Daily devotion – Our substitute
Jesus took our place — our life of sin — and exchanged it for His, one that is sinless. Peter captures this truth so beautifully in his letter:
2 Peter 1:4 – “By which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”
When a sinner believes on Jesus Christ, the Spirit of God uses the Word of God to impart life — the very nature of God — within.
Just as a baby shares the nature of its parents, the one who receives Christ as Lord and Saviour shares the divine nature of God.
The lost sinner is dead, but the Christian is alive because he or she shares God’s divine nature. The lost sinner is decaying because of a corrupt nature, but the Christian can experience a dynamic life of godliness, having escaped the world’s corruption through Christ!
Because we now have this divine nature within, we have completely escaped the defilement and decay of our fallen world. We live a new life with God’s power within us — the power to say “No!”
Paul reminds us that God has translated us into the Kingdom of His dear Son (Colossians 1:13). When Jesus set you free, He didn’t say “good luck” and leave you on your own. No — He deported you into His Kingdom of light and made you a victor over Satan’s kingdom of darkness.
In God’s eyes, you are now a citizen of Heaven. That is your true home — and one day, you will dwell there forever with Him.
John 14:1–3
“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.
In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you.
I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”
But the Christian life, with all its blessings, is not always easy — is it? We struggle at times. We worry that we won’t make it. Yet even in those moments, God’s divine nature within us reminds us that His power, not ours, sustains us.
Lord Jesus, thank You for taking my place on the cross and giving me Your life — pure, holy, and eternal. Thank You that I am no longer part of this world’s corruption, but a citizen of Heaven. When I feel weak or afraid, remind me that Your divine nature lives within me, empowering me to live for You each day. Keep my eyes on the home You are preparing, until the day You come to take me there.
In Your precious name, Amen.