2 Peter 1:3-4
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, that through these you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of passion, and become partakers of the divine nature.
“God became man,” said St. Athanasius, “that men might become God.” Of course, no man who ever lived was more alive to the distinction between Creator and creature than St. Athanasius. His whole life was one long struggle to make sure that everybody understood that distinction. Why then would he say something in such apparent contradiction to his own beliefs? In order to shake us awake to the magnitude of the gift God has given us in Christ Jesus. For St. Athanasius knew these verses from the pen of St. Peter and therefore knew that, by grace, we are called to be, not just forgiven sinners, but “partakers of the divine nature.” He knew, as C.S. Lewis put it, that it is a serious thing to live in a society where the dullest and most uninteresting creature may one day be something which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a thing which you meet now, if at all, only in a nightmare. God has called us to the former destiny of glory in Christ Jesus but we can reject that call if we so choose. Let us not be among those who hold back from the call, but who go further up and further into Christ and his glory.
