diagrams

By His Divine Power: 2 Peter 1:3-4

2 years ago

by Jacob in 2 Peter, diagrams, free grace, godliness, journal reflection, The Gospel

This is a diagram that I drew up in my devotion time this morning. 2 Peter 1:1-11 was on the docket, and after a few reads, verses three through four really stuck out to me as a profoundly God-centered logical flow of thought (surprise, surprise – it’s in the Bible!), so drew what I saw. The verse itself reads:

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

These diagrams help me to unpack what is being said. What Peter is getting at is quite profound. Notice the flow of thought:

God initiates his divine power, he gives it freely. There are not conditions for it – save being a sinner! – and he has given it, as we learn in v. 2, in Jesus Christ to us. This is on God’s initiative. There is no invitation from man, “Hey God, we’re kinda hating you right now. Mind doing something about that?” God initiates his love without any inclination of interest in those he initiates towards. This is the wonder of Free Grace.
It is given so that we might A) Have knowledge of him, Jesus, and B) have something through it. Stop for a moment. God freely gives knowledge of himself (implicitly this is saving knowledge of him), not just to be impressed by God, but to have something. God is giving people who have committed treason against him treasures out of his glory. He is giving traitors that which they should have given him. Do you see the free, amazing, glorious grace involved here? Not only is God initiating something, but he’s initiating with a purpose to bless and give. That’s two givings of grace, if you’re counting, to people who deserved nothing!
God’s power intends life changing effects. This is simply amazing. God doesn’t just send Jesus to give us a ticket out of Hell (to use the phrase), but he saves us to be like him “in life and godliness.” To be a Christian is to grow, and desire to grow, in godliness. Moreover, it is through the knowledge that God gives that we receive “all things that pertain to life and godliness.” It is not through 10 steps, it is not through accountability programs, it is first and primarily about seeing and knowing something that God gives. That something is Jesus Christ in the Gospel – his death for our sin, his taking of the wrath we deserve, his actual death and actual resurrection, his victory and reign over Satan, sin, and death. It is not in participating in some way that we receive “all things that pertain to life and godliness”, it is through seeing and knowing. We don’t do anything to get right with God, thus we don’t do anything to merit the ability to grow in grace. All we do is see Jesus Christ, in all that is and all that he has done, and in that we grow in our love for him, have our minds and hearts changed by that sight, and thus simply by believing in Jesus we receive the power to grow in godliness.
Change comes through God’s promises. Not only are we saved by God’s self-initiated grace and mercy, but God also gave in ages past his promises about his name and goodness to those who repent and believe in him. Thus, when we do repent and believe in Jesus Christ through knowing his Gospel and seeing its goodness, “all the promises of God find their Yes in him” (2 Corinthians 1:20). And it is God’s already existing promises of mercy and goodness that cause change in us. We believe in God’s ability to do what he has said because God fulfilled his great promise of redemption (Genesis 3:15) in Jesus Christ; thus we know that all his subsequent promises are also “Yes!”.
His grace sent to make us partake of him. The aim of God’s divine power (#1) is to bring us near to him and partake of himself. The extent of this “partakers of divine nature” is deep, but I think a part of what is in view is holiness. God brings us, those rebels who once hated him and were full of “sinful desire” are now brought near to God by his own initiative and grace to be “partakers of divine nature”. Stop for a moment and wonder at this! What wondrous grace is this. “My song is love unknown, My Saviour’s love to me; Love to the loveless shown, That they might lovely be. O who am I, that for my sake, My Lord should take frail flesh and die?”
As a final strand, We escaped because he called. Lest we should boast in ourselves in any of this, Peter makes the strand in this verse that we escaped the corruption of the world in its sinful desires (which we freely partook of) only because God “called us to his own glory and excellence.” This call that he gave was effectual. It changed our minds, it set our feet on a path, gave us fuel to walk, and an aim to end in.

What grace from God. Let his name be praised for his amazing grace.

Do Not Love The World

3 years ago

by Jacob in delight in God, diagrams, godliness

I have been seeing a lot of worldliness in my own heart recently, and particularly came to a head of seeing this sin penetrating through many areas of my heart last night. For me, it’s a preoccupation, fascination, and love for the world. I just want the world, I love it, and desire it. For me, it’s an intillecuatlist fascination with culture and the world; but ultimately, its my own personal little sin playground where I can mull over my own passions “for the sake of academics”. So in prayer last night about this, I believe the Lord prompted these verses for my own reflection upon in this matter in seeing my heart more clearly, and its solution:

15 Do not love the world or the things in the world for if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. ~ John 2:15-17

So in thinking about them, I came to some helpful insights into the passage that I thought may benefit others. To begin with, I was benefiting from my Greek studies on this passage. If that sounds daunting to you – to learn Greek – take heart, because I’m only 8 chapters in my Greek book, and that’s not very much! So, I noticed two areas that the ESV translates where I would personally translate differently. In v. 15, between “the things of the world” and “for if anyone…” the ESV puts a period, and excluded the “for”. It’s not a big deal, nor does it lose the sense of the passage, but for me, those gramatical que’s are helpful. To begin with, the “for” needs to be there because the important Greek word, “hoti” is there to give a logical connection link between the phrases. Secondly, having the logical connection helps me see the picture John is given us in these words. With this in mind then, the way I’m seeing verse 15 build is as follows:

Thus, I see John giving us a picture of two ways we can live, and what those two ways are fundamentally built upon: either a love of the world, or a love of God. As you can see in the diagram, I see a distinction between the “love of the world” and the “love of the things of the world”. It creates a picture in my mind that John then goes on to fill out:

If you’re comparing this to your ESV, you’ll notice that I’ve translated the third clause as “pride of life” and not “pride in possessions”. The Greek can go either way because it literally reads: “the pride the (of) life/possessions.” The RSV translates this with the KJV as “the pride of life”, which I feel better fits the verse than “pride in possessions.” I believe John is getting at an all encompassing view of the sin of all things being in relation to one’s self. Not just possessions, but accomplishments and status. So it’s not just the tv or car, but the degree, the ideal family, the accomplishments at work or in the church, the sense of “I did this.” The picture I get of this verse is that the “things of the world” exist to serve and uphold the root of their cause (“the love of the world”) which is to make the self king! Part of this interpretation comes mainly from seeing that John says that all of these things are “passing away”. Since we know from Matt. 28 that Jesus Christ now reigns, and that all the kingdoms of this world will be put under his feet, there is a fundamental sense that the “love of the world” will “pass away” because its illusions of self-kingship will be uprooted, and will be so mainly because they already have been uprooted in the work of Christ (Col. 2:13-15).

And thus, in conclusion, I see the redemptive message and healing grace in these words showing this structure:

The way of growth and life is to have the love of the Father, manifesting itself in the love of the things of God (“the will of God”), and to thereby “abide forever”. Thus the cure to worldliness, my worldliness, is to grow in an all satisfying love for the Father. Our pleasure was never meant to be satisfied in anything other than in God. And if we do find pleasure in anything but him, it is treason in the highest form; and it will pass away under his mighty wrath. Thus, I find my heart filled with the grace of Jesus Christ by the presence of the Holy Spirit drawing my heart out in affections and longings for God himself. The cure to wordiness is delight in God. Do not love the world, love God! And if you love God, you’ll do the things of God (which Paul and the Apostles spell out in length throughout the NT).

If you think of me, pray that the Spirit would work this in my life, and in the life of his people: a deep satisfaction in God.

For Christ and his Church;
Yours,
~Jacob

Diagram of Philippians 1:9-11

4 years ago

by Jacob in diagrams, Philippians

I enjoy diagramming verses some times when I see a logical flow of argument being presented. It helps me to memorize them and remember them as guides for thought when talking or praying. The Bible gives us a thought line to follow when we think about a lot of things. So I’ve recently been meditating through Philippians in the morning, and I’ve worked this up. It might not be the best, but hopefully it helps. Sorry it is so big – it’s either that or you can’t read it… alas.