Daily Reading: 2 Peter 1:3-11
Yesterday we ended by praying that Jesus would be enthroned in our lives in such a way that He would transform us into His image as citizens of His Kingdom. Today, the apostle Peter teaches us that Jesus will not somehow accomplish this transformation all by Himself.
Certainly, King Jesus has “given us everything we need for a godly life” so that we “may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires”. This is wonderful! By the grace of Jesus, we have all the power we could ever need, by which to escape the wordly corruption of our evil desires and to live a truly godly life.
But, He will only accomplish this with our cooperation, and never against our will, or by some sort of magical transformation. We are clearly instructed that we will have to “make every effort” to grow in our faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection and love. Growing into the character of Jesus is fuelled by His power within us, but it is produced by our deliberate, intentional effort and daily decision-making. We are called to be diligent in pursuing this character of the Kingdom.
Theologian D.A. Carson summed it up so well when he famously wrote:
“People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, and obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.”
May King Jesus empower us by His grace to make every effort to pursue our transformation into His likeness.
Lord Jesus, inspire me to make the effort, fuelled by Your grace, to bear Your Kingdom likeness in my world. Amen.
Dave's Diary 
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