Life, Godliness & Conformity to Christ

Peter promises that God has “granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness.” We discuss the implications of the term “granted” meaning ‘as a gift or benefit.’

The Christian life proceeds along the same lines as it began: by grace through faith. How we live and become more like Christ are of great importance to all Christians.

The common assumption is that we need to process the past in order to escape from bad outcomes is not sustained by what Peter teaches here. Our future lives in Christ and growth in Him are grounded in faith in God’s promises.

We are no longer ‘in Adam’ but are ‘in Christ’ and have a different destiny. Believers are adopted into the family of God. The details of our old lives in sin do not determine our future well-being. Peter points to the promises of God as the means of our being like Christ.

We discuss various implications of current theories based on secular counseling. For example, the spiritual formation teaching is based on processing the past and working on change by dealing with the details.

The fact is that the Bible ties our growth and future perfection to our status as adopted sons and daughters of God in Christ. Therefore, we are to believe the promises of God.