“Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet. 1:3-4)

What is the divine nature? He tells us plainly that the divine nature is love – God’s love.   “God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him” (I John 4:16).  If God dwells in us, it is divinity dwelling in us.  Love is God’s divine nature.  Christ “is the image of the invisible God” (Col. 1:15).  Jesus said “. . .he that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (Jn 14:9).  If we are partakers of the divine nature we are like Christ. In the sermon on the mount, Jesus concluded his teaching on our being like God in love by saying “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matt. 5:48).  This also is describing the nature of God and directing us to be partakers of it.

Whether he describes his purpose as making us like Christ, filling us with all of his fulness (he is love), making us partakers of his divine nature, making us perfect, or giving us the perfect love, it is all the same – namely, he wants to form his love in us.  This is the mark, goal, purpose and aim for the race he has set before us.  He describes this mark in yet another way.