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In this message we will begin to consider aspects of the experience and enjoyment of Christ revealed in 2 Peter. Although 1 and 2 Peter are short, these Epistles indicate that the apostle Peter, who had been a fisherman, was brought into the full knowledge of God’s salvation according to His divine economy. The riches of Christ that are unveiled in Peter’s two Epistles reveal all the divine elements of God’s salvation.
Second Peter 1:1-18 is a particular and crucial portion of the holy Word, which reveals excellent points regarding our experience and enjoyment of Christ as our God and Savior. We need to dwell on this portion of the Word so that we may not only appreciate and apprehend but also experience and enjoy the Christ unveiled therein.
Verse 1 speaks of “our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” Jesus Christ is both our God and our Savior. This indicates that Jesus Christ is God being our Savior. He is the God whom we worship, and He became our Savior to save us. At Peter’s time this designated the believers in Christ and separated them from the Jews, who believed Jehovah the Creator to be God yet did not believe that Jesus Christ was God, and from the Gentiles, particularly the Romans, who believed that Caesar, not Jesus Christ, was God.
Second Peter 1:1 tells us that in the righteousness of Christ as our God and Savior, we “have been allotted faith equally precious as ours.”
The righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ, is a double portion, consisting of both the righteousness of Christ and the righteousness of God. Our God is righteous. Through His righteousness He has allotted the precious faith as a divine portion equally to all believers in Christ, both Jewish and Gentile, without respect of persons. Now He is not only our God but also our Savior. Thus, His righteousness now is not the righteousness only of God nor only of Christ, but the righteousness of both our God and our Savior, Jesus Christ.
In that the Lord is our Savior, His righteousness is His righteous act, His death on the cross in absolute obedience (Phil. 2:8), by which He accomplished redemption for us (Heb. 9:12), enabling us to be justified by God (Rom. 5:18). The righteousness of Christ refers to His righteous deeds, His righteous acts. When He lived, walked, and worked on earth as a man, He did everything righteously; all His acts, deeds, and works were righteous. In particular, when He died on the cross, becoming obedient to God, that obedience was a righteous deed. The Lord’s death on the cross was in absolute obedience to God and fulfilled all the requirements of God’s righteousness and gave the righteous God the legitimate position to justify all those who believe in this righteous deed of Christ. In other words, the righteousness of Christ is the factor and base for God to justify us. Christ lived righteously, obeyed righteously, and died righteously, thereby building up His righteousness as a base for God to justify those who believe in Christ.
In that the Lord is our God, His righteousness is His justice, since, based on the righteous act, the redemption of our Savior Jesus Christ (3:24-25), He justifies all the believers in Christ (v. 26), both Jewish and Gentile (v. 30). In and by such a twofold righteousness, the righteousness of both our God and our Savior, Jesus Christ, the precious faith, the precious substantiation of the New Testament blessing, has been allotted equally to all believers among all nations.
In 2 Peter 1:1 two kinds of righteousness — the righteousness of God and the righteousness of Christ — are put together. The righteousness of Christ accomplished redemption. Now God in His righteousness justifies us. It is in the sphere of and by means of this twofold righteousness that the precious faith has been allotted equally to all believers.
Peter’s word concerning the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ, is rich in what it indicates and implies. The common thought among the Jews at Peter’s time was that God gave them certain blessings for their enjoyment. Those blessings were given according to their own righteousness. The Jews thought that if they lived and acted righteously, they would have their own righteousness before God. That was the righteousness according to the law. Hence, it is called the righteousness of the law. This means that our own righteousness is the righteousness of the law. Paul refers to this in Romans 10:3: “Because they were ignorant of God’s righteousness and sought to establish their own righteousness, they were not subject to the righteousness of God.” In Philippians 3:9 Paul declared that his desire was to be found in Christ, “not having my own righteousness which is out of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is out of God and based on faith.”
It is not according to the righteousness of the law that God has allotted us our New Testament portion. The New Testament portion is allotted to us by God in and by the kind of righteousness that is both the righteousness of God and the righteousness of Christ. The righteousness of God is versus our own righteousness, and the righteousness of Christ is versus the righteousness of the law.
Peter’s word regarding the righteousness of our God and Savior indicates that the dispensation has changed. In the Old Testament the basis upon which people were blessed was their righteousness according to the law. This means that they were blessed according to man’s righteousness, which is also the righteousness of the law. But now, in the New Testament, God gives us a wonderful portion, not because of our own righteousness according to the law but because of His righteousness according to Christ’s redemption. Instead of going back to the law, we need to come to Christ. What we have is not our righteousness according to the Mosaic law; it is God’s righteousness fulfilled by the righteous act of Christ on the cross. It is in and by this righteousness that God has allotted to us our New Testament inheritance.
Second Peter 1:1 tells us that we “have been allotted faith equally precious as ours.” The God-given faith is allotted to all believers as a common precious portion. As long as we have this gift, we have the lot of God’s inheritance, for living faith equals the lot of God’s inheritance. When Paul indicated in Colossians 1:12 that Christ is the allotted portion of the saints, he had in view the allotment of the good land of Canaan given to the children of Israel for their inheritance. Likewise, Peter had the same view in mind when he in 2 Peter 1:1 spoke of our being allotted faith equally precious as ours. Peter realized that just as the children of Israel were allotted a piece of the good land (Josh. 13:6; 14:1-5; 19:51), all the New Testament believers are the children of God who inherit that which has been promised by God, that is, faith that has been allotted to them. This implies that the “all things which relate to life and godliness” (2 Pet. 1:3), including the divine nature (v. 4) partaken of by the believers through the equally precious faith according to the precious and exceedingly great promises, are the real inheritance given to the believers by God in the New Testament. The good land, the portion of the children of Israel in Old Testament times, typifies the all-inclusive Christ. As the good land was the portion of the Old Testament saints, so Christ is the portion of the New Testament believers. Furthermore, in the Old Testament the good land was allotted to the twelve tribes, and in the New Testament precious faith is allotted to us.
How can faith be our allotted portion? According to the Bible, Christ is our portion. This means that it is Christ who has been allotted to us. But 2 Peter 1:1 says that we have been allotted faith equally precious. To speak of Christ being our portion may be somewhat doctrinal. It is more experiential to say that faith is our portion. If Christ were merely Christ to us and not also faith, we would not be able to participate or share in Him. In order for us to partake of Christ, He must become our faith. Such a faith has been allotted by God to all believers in Christ as their portion. Faith has become our portion of the New Testament inheritance.
Faith is not merely a means; it is also a portion. A means is an instrument through which we obtain something, but a portion is the thing we obtain. In 2 Peter 1:1 faith is not a means; rather, it is the thing, the object, we receive. Therefore, in this verse faith equals the inheritance. According to the New Testament, faith in a certain sense is a means. In particular, faith is the means by which we receive salvation and eternal life (Eph. 2:8). But in 2 Peter 1:1 faith is not considered as a means but an allotment, a portion of the New Testament inheritance allotted to us by God.
Faith in 2 Peter 1:1 is equal to the New Testament inheritance. Our portion is Christ, the embodiment of the Triune God. This Christ is revealed in the New Testament and conveyed to us through the New Testament. The New Testament is a container of the Christ who embodies the Triune God. This container conveys Christ to us mainly by way of the preaching and teaching of the Word. The preaching and the teaching of the apostles always convey Christ to others. The Triune God is embodied in Christ, and Christ is contained in the New Testament. Then this Christ is conveyed to us through the preaching and teaching of the Word. The New Testament contains Christ, and those who preach the New Testament bring this container to us. Through this means this container conveys Christ to us. Faith, then, comes from hearing, and hearing comes from the word (Rom. 10:17). The function of the Word is to convey Christ to us. Therefore, Christ comes to us through the preaching and teaching of the word of the New Testament.
The all-inclusive Christ is not only the Word but also the life-giving Spirit. While Christ is preached to us through the Word and conveyed by the Word, He simultaneously works within us as the Spirit to produce faith in us. The issue of the faith produced within us is that whatever Christ is according to the word of the New Testament is imparted to us. As a result, we have the reality of Christ.
Faith and Christ are one. The faith, which is the response to the content of the Word is actually Christ. This means that the response is one with that to which it is responding. When in our experience our response and the Christ conveyed to us through the preaching of the Word become one, faith is produced within us. Therefore, our faith and Christ, who is the object of our faith, are actually one. This is the portion of the New Testament inheritance that God has allotted to us.
Faith is not initiated by us, and it is not something that is out of us. On the contrary, faith is out of God, it is initiated by God, and it is allotted to us by God. Faith comes to us by the word in God’s revelation. When this word is preached to us, it conveys the reality of the New Testament inheritance. As this word is preached to us, simultaneously the Spirit works with it. Actually, according to the Bible, the word and the Spirit are one. In John 6:63 the Lord Jesus said, “The words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” The word is the Spirit, and the Spirit is the word (Eph. 6:17). Therefore, through the spoken word and by the working, the inspiring, of the Spirit, faith is produced within us. This is the way that God allots to us the equally precious faith. Through the spoken word and by the inspiring Spirit, God infuses faith into our being. Once this faith has been imparted into us, we have our portion of the New Testament inheritance.
The Greek word translated “equally precious” means “of equal value or honor”; hence, equally precious. It does not mean equal in measure but in value and honor to all those who receive it. Faith is equally precious to all the believers in Christ, no matter whether they are Jews or Gentiles. We have the same faith that Peter had. Although Peter was a great apostle, in quality the faith he had was not different from the faith that we have. He and we share the equally precious faith. All the believers in the Gentile world share with all those in the Jewish land the same precious faith, which enables them to substantiate the blessing of life of the New Testament as their common portion allotted to them by God.
The expression allotted faith equally precious as ours in 2 Peter 1:1 indicates that in the whole universe there is only one faith as a portion allotted to all God’s redeemed people. In the Old Testament the land of Canaan was the unique good land allotted by God as an inheritance to His people Israel. When the people of Israel entered into the good land and possessed it, that one good land was divided into portions and allotted to each family of the twelve tribes of Israel (Num. 33:51-54). Similarly, there is one great matter which is called faith. God has allotted a portion of this unique faith to each of His chosen people. Thus, we all have the same unique faith. We all have an allotted portion of this one faith.
At the juncture when we believed, it was we who were believing, but it was God who was allotting a portion of the unique faith into us. The name of that unique faith is Jesus Christ. The faith that we have to believe in Christ is Christ Himself (Rom. 3:22; Gal. 2:16a). There is only one Jesus who is faith to us. Therefore, our faith is uniquely one.
We all have the same precious faith in quality, but the quantity of faith that we have depends upon how much we contact the living God so that we may have Him increased in us (Rom. 12:3; Heb. 11:1, 5-6, 27; Col. 2:19). When God increases in us, faith grows in us.
Peter calls the faith, which has been allotted to us through God’s exceedingly abundant grace, “precious.” Faith is precious. It enables us to believe in what we could never believe in, and when it enters into us, it is obtained once and for all and will never leave us. It is impossible for any man to believe in the mystery and centrality of the gospel of God by his natural life. According to human reasoning, it is not believable that the Lord Jesus is God incarnated, was born of a virgin, died to propitiate man’s sins, rose from the dead, ascended into the heavens, is seated at the right hand of God, and will return one day. But when this precious faith enters into our being, we can and must believe. The more we believe, the more we feel pleasant and comfortable. Once we obtain this precious faith, it can never be lost. Once we obtain this precious faith, we will never disbelieve. It is impossible for us to truly not believe, even though we may occasionally deny Him, because the precious faith given to us is in us.
Faith is the substantiation of the substance of the things hoped for (Heb. 11:1). The substance of the New Testament blessings is invisible, abstract, and mysterious; it cannot be felt by our emotion or be seen by our eyes. We cannot see the divine life by our natural sight, nor can we sense or touch the divine life by our natural feeling. Furthermore, God Himself, who is the greatest of all the New Testament blessings, is invisible, mysterious, and abstract. None of our physical senses can substantiate Him. In order to substantiate all the New Testament blessings, we need another sense, that is, faith. Faith is the substantiation of the divine, spiritual, and heavenly substance of the New Testament blessings. Faith substantiates God as the main substance of the New Testament blessings. It also substantiates the divine life, the Spirit of God, and the law of the Spirit of life. Faith is an exceedingly great matter. It is not of ourselves; rather, it is a gift granted to us by God and a portion allotted to us by God. If we have the divine faith as our allotted portion, we have all the reality of God’s New Testament economy with all its blessings.
Faith is also the substantiation of the substance of the truth (v. 1), which is the reality of the contents of God’s New Testament economy. The contents of God’s New Testament economy are composed of the “all things which relate to life and godliness” (2 Pet. 1:3), that is, the Triune God dispensing Himself into us as life within and godliness without. The equally precious faith, allotted to us by God through the word of God’s New Testament economy and the Spirit, responds to the reality of such contents and ushers us into the reality, making its substance the element of our Christian life and experience. Such a faith is allotted to all the believers in Christ as their portion, which is equally precious to all who have received it. As such a portion from God, this faith is objective to us in the divine truth. But it brings all the contents of its substantiation into us, thus making them all, with itself (faith), subjective to us in our experience. This can be compared to the scenery (truth) and the seeing (faith) being objective to the camera (us). But when the light (the Spirit) brings the scenery to the film (our spirit) within the camera, both the seeing and the scenery become subjective to the camera.
God’s economy, God’s plan, is to dispense Himself into our being as our life and life supply. Therefore, God’s New Testament economy is simply for God’s dispensing. This economy has a content, this content has a reality, and this reality is the truth revealed in the Bible. The Bible is not merely a book of doctrine; it is a revelation of the truth, which is the reality of the content of God’s economy. This reality has a substance. Only faith can substantiate this substance. Hence, faith is the substantiation of the substance of the reality of the New Testament economy.
This faith is the real portion of God’s allotment. It is the reality of the New Testament economy allotted to us in and by the righteousness of God, which is also the righteousness of our Savior, Jesus Christ. This twofold righteousness — the righteousness of God and of Christ — is the sphere in which and the means by which the New Testament portion has been allotted to us.
Second Peter 1:2 says, “Grace to you and peace be multiplied in the full knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.” In this verse there are also two crucial points. The first is related to grace and peace. The words grace to you and peace in verse 2 indicate that grace and peace come to us. After grace and peace come to us, they will be multiplied in the sphere of the full knowledge of God and our Lord and by the means of this full knowledge. Because a wonderful portion — the Triune God Himself — has been allotted to us, grace and peace have come to us. Grace is the enjoyment of our portion of the New Testament inheritance, which is actually the processed Triune God. In simple terms, grace is the enjoyment of the Triune God.
Peace is the condition that results from grace. To have grace and peace is to have the enjoyment of the Triune God and the issue of this enjoyment. When we enjoy the Triune God, the result is a tranquil condition or situation with both God and man.
The second crucial point in verse 2 concerns the words in the full knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. As in verse 1, the preposition in here means “in the sphere of, or by means of.” Grace and peace come to us in a sphere and by a particular means — the full knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. The full knowledge of the Triune God is for our participation in and enjoyment of His divine life and divine nature. It is not a mere doctrinal knowledge; it is an experiential knowledge, a knowledge that is full.
The Greek word rendered “full knowledge” is composed of the word gnosis plus the prefix epi, which means “upon.” This word indicates a thorough, experiential knowledge. This kind of knowledge is not superficial or general. Rather, it is a knowledge that is deep, thorough, and experiential. This is not simply a mental knowledge; it is experiential knowledge in our spiritual understanding and apprehension. The full knowledge of God and of Christ is a deep, practical, thorough, and experiential knowledge of God and our Lord. This full knowledge is both the sphere in which and the means by which the Triune God can be enjoyed by us in order that we may have a peaceful situation with Him and with all men.
Grace and peace came to us through the God-allotted faith, which substantiates the life-blessing of the New Testament (v. 1). This faith was infused into us through the word of God, which conveys to us the real knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. In the sphere of the full knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, and by means of this increasing and increased knowledge, the grace and peace that we have received will be multiplied.
In his Epistles Paul frequently says, “Grace to you and peace” (Rom. 1:7; 1 Cor. 1:3; 2 Cor. 1:2; Phil. 1:2). In 2 Peter 1:2, after saying, “Grace to you and peace,” Peter adds the expression be multiplied. This expression indicates that grace and peace are not light or small; they are within us, multiplying all the time. We need to sense that the divine grace and peace are daily multiplying within us. Moreover, Peter says in verse 2 that grace and peace are multiplied “in the full knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.” At the end of this Epistle, Peter tells us to grow in the “knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (3:18). In a very real sense, we the believers do know God and Jesus, but we need to realize that our knowledge of God and of Jesus may be inadequate. Among a great many believers, there is a great shortage in knowing the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — and His New Testament economy. Multiplication of grace and peace within us is according to the increase of our knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ. We must have the full knowledge of God and Jesus Christ in order that grace and peace in us would be multiplied. For this reason, the burden of the ministry in the Lord’s recovery is to help the believers to come to the full knowledge of the Triune God and His economy (1 Tim. 2:4).
In 2 Peter 1:3 Peter speaks of “His divine power.” The pronoun His is singular, but in verse 2 there are two antecedents of this pronoun — God and Jesus our Lord. If we study the Word carefully and properly, we will pay attention to the fact that in verse 2 we have two antecedents for the singular pronoun His in verse 3. This indicates that our Lord Jesus is God Himself and that our God is actually the Lord Jesus. Otherwise, Peter would have said, “As Their divine power has granted to us all things.”
We have seen that grace is multiplied as His divine power has granted to us all things which relate to life and godliness. Life is within for us to live, and godliness is without as the outward expression of the inward life. Life is the inward energy, inward strength, to bring forth the outward godliness. All things relating to life within and godliness without have already been given to us by the divine power. Now grace must be multiplied according to the giving of this divine power.
