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Scripture Reading: 1 Pet. 1:15-16, 22; 2 Pet. 1:7; 3:11; 1 John 1:5-9; 2:29; 3:7
In the last two chapters we have seen what the divine nature is, and we have also seen how to partake of this divine nature. The way to enjoy the divine nature is to remain in the divine fellowship and to cooperate with the development of the divine nature. In this chapter we want to see the issue of our partaking of and enjoying the divine nature.
We have mentioned that Paul’s writings in the New Testament do not touch the divine nature that much. His writings imply the divine nature, but they are mainly concentrated on the law of life. In Romans 8:2 Paul refers emphatically to “the law of the Spirit of life,” which has freed us from the law of sin and of death. Paul also stresses the inner law of life in Hebrews 8:10 and 10:16. Paul stresses this inner law because he was an apostle through whom God’s dispensation, God’s economy, was unveiled to the uttermost. God’s dispensation, or economy, depends upon two laws — the law of letters and the law of life. The New Testament is altogether dependent on the law of life, whereas the entire Old Testament economy depended upon the law of letters.
Without the law of letters, there would be no Old Testament. The law of letters is a description of what God is. We can compare the law of letters to a photograph of a real person. The law of letters is a photograph of God, which gives us the image of God. Genesis 1:26 tells us that God made man in His image, and God’s image is the expression of four items: love, light, holiness, and righteousness. The Ten Commandments were established and given based upon these four divine attributes, which are a description of what God is. The Ten Commandments testify and show forth that God is love, light, holy, and righteous. This is the image of God, the description of God, the photograph of God.
The New Testament is the new economy, or new dispensation, and this dispensation depends upon the law of life. The law of life is actually God Himself. In the Old Testament we see a photograph of God, but in the New Testament we see the actual person of God. The Old Testament was a photograph, a description, of God, not the real person. The law, the photograph, was given in the Old Testament, but the real person, as embodied in Jesus, came in the New Testament (John 1:17). This person came to be life, the life supply, and the law of life to His people. The law of the Spirit of life is the Triune God working in us. The law of life in the New Testament is a living person, of whom a photograph was given in the Old Testament, which was the law of letters. Paul’s line was to unveil the new dispensational working of God as the law of life. Paul was occupied with this and would not be distracted from this. His writings imply the divine nature, but in Peter’s writings the divine nature is clearly mentioned, and we are shown how we can become the partakers of the divine nature.
God is surely sovereign in His choice of the writers of the New Testament. Both Peter and John were uneducated and unlearned fishermen. If God had charged them to write about the law of life in the New Testament economy, they probably would not have been able to do it since they did not have an adequate education. This is why I encourage all the young ones to get a better education. If you are a fisherman like John and Peter, you can be used by the Lord only according to that particular measure. You could never be used like the apostle Paul. Paul was educated as a young boy in Tarsus, celebrated for its learning, and brought up in Jerusalem at the feet of Gamaliel with the highest education (Acts 22:3). His writings, therefore, are the writings of a scholar. He wrote his Epistles not only according to his own experiences but also according to the divine revelation. In order to unveil the divine revelation in the way that Paul did, there is the need of a higher education. In order to write what Peter and John wrote, however, there is no need of a higher education. John’s writings, for example, are quite simple — “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (v. 4). “I am the light of the world” (8:12). Paul’s writings, however, are the writings of a “top professor.” To write something concerning God’s eternal plan, His eternal economy, needs a higher education. To merely tell your experience, however, does not need that much education. Even Peter says that in Paul’s letters “some things are hard to understand, which the unlearned and unstable twist, as also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction” (2 Pet. 3:16). John and Peter wrote things mainly according to their experiences. This matter of enjoying the divine nature and remaining in the divine fellowship to cooperate with the development of the divine nature is the highest experience of both Peter and John. Only in these two apostles’ writings can we see clearly and emphatically the enjoyment and partaking of the divine nature.
We have seen that when we enjoy the divine nature, we mainly enjoy God as Spirit, love, and light because these are the three main constituents of the divine nature. Spirit is the nature of God’s person, love is the nature of God’s essence, and light is the nature of God’s expression. To partake of the divine nature is to partake of the divine Spirit, the divine love, and the divine light. When we touch the Spirit, this issues in the person of God. When we touch God as the super, nobler, and higher love, the issue is that we are made distinct and different. If we never touch the love of God, we are all people who have “the same feathers.” The human community can be described by the saying, “Birds of a feather flock together.” Human society has been “darkened” by sin. In this respect, everyone in the human race is basically the same. The high officials, the professors, the people from different cultures, the modern people, and the backward people are all the same, of the same feathers. When someone gets saved, however, and they contact the Lord daily, remaining in the fellowship and cooperating with the inward divine operation, they are filled with God as love. This inward love makes them different. They become distinct in their school, in their homes, and among their relatives, colleagues, and classmates.
The real meaning of the word holiness is separation and distinction. Among billions of material things in the universe there is one item that is distinct and uncommon — gold. Gold typifies God in His divine nature. God is distinct, which means that God is holy. The opposite of the word holy is common. Gold signifies the “golden God” or the holy God, the very God of separation. Our God is separated and is a God of separation. To be holy is to be set aside, to be separated, to be made distinct, just as God is.
After reading this, do not make up your mind to be distinct or to make yourself different. If you remain in the divine fellowship to enjoy not only what God gives or what God does for you but also what God is as love in His essence and as light in His expression, you will be bathed in the love of God. You will become not only a man of love, but you will become love itself. This love makes you distinct. If you are a married brother, the first one to realize that you are different and distinct is your wife. If you would remain in fellowship with the Lord for a length of time, both your wife and your children will have the realization that you are different after this fellowship. The issue of remaining in the fellowship is that you become someone who is not common but holy. In your office all your colleagues realize that you are different. In your school the teachers realize that you are different. Among your relatives you are a different person, and they realize it. You are holy, which means that you are different from all the others. You are different, separated, and uncommon. God is distinct and separate from all the material things in the universe, and the New Jerusalem is a golden mountain, a distinct entity in the entire universe. Also, every local church as a golden lampstand is distinct and different.
First Peter 1:15 and 16 indicate that we must have a holy manner of life because our God is holy. He is called “the Holy One.” This means that since our God is golden, we have to be golden. Our God is a big piece of gold, so we have to be small pieces of gold. First Peter 1 also refers us to love. Verse 22 of chapter 1 tells us that we have to love the brothers with an unfeigned love. Our experiences tell us that the genuine holiness, the consummation of the Christian holiness, is the issue of the enjoyment of God as love. This love makes us holy, makes us different, makes us distinct, and makes us separated from being common. In Peter’s first Epistle, we see holiness with love.
Love is the nature of the divine essence. Footnote 101 on Hebrews 12 (Recovery Version) tells us that holiness is God’s nature. We must realize, however, that holiness is God’s nature in its separation and distinction. Holiness is not an element but a condition, a manner. Love is God’s nature in His essence, light is God’s nature in His expression, Spirit is God’s nature in His person, but holiness is not God’s nature in some element. It is God’s nature in its condition, and the condition is separation and distinction.
In Peter’s second Epistle we also see love in holiness. Love is the ultimate development of the divine nature (1:7). Holiness is the manner of the life partaking of the divine nature (3:11). Love issues in holiness. When you partake of the divine nature to the uttermost, you will be filled with God as love. This issues in a manner of life, and this manner of life is a separated and distinct life, making you no more common but holy. Holiness is the manner of this life that enjoys the divine nature to the uttermost. When we enjoy God as love, we even become love, and this issues in holiness. Holiness is the manner. When we become love, we become different and distinct from the common people. The divine love sanctifies us, separates us, and makes us different. We are a people who are so holy, so golden. We are no longer pieces of clay but pieces of gold, and when we come together, all the pieces put together become a golden lampstand, bearing a testimony of the “golden” Jesus. This is the central lane, the central thought, of Peter’s writing.
The consummation of our enjoying the divine nature is agape, the divine love. Love is the ultimate development in the divine nature (1:7) and the consummation of the development of the divine nature. In his second Epistle Peter tells us that we have the allotted faith within us as the divine portion and that God has given us exceedingly great and precious promises so that we might become partakers of the divine nature. As we cooperate with this divine nature, it will have the opportunity to develop itself to its consummation, which is love.
In 2 Peter 3, Peter tells us that one day “the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the elements, burning with intense heat, will be dissolved, and the earth and the works in it will be burned up. Since all these things are to be thus dissolved, what kind of persons ought you to be in holy manner of life and godliness?” (vv. 10-11). Peter’s second Epistle begins in chapter 1 with the development of the divine nature, which consummates in love, and it ends in chapter 3 with a holy manner of life and godliness. In the development of the divine nature, love is developed in brotherly love, and brotherly love is developed in godliness. This means that at the beginning of 2 Peter godliness consummates in love, and at the end of 2 Peter the holy manner of life goes with godliness. The consummation of the enjoyment of the divine nature is love, and the consummation of 2 Peter is holiness. Love is the essence of this holy life, and holiness is the manner of such a life of love. Holiness is the manner, the expression, of the life partaking of the divine nature.
If you have been born of God, you have received His divine life with His divine nature. Now for you to enjoy God is to enjoy the divine nature, which is constituted mainly with love as the essence and light as the expression. When you enjoy God in His divine nature, you enjoy Him as love and as light. Love is the consummation of your enjoyment of God’s divine nature. As you enjoy and partake of the divine nature, you live a life of love, and this life has a manner. This is a life fully separated from the common life, a life that is distinct and different. In your community, your neighborhood, and among your relatives, colleagues, and classmates, you must give people an impression of distinction. They should realize that you are not common. This distinction comes from your being a person of love. Because you are a person of love, you do not quarrel, argue, or fight with anyone. You do not hate anyone and would never be mad with anyone. (First Corinthians 13 is a wonderful chapter showing us the virtues of love and the definition of love.)
Because you are a person enjoying the divine nature, you are a person of love. The people around you would notice that you are different and distinct. This is not a matter of behavior, but it is a matter of your being. Because you are a person remaining in the fellowship and cooperating with the inner operation of the divine nature, this makes you “a bit of love, a bit of God.” The others around you are “muddy,” but you are golden; you are a piece of gold. Among all the muddy people, you are different. You are holy.
In conclusion, the central thought of Peter’s writing is this: we believers have received the divine life, and with this divine life we have the divine nature, which is God Himself for us to enjoy. When we enjoy this divine nature to the uttermost, love will be the consummation. Then we become a loving being, a being of love. This love makes us different, just as Jesus was different and distinct when He was on this earth. He was altogether distinct, different, and separated from the others. He was a piece of gold among the “muddy” people. Even the twelve disciples in the Gospels were “twelve pieces of mud.” Only Jesus Christ was golden. He was a person of love. The divine love, the noble love, agape, made Jesus Christ distinct among all the people, which means that He was holy. Peter saw this in the Gospels, and after Pentecost he experienced this. In his two Epistles we see that love is the consummation of the enjoyment of the divine nature and that this love has an expression — holiness. Therefore, love is the essence of the divine life, and holiness is the manner of this life.
The enjoyment of the divine nature is mainly to enjoy the divine love and the divine life. Peter does not stress the divine life but the divine love. The ultimate development of the divine nature is love, agape, and this love issues in holiness. John mentions that God is love, but he does not stress love that much. Rather, he stresses light, which is the nature of the divine expression. John tells us in his first Epistle that he preached the eternal life to others so that they might be brought into the divine fellowship (1:2-3). Through this life we have received the divine fellowship, and if we remain in the divine fellowship, we will enjoy God as light (vv. 5-7). The message that John heard from God and announced to others was that God is light. John stresses that when we enjoy the divine nature, God becomes light to us, and we enjoy God as light.
This light issues in righteousness. Righteousness is the expression of the life partaking of the divine nature. In Peter’s line love issues in holiness, and in John’s line light issues in righteousness. Peter stresses holiness; John stresses righteousness. In his first Epistle John calls the Lord “the Righteous” (2:1). Righteousness is the issue of light. When you are in the light, you do everything right. If you do everything wrongly and foolishly, this means that you are in darkness. You do not know where you are going, what you are doing, or what you are speaking, because you are in darkness. However, when you are in the light, everything becomes crystal clear to you. You know where you are, what you are doing, where you should go, what you should do, and what you should speak.
In John’s writing, he was trying to inoculate the believers against a heresy which taught that the believers did not have sin and that they did not need to make any confession of their sins. John proves in his first Epistle that even though we have been regenerated, we still have sin within us, and there is the possibility that we will commit sins (1:8—2:1). John indicates that if we remain in the fellowship and enjoy God as light, there is no way that we can say that we are not sinful anymore. We still have a sinful nature, and there is still some possibility that we may fall into sin. Therefore, we need to confess our sins. John then goes on to talk about righteousness, which is the opposite of sin. Anything that is unrighteous is sin. He says that “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1:9). To cleanse us from all unrighteousness is to make us right.
First John 2:29 says, “If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness also has been begotten of Him.” Then 1 John 3:7 tells us that “he who practices righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous.” Verses like these indicate clearly that enjoying God as light issues in righteousness. Love separates us from being common, and light makes us right in everything.
When we are in darkness, we do everything wrong. Light regulates us. If the place in which we are is in darkness, our walk is not regulated since we cannot see where we are going. Light always regulates us and keeps us in order. Righteousness comes out of the enjoyment of God as light. Light is the nature of the divine expression, and righteousness is the expression of the life partaking of the divine nature, the expression of the life that enjoys God. If we are in the light and are enjoying God as light, we will have an expression that we are right in everything and with everyone. When we do things wrongly and when we do wrong things to others, this is a strong indication that we are not in the light.
We can prove this by our experiences. Nothing else tests or proves our Christian life as much as the marriage life. How good or how bad a husband is, is always proved in the eyes of his wife. No one knows a brother as thoroughly as his wife does. Whether or not he has stayed with the Lord and remained in fellowship with the Lord is known by her. Whenever a husband loses his temper with his wife, he knows nothing, he is the most foolish person, and he speaks nonsense. He is absolutely not right, because he is in darkness. However, when a brother stays with the Lord, remaining in His fellowship and enjoying Him as love and as light, he becomes holy and righteous in the sight of his wife. As an issue of being in the light, the husband does everything right and says everything right. It is possible for one to pretend to be something in others’ eyes, but you cannot pretend to be anything in the eyes of your spouse. He or she knows the real situation. When you stay in the divine fellowship, however, the other party of your marriage knows and can testify that you are different. The enjoyment of God as love makes you holy, and the enjoyment of God as light makes you right. Light is the essence of righteousness, and righteousness is the shining of light.
In conclusion, holiness is the issue of the enjoyment of the divine love, and righteousness is the issue of the enjoyment of the divine light. The ultimate consummation of holiness is the enjoyment of God as love, and the ultimate consummation of righteousness is the enjoyment of God as light. The issue of our partaking of and enjoying the divine nature is holiness and righteousness.
