Experiencing Newness in God: Partakers of His Divine Nature

The salvation and redemption of mankind is a beloved topic of Christian doctrine. We often think of the biblical narrative as a sort of romantic story of how we were captured by some unbeatable force, but saved by the awaited hero. Our understanding of the redemptive story is sometimes self-centered and therefore incomplete.

There‘s more to the story and it includes more of God than we are sometimes willing to admit.

The word redeem means to reclaim, regain possession. The definition implies that something was once possessed or owned, taken, and in need of being taken back.

When we say that we have been redeemed by God, we are stating that we once were God’s. Yet, something has taken us from God or God somehow lost his possession of us. This tends to frustrate our theology, because we never see God as being able to lose anything. Yet, we shouldn’t worry because God’s sovereignty and power is shown not only in what He disallows, but also in what He allows.

The story of the Bible tells us God had a plan from the very beginning that included us, but did not depend on us. Since God’s knowledge is too extensive and unlimited, He was not caught off guard by the things that happened to man. He was well prepared for them, which is why He allowed it.

Have you ever considered the fact that God allows certain things in your life, because, though you are not prepared, He is and because He is prepared, whatever befalls us will work far better than if we were prepared for it?

The Bible declares over and over again that God is so prepared nothing can disrupt His plan and our good.

Many of us are unaware of the fact that God has plans for us and we are a part of His creational will. This is the fate of living outside of God—living in a status that deprives us from experiencing God’s predetermined blessings.

How Did We Get Here?

Most people know the story of Adam, but not many people understand the story of Adam. We know that Adam “fell” in the Garden of Eden. Yet, we are not always so sure what it meant for him to “fall” or what his fall means to us. To not know this is to miss an important aspect of the biblical narrative.

Romans 5:12-21 gives us the full story. For the sake of brevity, here’s a summary:

Adam sinned and authorized sin’s entrance into the world. Romans 5:12

Adam’s sin brought death, and everyone died. Romans 5:12

People sinned before the law of Moses and without the law of Moses, everyone was dead. Romans 5:13-14

The law is just a means of measuring how dead a person is.

Why does all of this matter?

Adam is a symbol of Christ, His representation. Romans 5:14b

Adam was an example that prefigures or foreshadows what is to come; understood as a container into which liquid is poured to create a given shape when it hardens; archetype.

Though all mankind is made in the image of God (Gen 1:26), Adam was the only one to foreshadow Christ, which means mankind was to maintain whatever status he inherited from God by the obedience of Adam, who was not Christ, but a type of Christ for the time until Christ came. Therefore, as Adam goes so does all of humanity.

Have you ever depended on others to do things, because what they do determines what and how you do what you do?

The truth is, Adam really puts us in a bind, because the Bible tells us that some of the things we could have done, we can’t do; not because of anything within our own power, but because of how Adam handled his power.

Some of us have suffered a long time, because people just didn’t show up. They didn’t come through like they were supposed to or like we expected. A lot of our dreams have been put on hold or completely unfulfilled, because we depended on the success of others to experience our own success.

There was this young woman who had a Twitter account and only 170 followers. During a trip, her and her coworker began tweeting these jokes about passengers on the plan they were on. The tweets were racist, insensitive, and unacceptable. After flying 11 hours and landing she turned on her phone to discover several text messages and phone calls serving notice to the fact that she was trending number 1, worldwide, for her insensitive comments and remarks.

She became a national topic, was fired, and was chastised by her mother. However, the most difficult thing is what one writer calls, “public shaming.”

This phrase refers to the fact that people can have their lives ruined by the opinion of the public with just one simple decision. Much more, this shame is not there’s only, but can be the shame of those who are connected to them, i.e. companies, family members, etc.

Adam, publicly shamed mankind. His single decision did not harm him, but all of mankind. This happened because the opinion and thoughts of the only one that matters—God— deemed it so, and we have all been living under the result of this single decision since that fatal decision.

Watch the decisions you make, you don’t know who you are effecting.

This is why teachers are so important, because people are depending on teachers an the education system to have a chance at something.

What Does It Mean To Be Where We Are?

Many people may look at this and think it is far worse to have the experience of our previously mentioned twitter user than it is to be one caught in the shame of Adam’s disobedience. Yet, this is to establish the point that many people know what Adam did, but not understand what Adam did.

We mentioned earlier that God lost something, when Adam fell. Yet, it is important to recognize that mankind loss somethings as well. Here’s what happened to us when Adam fell:

Mankind loss his right to be “sons” of God.

Man loss his right to serve as God’s representatives in the earth according to his nature.

The word nature means the attributes and purposes which are proper for persons or things in view of their origin. It literally means species.

this word in meaning is trying to communicate to us that by merit of our origin we were put here to do something that corresponds to the nature of God. We’ve lost this when Adam failed and we are giving it back through Jesus Christ.

Consequently, the world is without a God-presence, which is a recipe for chaos.

One example of how all of this was to work is in the intended purpose of the nation of Israel. What God intended in Israel is what God intended for the entirety of humanity, from the beginning of the world. Michale Goheen states that Israel was referred to as God’s son and was to be His “showcase people.” He writes,

The nation of Israel was to be a display people, embodying in its communal life God’s original creational intention and eschatological goal for humanity. He would come and dwell among them and give them his torah to direct their corporate life in his way. God’s people were to be an attractive sign before all nations of what God had intended in the beginning, and of the goal toward which he was moving: the restoration of all creation and human life form the corruption of sin.

Israel failed at this mission, but its okay. God’s fulfillment of His eternal plan was not dependent on Israel’s success. Rather, it was dependent on the One who was to come.

Thankfully, even as man failed, Jesus was on His way and nothing could stop Him.

The Messiah Came. So What?

Jesus came and thankfully His coming was not dependent on the actions of no other. Rather, God predetermined and ordained the coming of the Messiah, so that in His coming, He could restore anything that was loss. Here are a few things that happened as a result of Jesus:

Restoration of the divine nature.

2 Peter 1:3–4 NLT

3 By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. 4 And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.

Ephesians 4:17–24 NLT

17 With the Lord’s authority I say this: Live no longer as the Gentiles do, for they are hopelessly confused. 18 Their minds are full of darkness; they wander far from the life God gives because they have closed their minds and hardened their hearts against him. 19 They have no sense of shame. They live for lustful pleasure and eagerly practice every kind of impurity. 20 But that isn’t what you learned about Christ. 21 Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, 22 throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. 23 Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. 24 Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.

We are God’s children again and through Christ we gain much more than we ever could have without Him.

1 John 2:28–3:3 NLT

28 And now, dear children, remain in fellowship with Christ so that when he returns, you will be full of courage and not shrink back from him in shame. 29 Since we know that Christ is righteous, we also know that all who do what is right are God’s children. 1 See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him. 2 Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. 3 And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure.

Closing and Invitation to Christ

Some of us have loss so much in the last few years. The last year alone has taken away from us so many things we wish we could have.

The sad thing is that many fail to realize that before we were ever born and placed into this world, we loss something. And because we were born without it we often try to convince ourselves that we have loss nothing at all. Yet, the truth is that we can sense that something is. There’s something that no amount of money, cars, success, or pleasure can fulfill. The truth is—we will never find anything to quench this thirst we have, because no one can quench it but God.

Psalm 42:1 NLT

1 As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God.

Today, you can stop missing out on all we have been leaving on the table. Today you can start a new life that restores all that was withheld from you and inherit all that is prepared for you.

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