Does Christ wield divine authority in your life?
Second Epistle of Simeon Peter 1:
..seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the full knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.
For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.
2 Peter 1:3-4 Legacy Standard Bible
Do you know God and Christ?
The Apostle Simeon Peter — Cephas , Simon Peter — wants you to know the Divine nature of God [theos] and Jesus Christ [Christos].
..to you in the full knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord;
2 Peter 1:2b
And most essentially these of the Divine nature [physis] above all knowledge (or full knowledge), rather than partial knowledge [gnōsis] of man — even a righteous man or one with wisdom — corrupted [phthora] by our own sinful nature.
Note that by the unseen inspiration of the Holy Spirit in this scripture, the Apostle Peter in the opening of his second epistle had immediately claimed the authority of:
.. the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ:
.. the full knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord;
So to continue from when we introduced Peter in our introduction, the Apostle now writes to the church a second time so that all may be assured of their calling.
our mutually possessive God and Savior
How we long to belong to someone whom we love!
A creature of fragile frame in God's image dare not approach the Almighty.
--
Yet in JESUS, God touched man in a personal Way
— in Christ a new covenantal relationship for which we yearn endlessly,
forged in the love of God and our Lord.
So Simon Peter, the Rock to whom Jesus looked to now build the church, assures believers and followers of The Way:
And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises.
These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.
In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises..
The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Peter 1:4-5a,8 NLT
But those who fail..
The restored Apostle who had denied Jesus three times before Christ's sacrifice on the Cross cautions those who claim Jesus, yet fail in repentance:
But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins.
2 Peter 1 9 NLT
Some in Adam have not seen the guarded gate of Eden reopened by Christ — God’s new election of saints called to return to the tree of life, mercifully clothed in righteousness through the perfect Sacrifice of our Savior and Lord.
Apostolic Faith Defined through Peter’s Second Epistle
The Apostle Peter — clearly in the Authority of our God and Savior Jesus Christ, here in his second epistle of Holy Scripture — commands discernment by the body of Christ – all pastors and every holy saint of the church called to grow in our faith.
You have no doubt noticed that I have briefly skipped the answer Simon Peter provides to HOW our sanctification grows our faith.
Peter’s progression in this list will help your personal discernment which the Apostle of Christ commands of those who love Jesus our Lord.
7 Affections of Sanctification
Growing Apostolic Faith Through Seeds of Holiness
Before we look at the list, let’s glance at some terms of faith considering the connection made by the Apostle Simon Peter.
Sanctification: Is Separation to the Service of God
Torrey’s New Topical Textbook
IF Christians are sanctified to God through the Lord Christ Jesus, THEN, Peter tells us, those saints will grow in the same holiness, rejecting the sin of our former self.
The Apostle has already addressed sanctification. In fact, Simon Peter opens his first epistle to the saints with this bold greeting and claim in Christ:
Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ..
1 Peter 1:2a KJV
Therefore the Apostle lists a general,
‘HOW TO ‘ grow or mature in your faith
for the saints of God.
And again,
By these he has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire.
2 Peter 1:4 CSB
For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness..
add to your faith virtue,
2 Peter 1:5b-7 NKJV
to virtue knowledge,
to knowledge self-control,
to self-control perseverance,
to perseverance godliness,
to godliness brotherly kindness,
and to brotherly kindness
love.
No single translation of these few verses seems sufficient in conveying the full-depth of the Apostle’s advice. Therefore let us take a few moments to allow the cleansing of Peter’s description to open our blind eyes.
ADD these to your faith:
Adjectives of Affective Faith:
- aretē
- gnōsis
- egkrateia
- hypomonē
- eusebeia
- philadelphia
- agapē
Peter describes how we may diligently apply our new desires in Christ to our faith. You may have even memorized one English translation of these descriptions from the Apostle’s directive; however you may find insight into the richness of Peter’s list from adjectives in other translations.
Remember: these all translate from Peter's written Greek - common to all of the first century Roman Empire.
Adjectives beginning with KJV:
VIRTUE
moral excellence, goodness, worthiness
KNOWLEDGE
(insight, understanding)
TEMPERANCE
self-control,
PATIENCE
perseverance, patient endurance, steadfastness
GODLINESS
piety
BROTHERLY KINDNESS
brotherly affection, mutual affection, brotherly love
CHARITY
love, love for everyone, unselfish love, charity, love itself
source: BlueLetterBible.org – Bibles
Neither Useless nor Unfruitful
These affections are all good things. But more importantly to the Apostle’s evidence to ALL, all are Christian.
For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.
2 Peter 1:8*9 NIV
SO then, how must you act, justified sinner?
Wherefore, the rather, brethren, (KJV)
Peter leaves no doubt in the expected actions of believers.
The Apostle addresses the brothers (as is customary in leadership — who teach their wives with the authority and compassion of Christ and will raise their children in the authority of God and Christ and Scripture).
He opened his epistle leaving no question as to his apostolic authority in the Divine POWER of God — theios dynamis [v.3] — and Peter confirms Christ’s confirmation to we who are now elect in Him to become participants in Jesus’ Divine NATURE — theios physis [v.4].
(After all, IF we are no longer like the unsaved sinners who we once were, then our Christ-like fruit of the Spirit will show His hope of eternal life in us.)
Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, 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 Peter 1:10-11 ESV
Divinity and Trinity
I would like to make a side-point concerning authority here which Simon Peter is about to address more fully as we proceed next time.
First (as I just mentioned from varied English translations), Paul addresses the men of the church as was done in Greek, Roman and Jewish culture. In AD first century culture men, women and deities interacted in an order of hierarchy. Some men over others, some women over others, children under the authority of their mother or a servant woman under her authority — even Greek and Roman deities held unseen authority over men and women in designated areas of their lives and creation.
As the Apostle has placed himself in this line of authority as both a doulos of DEITY — so Simon Peter also claims his delagated authority from ALMIGHTY GOD in the Person of GOD’s only Son Christ Jesus.
The APOSTLE claims this obedience not to him personally, but as the personal slave of God sent to the world with the Gospel.
The church cannot claim Christ while turning against GOD’s own commands.
Peter’s Apostolic Gospel applies to ALL men and to ALL women who claim to be Christians.
No claim of God while denying the written word of God in Scripture and instruction of an Apostle is true. Any christian claim of JESUS contrary to the Apostolic witness will not make a pastor, elder or bishop or any mortal man or woman a true Christian.
Even JESUS, the Son of God, submitted to the will of the Father in everything and He promises to send the Holy Spirit as a counselor to those elected to eternal life in the New Covenant.
We cannot take time today to again address the Trinity.
Am I numbered among God’s elect?
R.C. Sproul reminds readers that Peter’s first epistle was addressed to the elect and notes that his second epistle with this important teaching, ‘drips theology.’
So speaking of these affections we have just reviewed [2 Peter 1:5-7] Sproul writes:
Yet he wants believers to be even more diligent about something else. There is an even greater priority, and that is the doctrine of election—not in the abstract but in respect to your own person.
The most important question you need answered in your lifetime is this: am I numbered among the elect?
ibid. p.195
Consider the question in the mirror of God’s truth. Do YOU have the fruit of the Spirit shown in elected saints who turn to CHRIST?
Any who lack such humble witness of Jesus to which Peter points in this epistle may be heretics — ravenous wolves, clothed in some other gospel of an anti-Christ.
NEXT: The Will of a departing Apostle
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