1 Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ: 2 May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. 3 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, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.
The 'by which' in v4 could refer to the divine power of God or to the knowledge of him or even to 'his own glory and excellence' but like a series of dominoes, since the latter two are a result of the former working in us I don't think it's necessary to argue the matter although some others have seen fit to do so, at this point I think it's more important to focus on the ensuing dominoes which bring more explanation.
God has granted us his precious and very great promises: we know that the bible is full of promises but we need to understand the weight of this. We so often make promises because our simple yes or no doesn't seem to bear enough weight, and sometimes we feel a yes isn't a yes, and a no isn't a no unless backed up by some greater force of oath or promise as if that really makes a difference. In truth very often whilst we make many promises we also have to break many of them sometimes due to circumstances beyond our control, and in truth we should be very careful of making promises or even saying yes or no apart from throwing in a caveat. God's promises however are not subject to being 'out of his control' as everything is under his control, that there is a 'very great promise' is not God trying to ensure us of his intent, but rather to make us understand how valuable the gift he gives us is, there is no doubt that what God says He will do – he will do.
And so what is it he has granted us, 'that we can be partakers of his nature'. This is not a wholesale statement saying that we will be like God in all ways, that cannot be for we are creatures and whilst we will continue to eternity we are not from eternity, I don't think it means we will become all knowing or all powerful either. In other words we don't become like God in every way, but we do become like him in that we will display his glory perfectly and we will be without stain looking back at the end of v3 'called us to his own Glory and excellence'. In a sense we get to taste and share in his nature, we don't get all of his nature.
The last part of this verse focuses on what we have escaped from and therefore what we need to realize we are no longer enslaved to i.e. the corruption of our sinful desire, it is not that our sinful desire is no longer with us now, unlike what some popular speakers like to tell their listeners, but our sinful desires and the fact that we keep following them into sin no longer have the power to corrupt us. Somehow we are like an item that has been covered with a self cleaning layer of protection, we keep dragging ourselves through the mud and filth of sin but when we are raised there is no sign of stain. That covering of course is Christ and because of his holiness no sin can stick to him and because his blood covers our sin the result is we escape the corruption that would otherwise cause us to rot and that would ultimately make us unsightly in eternity only fit for the eternal fires of God's wrath. In closing before we think Peter is giving license here to sin let's take a peek ahead at v5-8: For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen
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