“Grace and Peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that 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.”
If you read my first post on this site, you know that I’m starting to write my first book soon. The subject of the book and the obsession of my heart is the Names and Titles of God. And what a doozy we have in this verse! The name that Peter, a friend of Jesus while He was on earth, uses for the Lord is “Him who called us by His own glory and excellence”. There is something powerful about what the friends of the Lord call Him.
W e see, here, that it is in the true knowledge of this Person that we receive everything we need to live in the realm of godliness that is granted us by His divine power. But who is this Person? He is the one who called us by His own glory and excellence. The uniqueness of the way that He calls us out of what we are in is staggering. He doesn’t call us out by showing us how bad off we are, nor does He call us by showing us where we could be. Rather, He doesn’t even address the issue of our proximity to destiny, His primary strategy in moving us towards the Light and out of darkness is to use His glory and excellence to shine Light into our darkness.
It is by displaying His glory that we realize we are living in darkness. His Light shines in our darkness and the darkness does not overcome it (John 1:5). By the “un-overcomablity” of His Light we become overcomers because the Light comes with the indestructible, supernatural seed of the Holy Spirit (1 Peter 1:23). This seed transfers us to the Kingdom of Light by the adoption as princes. As we live like the royalty that we are, we are transformed and made like Him as we behold Him. With the supernatural seed of the Spirit in us we are not only adopted, but reborn and made into a new creation. We are made like Him, like Father like son, and we grow in likeness to the Son of God. As this happens, we stir the pleasures of the Father because we remind Him of His Son. This gives Him great pleasure, we know, because every time He spoke in the gospels of His Son, He was always saying things like “This is My Son in whom I take great pleasure”.
His ultimate goal for us is not to make us a better us, but to make us into His Image. That is why He shows us His glory and excellence, to show us what we can enter into. It is a prophetic mirror He puts in front of us, showing us what we will look like. Something in us, then, jumps and we turn and embrace our destiny, our mandate and purpose from the beginning – to be made in His image and likeness.
*Oh Excellent and Glorious One, draw us to Yourself like a moth to a lamppost and let us burn as we touch You. Amen*
Alright, I’m no literature buff, or Bible buff, but this is some awesome stuff Vincent. Seriously. This 3-part thing on grace and peace was great. This last part was probably my favorite. You are a great author and man of God. I love the knowledge you have, but not because you treat it as knowledge, but because you treat it as bread and water, it’s your life and the urgency/importance you put behind it is astounding. This stuff you’re writing makes me think, but it doesn’t confuse me – which is a great place to be. You aren’t a Bible “nerd” (okay, maybe just a little
) j/k) but you are truly connected to God and we are truly blessed to have you in our lives. I’m excited to read more! This book will be on the bestseller list for many, many months.
i can see why this verse is so near and dear to you…cuz in paragraph four there is stuff about being an overcomer and about being a prince, both of which is very central to your identity…
on another note, i like the “He doesn’t want to make us a better us…” cuz so many times we feel that the Lord came to redeem the bad part of us but keep the good…when in reality He wants to completely destroy us and resurect us into the likeness of His Son…how sweet!!
Lord help me to realize that I am not a “good person” and that I need your grace to completely redeem me…