This is the first blog in a series of 2 Peter chapter 1, where the apostle Peter, in his last letter before leaving to heaven, lays out the road map for how a Christian grows. He calls the saints up out of where they are and into where God wants them to be, and he does it in nine steps that build on each other one at a time.
Diligence holds the whole chain together, and faith is the foundation. And on top of faith Peter stacks virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity. Nine words in nine steps, and a Christian who walks them in order ends up looking more like Christ at the end of his life.
A lot of Christians never grow because they never think of their next step on the road map. You got saved, and we are called to action. Peter is going to take us by the hand and walk us up the staircase, one stair at a time, and the first thing he wants us to see, before we ever take a step up, is what God has already put underneath us.
If you wake up tired in your journey for Christ, it’s likely because you haven’t been taking the next step in your growth. You think growing in Christ is about climbing up to God and earning something you do not have, and so every Monday morning feels like another flight of stairs on legs that are already worn out. But Peter does not start his second epistle that way at all. Before he ever tells you to grow, he points you back to what is already in your hands.
2 Peter 1:1-4 are six gifts that God already handed you the day you got saved, and you cannot understand the call to grow in verse 5 until you understand the gifts in verses 1 through 4.
We are not working to earn anything. We are building on what is already ours, and the building goes a whole lot easier when a man finally sees what is already underneath his feet.
Peter opens the letter and lays out six things every saved man already owns in Christ. He is not telling us to go get them. He is reminding us we already have them. And once those six things settle into your heart, the rest of the chapter of growth becomes much more achievable.
Precious Faith
2 Peter 1:1, “Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ:”
The very first thing Peter does is call your faith precious. The man writing the letter walked with Jesus for three years, watched Him feed the five thousand, watched Him calm the sea, denied Him at the fire, was restored by Him at the breakfast on the shore, and preached the sermon at Pentecost that brought three thousand souls to salvation. And Peter looks across the years and across the miles at a Christian he has never even met and says your faith is the same precious faith as his. You did not get a lesser version or leftover faith. The faith that saved Peter is the same faith that saved you, and it came the same way it came to him, through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.
That should settle a thousand arguments a Christian has with himself in the dark. The same faith that opened the prison doors for Peter is the faith that lives in your chest right now.
Grace and Peace Multiplied
2 Peter 1:2, “Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,”
When it comes to growing, multiplication is always much faster than addition. Grace and peace are multiplied to us. And notice the channel it comes through, the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. The more a man knows the Lord, the more grace and peace get multiplied in his life. That is why the man who is in his Bible every day is the calmer man. He is not calmer because his life is easier. He is calmer because his knowledge of God is deeper, and grace and peace are being multiplied through that knowledge.
The grace of God always brings the peace of God. If we do not have the grace of God, we will not have the peace of God. It is through his grace that we find peace with God.
Divine Power
2 Peter 1:3, “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:”
Thankfully, it is in His divine power, not our willpower or discipline, that we grow. The same power that flung the stars out, raised Jesus Christ out of the grave, and stopped the sun for Joshua, is the very power has been given to you. And it has been given to you for a reason, to provide all things that pertain unto life and godliness. Every single thing you need to live the Christian life has already been provided by His divine power.
That is why it is such a tragedy when a saved man lives like a beggar. He has been given divine power and he is still trying to fight his battles with his own strength. He has been given everything he needs and he is still telling himself he does not have enough to live for God. Peter says the power is already in you and the provision is already made. You just have to lay hold of what is already yours.
All Things That Pertain Unto Life and Godliness
This phrase is hiding inside verse 3 and it deserves our attention. All things that pertain unto life and godliness have already been given. Every tool, every promise, every weapon, every supply line a Christian needs to live a holy life is already in his hands the day he gets saved.
So when a man says I cannot stop this sin, or I cannot live for God, or I just do not have it in me, he is telling on himself, because Peter says he already has everything that pertains unto life and godliness. The problem is never the supply. The problem is whether the saint has gone to the storehouse and laid hold of what God put in there for him.
Exceeding Great and Precious Promises
2 Peter 1:4a, “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises:”
Some count the promises of God in the Bible at over seven thousand. Seven thousand exceeding great and precious promises, every one of them signed in the blood of Christ, and every one of them belonging to the saved man. And while every promise may not be written to us, it is written for us. Promises about your soul, your family, your fears, your finances, your future, and your forever.
Partakers of the Divine Nature
2 Peter 1:4b, “that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”
This is the highest one of the six. Through the precious promises of God, the believer becomes a partaker of the divine nature. Something of God Himself has been planted in the soul of every born again man. The same Spirit that lives in heaven now lives in you. And the result of that, Peter says, is that we have escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. The world is rotting under lust. The world is sinking under the weight of its own appetites. And the saved have been pulled out of that rot and given a new nature that does not have to live like the world lives anymore.
You are not the same man you used to be. You have been made a partaker of the divine nature, and that means the life of God is in you, and the corruption of the world does not have to own you any longer.
Now Notice What We Have
Take all six of those gifts together and look at the bank account that every saved man is sitting on. Precious faith. Grace and peace being multiplied. Divine power. All things pertaining to life and godliness. Exceeding great and precious promises. A new nature that lets him escape the corruption of the world. That is the inheritance of the saint before verse 5 ever says a word about growing.
That is why verse 5 opens with the words “And beside this.” Peter is saying since you already have all of that, now go grow. The growing in verses 5 through 7 is not how you earn the gifts in verses 1 through 4. The growing is how you build on the gifts you already have. The foundation is already poured. The materials are already on the lot. The blueprint is already drawn. Now you pick up the hammer.
A saint who does not see the six gifts of verses 1 through 4 will spend his whole life trying to earn what he already has. A saint who sees them will spend his whole life building on what he already has. Two different lives. Two different fruits. Same Bible.
Living This Out
Start the morning by remembering what you already have. Open the Bible and look at 2 Peter 1:1-4 again, and name each of the six gifts out loud before you ever pray a request. Thank God for precious faith before you ask for more faith. Thank God for grace and peace before you ask for grace and peace. Thank God for divine power before you tell Him you need power. Thank God for the promises before you ask for a promise. Thank God for the new nature before you confess the old one.
Before you can grow, you have to see what is already underneath you. Before you climb the ladder, you have to know who built it. The next blog will start to lay out the two outcomes that hinge on whether the saint actually climbs that ladder or whether he sits down at the bottom of it. There are two ways this can go for every Christian, and Peter is about to spell them both out.
