Make Your Election Sure
2 Peter 1: 1 Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:
St. Peter is writing to those who have received the faith, those “with us,” and “by the righteousness of God and Savior Jesus Christ.” I understand a couple of things from this: Peter is writing to those whom he considers not less righteous than himself. Yes, we see in him humility. But consider the place of Peter and consider the place of any of us (need I mention this?).
From Fr. Malaty:
Lest the reader may think that the kingdom is only for the apostles and the disciples, he confirmed that the precious faith is equal to the apostles by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ, so no one has credit for the salvation.
None of us gets or deserves the credit – not Peter, not me. Peter considers us in the same place, and this is because we are all blessed with the righteousness of God.
2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,
Fr. Malaty:
We are called to be united with Him and to follow His example, so we may obtain the love of God, His holiness, His patience and endurance, His meekness and simplicity.
One can say these are the divine energies through which we demonstrate our godliness. But it is stronger than this:
4 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.
“Partakers of the divine nature”: in verse 3 & 4, we see the language of Jonathan Edwards, where he describes this as the divine fullness. To partake in the divine nature: call it deification or theosis.
We see it in Clement of Alexandria:
…so he who listens to the Lord, and follows the prophecy given by Him, will be formed perfectly in the likeness of the teacher-made a god going about in flesh.
We see it in Hippolytus of Rome:
But if thou art desirous of also becoming a god, obey Him that has created thee, and resist not now, in order that, being found faithful in that which is small, you may be enabled to have entrusted to you also that which is great. For thou hast become god
We see it in George Leo Haydock:
Partakers of the divine nature. Divine grace infused into our souls, is said to be a partaking in the divine nature by an union with the spirit of God, whereby men are made his adoptive children, heirs of heaven
And we know of it from Athanasius of Alexandria: God became man so man could become god. Not in His essence, but in His energies.
5 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, 6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, 7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.
Peter is telling us to “add.” This takes faith, commitment, dedication; to make a long story short, it takes work – our work.
George Leo Haydock:
Join with your faith, virtue: think not that faith alone will save you without the practice of virtues and good works.
Faith without works is dead; God prepared good works for me beforehand. Are these somehow optional for me? Extra credit? Nice to do but not necessary? I think not: God will not be mocked.
8 For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.
Fr. Malaty:
Whoever is empty of these virtues is a blind person, without any spiritual enlightenment.
We are known by our fruits.
Now, for a tough one (as I used to get wrapped around the axle of the seeming arbitrariness of such language):
10 Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble;
What do you mean, make my call and election sure? This was a stumbling block for me. Jesus does the calling; God does the election. What can I do to make any of these “sure”?
George Leo Haydock:
By good works you may make sure without diving into the hidden mysteries of predestination.
It was a stumbling block until I decided it need not be. I need not worry about election, predestination, or any such terms that for many today (and me in the past) are seen as signs of arbitrariness or chance. In reality, how can I see God as arbitrary?
I am here, I have access to the truth, I have access to the commandments, and I have access to the cross.
11 for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
By making my call and election sure, an entrance into the kingdom will be supplied to me. The language is clear: nothing happens without God communicating His goodness; it also doesn’t happen without my participating in His goodness.
Fr. Malaty:
Strife is essential to make the call and election sure, for without it, man stumbles like the blind and loses his call and election.
We are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling.
Conclusion
Our calling is not to figure out if we are elect or not, predestined or not. For most of us (including me), it isn’t even to figure out just what, exactly, is meant by these terms. Having a true understanding of these terms isn’t going to give me a golden ticket to heaven.
We have to work. We will face trials and tribulations, struggles and even at times despair. It is impossible for us to consider how Christ dealt with all this (although He did), as we cannot imagine what it means for the Word to become flesh.
So, consider Job after he triumphed over all of his trials and tribulations:
Job 42: 10 And the Lord restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.
12 Now the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; for he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and one thousand female donkeys. 13 He also had seven sons and three daughters.
16 After this Job lived one hundred and forty years, and saw his children and grandchildren for four generations. 17 So Job died, old and full of days.
“But if thou art desirous of also becoming a god, obey Him that has created thee, and resist not now, in order that, being found faithful in that which is small, you may be enabled to have entrusted to you also that which is great. For thou hast become god”
Bionic, you have included many things worthy of consideration in this post, including the above.
My $0.02: Because we fear that our faith may be confused with pantheism, or the ancient framework of a father-god giving birth to titans, or the step-up godhood of the LDS, we’ve unfocused our heritage as adopted sons of God. I often think of Timothy Alberino’s name for the sons of God, commonly referred to as angels: the elder race. Then, the nature of the resurrected Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ. Finally, of what Adam and Eve were and what they were intended to become. It is quite Biblical to speak of theosis and our eventual godhood, far less than that of the God Most High, but much more than what we typically dare to conceptualize.
If we do not fall away, our future is glorious, dwelling with Almighty God, those of the elder race who did not rebel, and the company of the redeemed!