God doesn’t just simply give you all the things. He does so because his very own Son came down and earned all the things for you.
“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).
There seem to be two primary ways people think of God. The first and most common way people see God is as a taker. That is, if there is a god at all, he only exists to take my freedom, take my fun, take my worship, and maybe if I’m lucky someday, at least take my body away from the grave to some kind of heaven.
But then, there’s the less common, but vastly more biblical view of the true God, and that is as a giver. That’s what 2 Peter 1:3-4 tells us about him. In both of these verses, he is referred to as the One “who has granted” us gifts. So, before we go any further, I need you to do your best to think of God as a father who loves to see his kids enjoy his gifts.
What God has Given
What has God given us? Verse three tells us, “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness.” Let’s cover that word, "life," first. This is not just talking about the life we have now; it is also talking about a deeper life, namely, eternal life. The first thing Peter celebrates about God as a giver is that Christians have been given life forever! We’ll talk more about that in a bit, but I want to get to the second word he uses here, which is “Godliness,” or another way of saying it, “God-like-ness.” If you read on, you will read Peter describe what “Godliness” looks like. You’ll read about virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, and love, all of which Peter describes with the word “Godliness.” But here’s what you need to have rammed in your head first: God is the one who has declared you to be godly. He is the one who “grants you all things that pertain to life and godliness already.” How many things has he granted to you that pertain to life and Godliness? All the things. Why am I making such a big deal about this? Because naturally, here’s what you’re prone to thinking: God may have given me some of the things for life and Godliness. He may have given me a good start, but it’s up to me to do my part. False! It’s up to him all the way, folks.
Why is that the case? Because of the second thing we’re told he’s granted to us in our passage is found in vs. 4: He has granted to us precious and very great promises! God the giver has promised you that he has given you everything you need for life and Godliness, and because God can’t lie, it’s as good as done. He has sealed his gifts with a promise. But you may say, well, I don’t feel that full of life, and I don’t always feel very godly. Welcome to the club. But God’s promise to you still stands: He has granted to you all. the. Things.
How God has Given
How has God given his gifts to us? Peter says it is “through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence.” Who is the “him” that we need to know? If you go back to the beginning of 2 Peter, we see in verse 2 that the “him” is Jesus Christ. Now why is it so important for us to know him? Because, he, by his glory and excellence, has done everything necessary to ensure that God will grant us all things for life and Godliness. What did Jesus do? He lived in your place. He died the death your sins deserved. He rose from the dead, defeating death for all mankind, and now, by his glory and excellence, intercedes on your behalf at the throne of the Father.
God doesn’t just simply give you all the things. He does so because his very own Son came down and earned all the things for you. “Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12.2). Yes that’s right, he does not stay dead, but rises from that slumber and victoriously proclaims to the devil, “God is my Father, I am his Son and I have bought this world back. You are defeated!” And now he calls out to you (through a poor preacher like me) saying, “You’re mine now, I’ve given you all the things. Come!”
Why God has Given
Why has God given us his gifts? Peter says, “So that (through his promises) you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.” Why does God give? So you can enjoy life with him, becoming like him (as a Divine partaker) forever and ever. I love the words used to describe our lives now: We have escaped corruption. Right now, we see the evidence of corruption in us and all around us all the time. We see evidence of death and decay. Yet God’s promise of life and Godliness supersedes the world’s promise of death and decay. It’s really that simple.
And yet, you may wonder somewhere in the back of your mind, how long will God continue to be so giving to me? You may sit here right now and think, “What if I struggle with sin? What if I’m not as passionate about God as I should be? What if I don’t seem to grow as much as I would like in the virtuous ways Peter will go on to talk about in his letter?
To answer those questions, I want to end by telling you a story from my friend John Zahl. John was a preacher in South Carolina, and in his first year in pastoral ministry, a member of his church who owned a very high-end department store gave him a gift certificate to his store as a thank you. The gift certificate was for a lot of money, and he didn’t really know this particular parishioner. Because the gift was so generous, John hatched a plan. He decided he was going to spend a little bit above how much the gift certificate said it was for so he didn’t come off like a freeloader. After shopping, the cashier rang up everything and said, “Ok, I’ve rang everything up and it appears you’ve only spent half of what the gift certificate says you have.” John realized that on top of the gift certificate, he was being given a 50% discount on everything in the store.
He returned home yet remained determined to try to outspend the gift certificate to show the department store owner he was capable of paying his “debt”. On the next trip, he brought his wife to help him do the shopping, and this time they picked out so many clothes and things that there was no way (even with a 50% discount) that they wouldn’t have to pay for something. When they finally rolled up to the cashier and handed the gift certificate over, it took the cashier forever to ring everything up. And then the cashier said, “You’re not gonna believe this: I rang everything up and the total comes to exactly zero.” John was mortified. And then the cashier said, “I don’t think you understand how this gift certificate works. No matter what you throw up here, it’s gonna come up reading zero every single time.”
Whenever you worry or wonder if God may ever tire of giving you all the things, I want you to think of that story. No matter what you throw at him, the gifts are never running out. That’s what God promises his saints.
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