What Peter teaches is that God has allowed His people to partake of His power and His nature. This far exceeds the heretical teaching that we are divine in some way. We are finite, fallen human creatures. It is a testimony to the grace and mercy of God in Christ that we share His power and have been made partakers of His nature as we are united to Jesus and grow into His likeness.
We don’t need to spend much time watching the twenty-four-hour news channels or scrolling through social media to be discouraged about the bad shape that our world is in. Unfortunately, it is not hard to find things to be discouraged about in the church at large and, in some cases, even in our own local churches. This is not a surprise to those of us who follow Jesus. He told us that we should expect as much when He said that we would have trouble in this world (John 16:33).
This was especially true for those to whom Peter wrote his epistles. He wrote two letters: one to warn and then encourage believers about the persecution they may face from the world (1 Peter) and the other to warn and then encourage believers about the false teachers who may move in and be among them (2 Peter). It is primarily this second challenge that he is addressing in his opening words in 2 Peter 1. In this section, Peter says something remarkable about what God has done for His people in Christ:
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. (1 Peter 1:3–4)
Peter wants to encourage his readers that we have been equipped to defend the truth and even beat back the false teachers and the heresy they are promoting. God has prepared believers for such a time as this—that is Peter’s encouragement.
God’s people’s having knowledge of God and our Lord Jesus Christ figures prominently as Peter opens his second letter (2 Peter 1:1–3). This is not a removed or passive “knowing about” God and His Son.