It had never entered the heart of man that he would be a partaker in God’s divine nature by having God’s Son run the race ahead of us (1 Cor. 2:9). Yet the Lord has given us the complete scriptures, “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature…” (2 Pet. 1:4). These promises are exceeding great and precious for the Lord uses them to give us his divine nature. He shows the same pathway, hope and purpose of God in other words:

For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,      May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen (Eph. 3:14-21).

His plan is that we will be filled with all the fullness of God. This is no small purpose, hope or goal.  If we follow Christ as his disciple and become as he is, we would have all the fullness of God for Christ “…is the image of the invisible God…” (Col. 1:15). “God is love” (1 John 4:8). This is the divine nature—not human love, but the divine love. Jesus said “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another” (John 13:34).  The only way we can love one another as Jesus loves us is to grow to have his same love. This is the hope of glory. “To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27).

This hope of glory is what we are getting right now if we are growing in him. If we have the heart of Satan, and inherit all things, what glory would that be? We could never be trusted no matter how much we have. If we have the heart of Christ and inherit nothing, we have the divine nature and the hope of real glory. No matter what we have or don’t have, we will always be faithful to our Father.  The divine nature, the divine love and the heart of Christ are all unseen and therefore eternal.  The heart, mind and soul are eternal and will be filled with the divine nature forever and ever.  What could be a greater purpose of our eternal Father than to give us his own divine nature!

The blessedness of God’s purpose is that we are not the ones who form this nature in ourselves.  We have our small part and must accomplish it before God will do His part. But we are assured that God “…is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us” (Eph. 3:20).  We can surely think about and ask to be formed in the image of Christ with the divine nature.  He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think. Do we dare to ask?  The power is not in us.  The power is in God who is able to work in us.