2 Peter 1:2-11 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, 3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: 4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 5 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; 6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; 7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. 8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. 10 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: 11 For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Today I want to talk about the Divine Arithmetic Of Salvation. We see mathematical terms in our text today.

2 Peter 1:2 Grace and peace be multiplied…

2 Peter 1:5 add to your faith

Last week we discussed how GRACE is the engine that saves a person. We are saved by faith in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is very true. And yet, I do not think that many who PROFESS Christ actually POSSESS Christ. One acronym that explains the GOSPEL of salvation is:

It is the L in the acronym that too many people are confused about. Salvation is a free gift in that you cannot purchase it. But salvation cannot come unless you agree to follow Jesus. Salvation is a free gift, but it is also a commitment.

Salvation is not a “get out of hell” free card. It is an invitation to return to the Garden, to walk with the Lord.

Bible Scholar and Pastor Dallas Willard said,

“Most problems in contemporary Churches can be explained by the fact that members have never decided to follow Christ. We have taken His NAME, but have not taken His YOKE.”

There is no life with Jesus until you do a little DIVINE SUBTRACTION. There must be REPENTANCE.

I very rarely hear this preached, but it’s true. You cannot be saved – cannot receive the Gospel – unless you first REPENT. Our Lord Jesus preached:

Matthew 4:17 … REPENT, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand …

Repent = metanoeō, compound word, “meta” = to change; “noeō” = the mind. Repentance is to stop being your own god, and to choose through the power of the Spirit to follow Jesus. It is a subtraction of SELF.

When asked why He spent so much time with sinners, Jesus declared:

Luke 5:32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.

Jesus did not say “I have called sinners to SALVATION”, but He said “I have called sinners to REPENTANCE”.

Repeatedly Jesus told those who would listen,

Luke 13:3, 5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.

Again, Jesus doesn’t say SAVED but REPENT. We do not save ourselves, but we do REPENT. Our Lord said in

Luke 15:10 … “there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Jesus sent His disciples out with the message “that people everywhere should REPENT” (Mark 6:12). The Apostle said that:

Romans 2:4 “it is the kindness of God that LEADS YOU TO REPENTANCE”.

Repentance is so very necessary to salvation. So what is repentance? It is Divine Subtraction. It is the removal of self from the equation. You cannot be saved on your own terms, but must be saved by surrendering yourself to God while seizing the Grace that He offers. There can be no half way.

2 Peter 1:2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord

Repentance means that you receive Jesus Christ as LORD. Jesus never offered the Kingdom of God apart from surrender to Him. He used statements like “Follow Me”, or “If you love Me, KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS”, or

John 14:21 (NLT) Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.

We are not called to TOLERATE Jesus, but to LOVE Him. And that requires DIVINE SUBTRACTION. We surrender ourselves to God. The Bible says:

Luke 14:26-33 (ESV) If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

As believers in Christ we are called to love Jesus first and foremost. We are called to love Jesus more than our own lives. We are called to love Jesus no matter what life throws our way. And Beloved, if you are a Christian, we are told in our text that:

2 Peter 1:3-4 …His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: 4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature

God has given us all that we need for life and godliness. God Who saves us, “hath called us to glory and virtue”. We are not called to walk in darkness, but to walk in the light of Christ. God has called the Christian to be “partakers of the divine nature”. We are not saved just to go to Heaven, but we are saved to walk with Christ NOW and INTO ETERNITY. The Holy Spirit bids us REPENT. Jesus said, “Take MY YOKE upon you” (Matthew 11:29). We give our lives to Jesus, for He has given His life for us. This is REPENTANCE.

Walking With Jesus, God Will Teach You Divine ADDITION

The target of every Christian is to please God, to be like Jesus. Our faith is never stagnant. Having access to the Divine Nature, we are called of God to GROW.

2 Peter 1:5-7 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; 6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; 7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.

We are told to be “giving all diligence”. The word “GIVING” is the Greek pareisphérō, which means “to contribute or bring in besides”. “DILIGENCE” is the Greek spoudḗ, which means “with haste or eagerness, to be earnest in accomplishing”. Faith is a wonderful thing – it is a gift of God. When we practiced DIVINE SUBTRACTION by repenting, God gave us faith in Christ.

God the Holy Spirit leads us to REPENTANCE:

Acts 11:18 (NASB) … God has also granted to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life … (also see 2 Timothy 2:25)

God the Holy Spirit grants us FAITH:

2 Peter 1:1 … to them that have obtained like precious faith with us

But the same God leads us to ADD TO OUR FAITH.

2 Peter 1:5-6 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; 6 And to knowledge temperance…

What do we ADD? We are called into partnership with God to seek out and ADD:

• Virtue is the Greek ἀρέτη arétē, (pronounced ar-et’-ay) which means moral goodness. We are not to be like the fallen world. We are warned in Scripture:

James 4:4 (ESV) … Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

The world is constantly demanding that Christianity absorb its abnormalities, that the light become more like the darkness. But the only way that light can become one with darkness is to extinguish its energy. To absorb the world is to become something that Christ never intended. I have heard people argue:

Well, Jesus never said ANYTHING against transgenderism or LGBTQ+. If He never said anything against it, He wasn’t against it.

This is hogwash. Jesus saidGod’s Word was TRUTH (John 17:17). When Jesus walked the earth, the Bible the Jews had was the Old Testament we have today. Jesus said that He did not come to destroy the Law, but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17). When asked about marriage, Jesus said:

Mark 10:6-9 (ESV) … from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ 7 ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, 8 and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. 9 What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.

Though Jesus never specified that one type of sexual sin was more evil than the other, He did specify that what God designed and decreed was male to female marriage. Jesus came for the Jewish people first (Matthew 15:24; Romans 1:16; 2:9-10), and the Jews that Jesus preached to were well acquainted with the Bible (our Old Testament). The Law of Moses was VERY SPECIFIC about sexual immorality (Leviticus 18 & 20), and the punishment that God levied on those who did so.

For Jesus to talk about every sexual sin to a Jewish audience familiar with the Law of Moses would be like coming to America and telling everyone to drive on the right side of the road. You already know that.

We not only add to our faith virtue or moral goodness, but we also add:

• KNOWLEDGE. Learn of Christ. Study Him. Focus on Him. You cannot read and study your Bible enough. You cannot read and study what Christ said enough. Jesus said:

Matthew 11:28-29Come unto me, all [ye] that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

Watch what Jesus did. Note how He responded to others, especially those who were critical of Him. Follow in Christ’s steps, imitating Him. “Be imitators of God, as beloved children” (Ephesians 5:1). Add to this knowledge,

• TEMPERANCE (ἐγκράτεια enkráteia, eng-krat’-i-ah), also known as SELF CONTROL. The word “temperance” refers to how you control your body, your passions and your expression of passion. Christians are to be self controlled as temperance is within the Fruit of the Spirit. Jesus was self controlled. He controlled His anger, His tongue, and His appetites in a way that glorified God.

We are not to fill ourselves with ourselves. We are to become open vessels that God can use. Temperance is a crucifixion of the flesh, with its passions and desires:

Galatians 5:22-24 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: (enkráteia) against such there is no law. 24 And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

2 Peter 1:6-7 … and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; 7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.

• Add to temperance, PATIENCE (Greek hupŏmŏnē). We are impatient people, but God is patient. He allows the world to make bad decisions day after day without dropping the hand of judgment on the earth. We are to be patient, what the Scripture often calls “longsuffering” (2 Corinthians 6:6; Galatians 5:22; Ephesians 4:2; Colossians 1:11; 3:12).

Add to patience GODLINESS (Greek eusébeia). To be godly is to seek to please God.

The Scripture says,

1 Timothy 6:6-8 (ESV) … godliness with contentment is great gain, 7 for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. 8 But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.

• Add to godliness BROTHERLY KINDNESS (Greek philadelphia). Be kind to others. When they mess up, be kind. If you must correct someone, be kind. To be kind is to be gentle.

Ephesians 4:32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.

Proverbs 15:1-2 A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger. [2] The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright: but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness.

Finally, the Apostle says:

• Add to brotherly kindness CHARITY. Love all. Let love rule your lives. The word translated CHARITY is the Greek agapē, which means “Godlike, selfless love”. The Scripture says:

Romans 13:8-10 (ESV) Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Why I Must LIVE My Faith While I Can

2 Peter 1:8-10 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. 10 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:

The Apostle tells us to “give diligence to make your calling and election sure”. Do you KNOW that you are saved? How do you KNOW? God has “called us to glory and virtue” (verse 3). If you have no desire to serve the Lord – if to you Jesus is just a means into Heaven – then you may not be saved. You are to make sure that you were called of Christ. As the old saying goes:

If you were put on trial to determine if you are a Christian – is there enough evidence there to convict you? If not, you may not be saved. Do not allow Satan to delude you. Make your calling and election SURE.

May God bless you richly with His Word.