Divine by Second Birth

Did you ever daydream growing up. What did you dream about? Did you ever dream about being a big shot, being someone important. What if you were someone who had wealth or talent or position so that other people knew who you were just because you were you.

Many of you may have noticed that the queen of England died recently and prince Charles was proclaimed as king immediately. The official phrase is the queen is dead long live the king. Did you know that his coronation ceremony will not take place until may 6th of 2023?

Queen Elizabeth died September 8, 2022 and Prince Charles was immediately proclaimed king but his coronation ceremony will take place May 6th, 2023 8 months later. His mother Queen Elizabeth ascended to the throne February 6th, 1952 and had her coronation on June 2,1953, 1 year and 4 months later.

Why so long, there is a time of morning for the previous monarch and there is much to prepare for in order to complete all of the ceremony of the coronation. Now Charles is fully and completely king, he just hasn’t had the official coronation ceremony yet.

Did you know that you have something in common with King Charles?

2 Peter 1:1–4 NASB95

Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true 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.

In the opening of 2 Peter the apostle says something incredible. If you have received the same faith as him, and that in itself is pretty incredible, to have received the same faith as the apostle Peter, If you have received the same faith as Peter you have been granted a great gift.

Just in case you are not sure Peter defines what he means, faith received by the righteousness of our God and saviour Jesus Christ. In other words if you received your faith due to the righteousness of Jesus, and there is no other way to receive the faith and salvation of God, then you are included in this group, you also received this gift.

We have been granted everything pertaining to life and godliness by the divine power of Jesus Christ. Everything there is to have that is associated with life, especially eternal life and everything there is to have that is associated with godliness has already been given to you and me and Peter and the apostles. Not because we earned it or because we deserved it but this gift has been given to us by the divine power of Jesus Christ himself.

Anybody here think you are tougher than Jesus, anybody think you are more powerful than Jesus, anyone here think you can withstand or resist the will of Jesus, that Jesus can declare something to be so and you are so strong and so powerful that you can make what Jesus said is true to be false and what Jesus said is to not be. Does anyone think that they can unmake what Jesus has made or undo his words and make him a liar. As Paul has said may it never be. In other words it ain’t happening.

So it must be true. If we have been given everything to do with life and godliness by the power of Jesus and nothing and no one is stronger than Jesus then we have this gift and we can count on it, we can depend on it, it is assured as long as Jesus is Lord, and that means forever and ever.

We are assured of this because we have true knowledge of Jesus, we know who he is and how powerful he is and we can depend on it because it is based not on ourselves, otherwise we might blow it, but on the glory and the excellence of Jesus himself. In other words for this promise to fail the glory and excellence of Jesus Christ would have to fail, and that just ain’t going to happen.

So what is this promise in a nutshell, Peter tells us

2 Peter 1:4 NASB95

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.

We actually become partakers, that means to take part in or be a part of, the divine nature of Jesus Christ. Did I say you have something in common with king Charles, It seems I greatly underestimated you. You have not inherited the blood of kings, it is not that you parents or grandparents ruled a kingdom and that you have been born into a destiny of ruling a kingdom yourself. Your destiny is much greater. You have been reborn into something that is much harder to believe.

If someone knocked on your door this afternoon and told you that they had discovered that you were the long lost child of Queen Elizabeth and you were somehow next in line for the throne I imagine you would look around for the camera's to see if someone was pulling a prank on you. Even if they showed up with fancy cars and fancy servants and lots of English nobles and lawyers all assuring you it was true, even if they flew you to England and started preparing you to be the next king or queen you probably still would not be able to believe it but I am telling you something greater than being king or queen of England has been given to you. In fact it is not me telling you that it is the Scripture, the very word of God.

You have not been given the nature of a king but the nature of God. When you were reborn, when you were saved 2 Peter 1:4 says that you became a partaker of the divine nature escaping the corruption that is in the world by lust.

You may have heard it said that you have a sin nature, I can’t find that statement in the scriptures anywhere. The bible does talk about our desire to sin and our inability to be perfect, the bible does talk about fallen man and sinful man but the actual phrase sin nature I cannot find in the scriptures.

However, let me tell you what I can find. 2 Peter 1:4 says that you are a partaker in the very nature of God, the word here is theos the Greek word for God. When you were saved the holy spirit entered into you, A part of the trinity of God lives inside you as a believer. Peter tells us that when we are saved by Jesus Christ we somehow take part in his divine nature. You may not have the blood of kings in your veins but you have the very nature of Jesus Christ inside of you.

So what does that mean? Well foe one thing it means you are pretty important. Is anyone here willing to say that the holy spirit is not important, and yet he lives inside of you. Surely you would not say that Jesus Christ is not important and yet you have taken part in the divine nature of Jesus Christ.

Did you know that Prince Charles was 72 when he became King Charles. He was the longest serving heir-apparent in history. He waited a long time. But did you notice that when King Charles was only prince Charles he was still pretty important. It mattered who he married, in fact there were some pretty big issues over his marriage in my lifetime.

It also mattered what he said and what he did, after all he was the next in line for the throne. Even though the monarchy no longer has absolute power over England it is very important what they do or say. the wrong word or the wrong action could have repercussions for the whole country and for other countries besides. As soon as Charles was born he was part of the royal family and everything he did mattered. He had go to royal functions and probably had to do a lot of things he would rather not have done, he had responsibilities, things were expected of him because of who he was. Not because of anything he did or because he was a good person or a bad person but because of who his parents were. He inherited it just because of who he was born to be.

Now when you received Christ you were reborn and you were given a part in the divine nature of Jesus, not because you are such a great person or because you were better than other people, not because you won the lottery or because you got lucky. You recieved a part in the nature of God because you became a child of God. Just like Charles was part of the nobility because of who his parents were you have part in the nature of God because of who you father is when you were reborn.

You became a child of God and a brother or sister of Jesus Christ. You became a partaker in the divine nature not because you are so wonderful but because Jesus is so wonderful and he gave you this gift, because he loves you.

With this gift comes responsibilities. Just like being a member of the royal family made Charles responsible for certain things being part of the family of God makes you responsible for certain things. There are family rules and family expectations, you get to share in families wealth and privilege but you also get a share in the families responsibility. Just like what Charles does and says reflects on the monarchy and on the kingdom of England what you do and say reflects on the godhead and on the kingdom of God.

That is great honor and a heavy responsibility. That kind of thing will make you stop and think, and so it should.

I remember one day my grandfather sat me down and talked to me. It was about something I had done or said at church. To be honest I don’t remember anymore what I had done but I can see that day sitting in the floor at the foot of granddad's recliner just as clear as if it happened yesterday. He took his pipe out of his mouth and held it in his hand, he leaned over and looked me right in the eye, it was the only time I remember him ever expressing disappointment in me. all he said was now you are a Stallings and we do not act like that, I love you and I expect better things from you than that.

I want all of you people to know that I made it my business not to ever do anything to see that look on grandpa’s face again. You see I was born a Stalling’s and I loved my grandma and grandpa. He never considered me any less than a full member of the family and I always felt loved by both of them.

Although my parents divorced and mom remarried a man who legally adopted me and as part of their divorce I was never allowed to see my dad, I never spoke to him or heard him speak, but I knew that I was loved and I was part of the family because grandma and grandpa made it so, and I never doubted them.

Did I tell you that they were the main christian influence in my life growing up. That the only time I really went to church was when I stayed with them. I stayed for a week or two every summer and I loved it. I loved them. I never doubted who I was or that I was important because grandma and grandpa made it so. I longed to live up to their name, I wanted to be the kind of man my grandfather was. I wanted others to look at me the way they looked at him, I wanted to have the respect he had and to be worthy of that respect.

Years later I became a child of God. I have never had to wonder if I was loved because Jesus made it so. I now have someone to look up to and strive to be like who is even greater than my grandfather. You see I too am a partaker of the divine nature, a child of God. I am loved and included and I gladly accept the responsibility of being who God has made me to be. I want to live so that my heavenly father never has to sit me down and say we don’t act like that, I want to be who God has made me to be......... how about you.