FBC Morning Light – October 26, 2022

The Grace of God and Precious Faith in 2 Peter

Well, a good Wednesday morning to you. Aren't you thankful for the gracious Father that we serve, for all that He graciously gives to us? You know, the book of 2 Peter opens up just really giving us an awareness of that grace.

It speaks of our having obtained like precious faith. All of us who are in Christ Jesus, where did we get our faith? In Him. We obtained it, we received it. And how did we receive it? We received it by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

By the way, that last phrase there, our God and Savior Jesus Christ, is a pretty good testimony to the deity of Christ, that our Savior Jesus Christ is our God, our God and Savior Jesus Christ. And so He, in His grace, has given to us this precious faith, this like precious faith.

Then it goes on to say, may grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. And then it goes on to say, as His divine power has given to us all the things that we need that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue.

By whom He has given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these we may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption of the world through lust. So God, in His grace, has given us everything we need for spiritual life and a godly life, as partakers of the divine nature.

Supplementing Faith with Virtue, Knowledge, and Self-Control

How should we respond to that? What should be our response of love and gratitude to the Lord for His grace to us? Verse 5, but for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith, supplement your faith with these seven things.

Peter goes on to talk about these seven qualities that are evident of, display the reality of, being a partaker of the divine nature. We have that faith that God in His grace has given to us, we've obtained that like precious faith.

He says, supplement that faith, that faith in Christ as your Savior and your Lord, supplement it with these qualities. What qualities is he talking about? Virtue, and knowledge, and self-control, and perseverance, and godliness, and brotherly kindness, and love.

Supplement your faith with these things. By the way, let me point out that in our translation, it almost comes across like these are things that you add in sequence, sequentially. It says, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge self-control, and to self-control perseverance, and so on through the list.

That almost sounds like, I can't add knowledge until I have added virtue, and I can't add self-control until I've added knowledge. So I have my faith, next thing I need to work on is virtue. Now when I've got virtue, then I can work on knowledge.

We can't think of it like that. We have to think of it more like the fruit of the Spirit love, joy, peace, and so on and so forth. These are all aspects of the divine nature, being partakers of the divine nature, and we need to supplement our faith with all of these things.

There may be things we need to work on more at a given time than other things, but nevertheless, these are all to be supplementing our faith. The question is, how diligently am I involved in doing that?

Diligence in Responding to God's Grace

Because he says, for this very reason, for the very reason, for the very fact that, because of the fact that, God in his grace has given us this precious faith, and God in his grace will multiply to us the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and God in his grace has given to us all that pertains to life and godliness, and has given to us exceeding great and precious promises, because of this grace, this super-abundant grace that God has given to us, I need to be giving all diligence to supplement that like-precious faith with these things.

But am I? Am I really diligently in pursuit of these qualities? Or do I really not even think about it until I go to church on Sunday, or maybe because of my failure in self-control, I get convicted about it and I realize, oh yeah, I need to work on self-control, or maybe I've been cruel to a brother, I haven't expressed any kindness toward this brother who's been kind to me, and then I realize, oh yeah, I probably need to work on that.

No, we need to be giving all diligence to supplement our faith with these things. Let's be sensitive to how we're doing in these areas, right? So that we might actually respond to the grace of God in a way that is honoring to that grace.

Living as Partakers of the Divine Nature

How? Adding these things. Why? Because they express that divine nature of which God in his grace has made us a partaker. All right, good challenge to us today. Father, thank you for your abundant grace to us and all you have done for us, but we pray that in response to that abundant grace, that we would give all diligence to demonstrate the reality of that divine nature of which we are partakers.

We pray this in Jesus' name and for his sake, amen. All right, well have a great rest of your Wednesday. I hope the Lord will bless you in it. Good day.