The first time I ever drove a hybrid car I sat behind the wheel trying to start the engine. I pressed almost every button I could find thinking something was wrong. Finally, I put my foot on the pedal and the car moved. What a surprise! It was great fun coming to a stop at a traffic signal and hearing nothing. I was sure the car had stalled. I learned. I am not surprised to see more and more hybrids on the road.
2 Peter 1 fascinates me. Peter talks about our being hybrids. He tells us we can, right now, become partakers of divine nature. We don’t have to be “only human.” Peter must have realized how incredible this sounded. It is surreal and difficult for us materialists to grasp. God wants to live in us. He wants to share His power with us. He wants us to live above our fallen human natures. He wants us to share and taste the future. I am not surprised Peter referred to this as an exceedingly great and precious promise. It was unlike anything people had heard before.
So what does it mean? Basically, we have no excuse for failure. So often we excuse our lapses by saying, “Well, I’m only human.” Hey, that doesn’t have to be. There will be no Freudian blaming our forefathers for our phylogenetically inherited endowments. Even though we were not born with a blank slate for a mind, even though we are born preprogrammed, this promise means we do not have to be slaves to our inheritance. While we cannot overcome by ourselves the truth is we are no longer on our own. We can, right now, be supplied with external power.
Written by Roger Bothwell on February 25, 2010
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org