus as our Savior, we were spiritually dead. But when we really knew or believed in Him, we became spiritually alive. That’s why I said before that when we don’t grow spiritually, it is possible that we are not really spiritually alive. God gave us everything we need so we can live a godly life when we believed in Christ Jesus.
Have you ever watched those makeover reality programs on cable TV? Those programs where they remodel and refurnish houses of poor families? A recent article by Reality TV magazine sadly reveals what happens to those families after the makeover. “In its seven-season run, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition has taken do-gooding to a whole new level… [They would] find families in need and provide them with an amazing new home to help them overcome life’s challenges. The episodes are emotionally charged, uplifting, and moving but in the end, many of these families continue to suffer. With such a lavish new home, their mortgages are adjusted accordingly and several of the families can’t keep up with the payments. As a result, many of those featured on the ABC reality show are now facing foreclosure.”[10] They simply cannot sustain the new, lavish lifestyle that their new houses brought with it. For example, they can’t afford the high water bill because of their new swimming pools or they can’t maintain the expensive landscaping. It’s a great thing that God did not merely give us a makeover. He gave us a transformation. He will sustain us from beginning to end. “Jesus’ power is more than adequate, for Jesus not only sets the highest standards for Christians to live up to, he also gives the resources to meet those standards”.[11]
Brothers and sisters, we already saw the sufficiency, the scope, the standard and the source of the power for our spiritual growth. That power is there all along. I pray that we would always tap into His power! God gave us everything we need so we can live a godly life when we believed in Christ Jesus.
Let us pray…
[1]Adapted from http://bible.org/illustration/car-problem
[2]All Bible verses are from the English Standard Version, unless otherwise noted.
[3]The New Linguistic and Exegetical Key to the Greek New Testament
[4]Ibid.
[5]Colossians 2:10a, NASB.
[6]Walvoord, John F. ; Zuck, Roy B. ; Dallas Theological Seminary: The Bible Knowledge Commentary : An Exposition of the Scriptures. Wheaton, IL : Victor Books, 1983-c1985, S. 2:864
[7]Ibid.
[8]Dick Lucas and Christopher Green, The Message of 2 Peter and Jude, “The Bible Speaks Today” (IVP: Englad, 1995), 45.
[9]The Bible Knowledge Commentary.
[10]http://realitytvmagazine.sheknows.com/blog/2010/04/09/extreme-makeover-home-edition-houses-face-foreclosure/
[11]Lucas, 45.
