Peter wrote,
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. (2 Peter 1:3-4)Now, that's just a sample. To get the full story, you have to read the full New Testament. But look at that incredible "good news"! In verse 1 of that epistle Peter writes to "those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours." Our faith is "obtained" -- literally "allotted." It is granted, given. On the basis of that faith which is given, God has exercised His divine power to give/grant us further "all things that pertain to life and godliness." Not "most." Not "quite a bit." And what is that life of which he speaks? He called us "to His own glory and excellence." Wow! In that grant/gift of "all things," He further granted us "His precious and very great promises." Now, Peter doesn't enumerate those promises, but he hints at it when he gives us the outcome of these promises -- we "become partakers of the divine nature." Partakers of the divine nature??? Indeed! We know, for instance, that "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Gal 2:20). Christ in me. Christ living through me. We know that we work out our salvation by "God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure" (Php 2:13). So, we don't become little gods, but we do partake of the divine nature by means of His active presence. Very, very good news.
Read the Bible. There is a lot more good news in there. It just gets better and better. We need to be careful to not take "the gospel" for granted because, frankly, it is far too massive to take that way. And since one of the chief failings of sinful humans is a failure to give thanks (Rom 1:21), we, the followers of Christ and the recipients of more "good news" than we know how to handle, ought to be making it our regular practice to serve Him out of a permanently grateful heart for all the good He has done, is doing, and will do for us, the undeserving.
4 comments:
Unfortunately, we are notorious for taking anything and everything for granted. We need to keep in the Word that we may be reminded daily of His amazing grace.
No, no, no. The gospel is all about the poor and oppressed and how everyone else needs to join with the poor and oppressed somehow to get a seat at a table and be a part of a community where every single person is beloved. Or something like that, sort of.
I guess my problem is that I define the "good news" by Scripture and consider it good rather than by some personal perception of "good" which definitely, in the end, shows God to be a failure at "good."
Well Stan, that's certainly your prerogative. But how can you ignore that one time when Jesus made it clear that He came for the poor and oppressed? It's like you just randomly decided to look at the entirety of what the Bible tells us about the Good News, and use all of that information to reach your conclusion.
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