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2 PETER

CHAPTERS

123

2 Peter 1:1-4

1 “Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,

To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, for His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. Through these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world on account of lust.”


Simon Peter…apostle: Peter establishes his identity as an apostle in order to establish his authority to encourage the church to guard themselves against false doctrines which violate the true faith. Peter was not a newcomer onto the Christian scene. He had walked with Jesus and learned from Jesus and knew the Gospel very well. Therefore, he was able to speak with such authority.

Same kind as ours: Peter is encouraging the church, not with a different message, but with the same Gospel that he has always taught. This Gospel involves the righteousness of God given to all through faith in Jesus. 

Grace and peace be multiplied: All believers understand the Gospel on some fundamental level. However, every Christian is also maturing in their knowledge, not of religious rules and customs, but of this grace of God. The more we understand the Gospel the more that grace and peace will be multiplied in our lives experientially. This will allow for a general stability in Christ despite individual struggles we may encounter. 

Everything pertaining to life: Through the true knowledge of God, the Gospel of grace, we have been equipped fully for everything we need for life and godliness. This is because Jesus Christ, the living Son of God, is alive within us. This startling reality means that we do not need rules and regulations for the Christian life. Furthermore, we do not need to perfect ourselves or equip ourselves in some way. What we need to do is learn all that we already have in Christ. We have total forgiveness of sins and an entirely new nature. 

Glory and excellence: If the God we know is not excellent then we need to rethink the God in whom we believe. We don’t need to try to be thankful or try to celebrate God. We simply need to recognize how awesome he truly is and allow natural thankfulness to arise. His excellence is manifested fully in the Gospel of grace and the person of Jesus. As we fix our eyes on everything that Jesus has done, we will truly know the nature of God. If the Gospel in which we believe is anything but magnificent then we are believing a false Gospel. 

Divine nature: Believers have escaped their previous way of life in which they were enslaved to sin. We now have God’s very nature within us. God is so fused to us that we are participating in His godly nature. This is the heart of the true Gospel. We are not only perfectly forgiven but righteous to the core of our beings.

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2 PETER

CHAPTERS

123