2 Peter 1:4: Participate in the Divine Nature?

Can a human being participate in the nature of God? This sounds like something written by a New Age guru!

There is a clear progression in Peter's thought in this passage. First, he presents Christ's divine power (his first use of the adjective "divine") as providing Christians with everything needed for a godly life (2 Pet 1:3). Christ mediates this power to us human beings through personal knowledge of (not simply theological knowledge about) God, who is the one who has called believers to Christ. Therefore the movement in this passage is from a call to Christ through the power and glory of the Father to a life of godliness through Christ's divine power revealing the Father to human hearts.

This glorious power of God forms the basis of his promises. What are these promises? They are surely the promises, found in many New Testament presentations of the gospel, of a place in Christ's eternal kingdom (2 Pet 1:11) and the rewards that go along with it (such as those described in 1 Pet 1:3-5). Then why were these promises given? So that Christians might become "partakers in the divine nature." The phrase "divine nature" itself is well known from Greek philosophical literature, but it is also found in the Jewish-Hellenistic literature of the New Testament period. In this first-century literature, to "participate in the divine nature" does not mean merging into God or union with deity (which is the sense equivalent language has in true New Age thought). In other words, neither the Greeks (for the most part) nor the Jews, even the most Greek of them, were pantheists. They all expected a continuing personal existence beyond death, not a uniting with the Eternal or a becoming part of the One. What "partaking of the divine nature" does mean for Greek and Jewish authors is to take part in the immortality and incorruption of God (or "the gods" in pagan Greek literature). One who has so participated will, like God, live in the immortal sphere and like him will not be tainted with any corruption. Certainly Peter means at least this much. And if this is all that he means, then he is indicating what will happen at death (or the return of Christ). That is, the promises of God lead us on and direct our life until we obtain the inheritance of what they promise, the divine nature, at death.

This presentation of the goal of the Christian life contrasts with the lifestyle of the false teachers against whom 2 Peter is written. God's goal is that we set our eyes on his promises and head toward heaven, thereby escaping "the corruption in the world caused by evil desires." The false teachers, on the other hand, are involved in these evil desires. In fact, it is their lifestyle, not their doctrine, that shows them to be corrupt. Desire, of course, can be good. We desire food so as not to be hungry, for example. But desire needs to be controlled by God's goals and principles. When desire itself rules us, it is indeed evil (for it desires the bad as well as the good), and it leads us to corruption. Those whose goal is really the divine nature will not be turned aside or controlled by such evil desires.

It is possible that Peter means more than this. Paul, for example, speaks of the Holy Spirit being within Christians. Therefore the divine nature (a term Paul does not use, but could have) is within, giving life (Rom 8:11; compare 2 Cor 3:18). James (Jas 1:18) and John (Jn 3:5-6) speak of being born of God and therefore having something of God's nature. In fact, 1 John 3:9 describes new birth so literally that it says God's "sperm" (usually translated "seed," but the same word is used for the sperm or semen of a male) remains in the child of God. According to 1 John, because this or that person is born of God he or she does not sin. This is because the nature of the Father is in them.

What can we say, then, about this passage? The author boldly uses the terminology of Greek philosophy and culture and redefines it in a Christian sense. He points to the Christian's supply of all that is needed for a holy life in the divine power of Christ. He also points to the goal of the Christian life as a participation in the divine nature, at least at death, when--like Christ--the Christian will live immortally in the incorruptible heavenly realm. He may be indicating that this participation is an experience that the Holy Spirit mediates to Christians in the present life, although his language is not clear enough to be certain of this. In saying what he does, Peter actually says less than some of the other New Testament writers about the joining of human beings to God, even if his language is more striking. At the same time he clearly calls Christians to use the provision of Christ and fix their eyes on the promises of God so that they will in fact escape the corruption in the world and in the end receive the promised divine nature. It is this drawing on Christ's power and focus on the future, which includes allowing that future to determine present lifestyle, which is all the Christian need do to receive the glorious hope of participating in the nature of God.