Christian Living

The Resurrection, Part 3—From Factual Knowledge to Actual Life

by J.W. Phillips
04/19/25
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What if a Christian told you he had a nature just like God’s, that he had escaped the corruption of this world, and that he now knew how to never stumble again (II Peter 1:10) in his walk with God?

Sound too good to be true? Many people would dismiss such talk as the excited faith of adolescent theology, or as the ivory tower faith of a theologian more acquainted with theory than life.

But what makes these words entirely credible is that they come from a person who had made his share of bonehead blunders.

The name of the man who said these things was Peter.

Now, Peter knew as well as anyone how fallible the flesh could be! And he also knew, by experience, how formidable the enemy’s attacks could be!

What makes Peter’s words even more shocking to us are these staggering, almost unbelievable, assertions about having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

Escaped? We don’t know anyone who escaped! They all struggle, and do so until the day they die. So how did Peter escape?

Peter tells us how by setting forth three factors (II Peter 1:2,3): It is by having 1) divine power, 2) divine promises, and 3) a divine nature.

Now, if language means anything, and if Peter has any credibility, these words have to get our attention!

In his book, A Larger Christian Life, A.B. Simpson asserts, “There is no single paragraph in Scripture that more profoundly unfolds the depths and heights of Christian life than the first 11 verses of Second Peter.”¹

Peter’s words are not the rash words of a religious fanatic but are eminently practical words, rooted in the realism of tested and proven faith.

Many Christians think that living a consistently obedient life—a good life, a pure life, a holy life—is bound to fail, even for a Christian. The standards, they think, are too high, the opportunities to sin are too many, the flesh is too strong.

Some Christians even say they can’t make it through a single day without sinning.

Another factor contributing to our losing battle against sin is the belief that we have two natures—one good and one not so good. Each of these natures, it is believed, alternately and frequently expresses itself.

People may not want to sin, yet frequently they do. And the main reason they do is because of this ongoing conflict between the old nature and the new nature.

To be stuck in this kind of thinking is to operate with diminished efforts, accept reduced goals, and succumb to moral defeat. J.C. Philpot observed, “What a mere shallow pretense to vital godliness satisfies most ministers, most hearers, and most congregations!”

In his book, Paths to Power, A.W. Tozer wrote:

To any casual observer of the religious scene today, two things will at once be evident: one, that there is very little sense of sin among the unsaved, and two, that the average professed Christian lives a life so worldly and careless that it is difficult to distinguish him from the unconverted man.²

One of the major accomplishments of the cross was the amputation of the old nature.

One of the major accomplishments of the resurrection is the new nature replacing the old.

Jesus was the first born from the dead (Colossians 1:18). But when we were born-again, his life became our life.

To have a new nature is to have the ability to live a life of consistent obedience.

Peter lived that kind of life. And by doing so he demonstrated for the ages that he had successfully transitioned from a factual awareness of the resurrection to an actual and internalized possessor of the resurrection.

Peter, a real hero of the faith!

    James Bond is fiction.

    Spider Man is fiction.

    The Terminator is fiction.

    Sean, Toby and Arnold all play characters from fiction.

    The Apostle Peter, however, was real!

And who more than Peter could have said:

     No one is perfect.

     We all make mistakes.

     I may not want to, but I sin every day; I just can’t help it!

     To err, is what? Oh, yeah—human.

Yet, it is this same fallible Peter who became a spiritual hero.

Though his past defeats were legendary, the life Peter later experienced was remarkably different.

So different in fact that with much credibility Peter was able to convey a message which, in earlier years, would have resulted in snickers and sneers.

But having experienced the transforming power of God, Peter declared: 

Be holy, just as God is holy

Purify your souls

Show forth the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness

Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts

Be partakers of the divine nature

Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue

You shall never fall

In the end, Peter became more of a hero than any of those revered in fiction books. He lived a remarkable life, a life above the downward drag of sin, a life people at that time saw, and people today say is impossible.

Those who once thought the resurrection was impossible and now know that it isn’t, now need to learn what Peter learned: The resurrected life, once deemed impossible, is entirely possible too. And not only possible in theory, but in daily life.

Notes:

 1. A.B. Simpson, A Larger Christian Life, (Ulrichsville, OH., A Barbour Book, 1988), p.140.

2. A.W. Tozer, Paths to Power, (Camp Hill, PA., Christian Publications, n.d.), p.39.