Editorial August 28, 1926 Issue

Partaking of the Divine Nature

Ella W. Hoag

Who that has professed any semblance of Christianity has not desired to understand and express the divine nature, has not resolved again and again to work with all earnestness to attain this goal of Christlikeness? Indeed, all Christian endeavor has had this aim in view, and since the beginning of time the goodness which has been expressed has followed as a direct result of such effort.

Patriarchs and prophets discerned enough of this nature to prove its power in many notable ways; while Jesus understood it so perfectly that he could demonstrate completely his own unity with it. From his day to ours men have been seeking and searching that they might do the works Jesus commanded all should do as the only satisfactory proof of their appreciation, acceptance, and reflection of that nature which has ever been recognized as belonging primarily to God Himself. Peter knew that men were intended to understand this divine nature, for he spoke of "exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature."

While men have been patiently and earnestly striving for the divine nature, it has been largely with the effort—in ways which they themselves seemed never able to explain clearly — to make their human nature divine. They have believed they could make themselves good; that by struggles, often more or less hopeless, they might produce in themselves that loveliness of character which every right thinking individual could not fail to desire for his very own.

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Partaking of the Divine Nature

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