Participate

         His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. (I Peter 1:3-4) 

These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect. (Hebrews 11:39-40)

 

I Peter 1:3-4 is one of the passages Prof. Willard uses as evidence that we are supposed to live Kingdom lives now, not just after we die. And I agree with him. But, after listing Old Testament hero after Old Testament hero, the author of Hebrews tells us that while all the people in the Hall of Faith were commended for their faith, none of them received what they’d been promised, because God had planned something better for us. So, which is it? Do we get all we need, or are we left to lack so that something better may come in the future?

The problem is that the passages aren’t really talking about the same thing. We may be given promises that won’t be fulfilled in our lifetime because they are bigger than we are. That does not mean that we haven’t been given everything we need to live a godly life. Both sorts of promises have been given.

But the sort to which Peter refers is sometimes misunderstood because there are at least three types of gifts, which are sometimes called graces. The first is general grace. Every person has some measure of capacity to live a godly life. We may dismiss those as not being gifts from God because we’re too familiar with them. They seem natural, normal, and – to be frank – require work on our part. We’re not fond of them. They’re not enough because we have to work on them.

The second sort of grace is what I’ll call proclivity. I have been granted the great grace of having no desire to smoke or drink. If I did drink or smoke, I would probably do so in great excess. On the other hand, some people I know don’t have a big problem with eating too much, while others are more like me. Those who don’t have a desire to do something that happens to cause a problem for others aren’t likely to think their proclivity (or its lack) is a gift from God, but as I’ve noted, mine has saved me a great deal of heartache.

It is the third sort of grace that we think of - a supernatural grace in which the thing that has been a problem for the past decade or more is suddenly gone. It’s the moment coming when we’re about to give in to temptation, and the phone rings or someone knocks at the door. It’s the sudden sensation of power to overcome or the sudden loss of desire to do something. The problem is that God using His power on our behalf, or His intervention, does not really build in us the power to live a godly life. It doesn’t turn us into the sort of people who would live that sort of life. It makes us passive. Passive means we don’t really participate.