“By which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”
of the divine nature
“Nature” means disposition. Our “nature” is a disposition or inborn quality that generates and produces power in us. This nature is not the quality that determines whether someone is a human being. In other words, our nature is not equivalent to our person. The sin nature is a change in capacity or disposition and not a metaphysical change in us (the transfer of God’s attributes to us). A nature is the inherent disposition that ultimately affects our conduct and character.
Before Adam’s fall, he had a human nature but not a sin nature. He possessed attributes unique to man. When Adam fell, he acquired a sin nature (Romans 5:12). Now he possessed two natures: a human nature and a sin nature. A better term for “nature” in this context might be “capacity.” Adam in the fall acquired a capacity for sin. When a person become Christians, they receive a capacity toward God.
The addition of the sin nature in Adam produced a drastic spiritual change but not a metaphysical change in him. He still was the same person he was before the fall. Therefore, his sin nature is a disposition rather than a change of attributes unique to his human nature.
Hypothetically, if the sin nature did change the attributes of the human nature, then man would have been different from the human being God created when He created Adam. The non-Christian possesses a human nature in the sense of the attributes unique to man plus a sin nature. He does not have the new nature in the sense of a new disposition toward God. All he has is a sin capacity. That is why his disposition is dark toward God (John 3:19).
When people become Christians, a radical change in their disposition takes place. They receive a divine nature. They are not a new kind of human being but they have a new orientation toward God. Christians still possess characteristics unique to man but God introduces something new into them, a divine disposition. God reintroduces into the born again person the same orientation toward God that Adam had before the fall. Once we are favorably disposed toward God, He can make us more like Christ.
Christians in their new nature are legally just before God. Therefore, they have certain rights before God.
Principle:
In conflict with the sin capacity, Christians can claim their legal right to reject the mastery of the sin nature because of their identification with Christ’s death.
Application:
The sin nature or capacity is our inherent disposition toward sin. We received at our physical birth a disposition toward rebellion toward God. We call that disposition the sin nature (Jeremiah 17:9; Romans 6:16-20). The sin nature holds both legal authority and experiential power over the lives of non-Christians. The sin nature only hold experiential power over Christians if do not apply their legal authority in Christ to its power.
Non-Christians only have the sin nature but not the divine nature. The sin nature is totally depraved. This means that by possessing the sin capacity, non-Christians are depraved in reference to God. This does not mean they cannot do right according to human standards. It does mean their morality is worthless, compared to the absolute righteousness of God (Romans 8:7).
Non-Christians have inherent hostility toward God’s will (Romans 8:7). This does not mean the old nature will always act as badly as it is capable. Non-Christians do many moral and humanitarian things but they do them apart from God. They operate essentially apart from God and their life revolves around themselves. Their orientation is man-centered rather than God-centered. Their chief end is themselves rather than God (Ephesians 2:3). This is why they must be born again because in their own nature they will not orient to God (John 3:19).
Christians receive a divine nature [capacity] at the point of salvation but they still retain the sin capacity after salvation. Christians, then, have two warring capacities within their bosom. However, in the Christian, Jesus forever legally defeated the sin nature by His death on the cross (Romans 6).
Christians have legal rights over the sin nature but they cannot defeat sin simply by possessing a divine nature. Simple possession of the divine nature does not provide the power necessary to overcome the sin nature. Christians need more than the divine nature for that. Christians can defeat the sin nature by claiming, through experience, their legal rights over the sin capacity in God’s eyes. Christians live by the promises of God in Christ.
If we rely on our own strength as the source of power to overcome the sin nature, the sinful disposition will defeat us every time. Neither keeping the commands of God nor self-will are enough to overcome struggle with the sin nature.
Christians need not allow the sin nature to defeat them because they have the indwelling Holy Spirit who can fill them with power. At the point of our salvation, the Holy Spirit set us free from the controlling power of the sin nature in principle and made available His own power to us. If we give Him power over our lives, we will have victory over the sin capacity. The Holy Spirit can produce in us what we cannot produce in ourselves.
The divine nature plays a powerful role in transforming the regenerate man (”new man”) more and more into the image of Christ (Romans 8:29). This, again, is a process (2 Corinthians 3:18). In eternity, God will make us morally perfect in our experience.
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