2 Pet 1:4 – Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

Because of the fall of man under Adam, mankind is by nature subject to the corruption that is in the world through lust. When a person comes to Christ and becomes His disciple, they are freed from that bondage and given power through the Holy Spirit to escape that corruption and become partakers of the divine nature. 

This is not just a figurative or “positional” escape, but a real one and must bear the fruit of a changed and transformed life in order to be valid. We do not just get stamped with a label and considered “escaped” irregardless of our behavior as Christians, but are given power by the Holy Spirit and expected to employ the tools given us to actually make that escape. In other words, it is not automatic. It takes a steadfast faith and patience in yielding to the promptings of the Spirit, resisting temptation and fleshly desires, and to walking in the Spirit. That is what it means to “escape the corruption of the world” and is the mark of a true child of God. 

For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God (Rom 8:13-14).

We are told in Heb 6:12: That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Once a believer commits themselves to this charge of escaping the lust of the world and walking in the newness of life, the Holy Spirit works in them to see it through. They will see and joyfully recognize the power of the Spirit working in them to that end. How do you know that you’ve made that escape? You no longer participate in the deeds of darkness, you will have a real and tangible sense that you have put them behind you and are on a new and glorious path that leads to eternal life. To them who by *patient continuance in well doing* seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life (Rom 2:7).

If you profess to be a believer, but still have a continual sense of your own ongoing “wretchedness” and corruption, then it’s possible that you are still under bondage to sin and have not yet made the escape. As it states in Rom 6:16 – Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? It’s remarkable that modern day Christendom practically celebrates ongoing corruption as almost a badge of honor and humility, it is not. Our testimony as believers should *not* be one of continual stumbling and failure, but one of progressive victory over corruption as we faithfully yield to the power of the Holy Spirit working in us. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life (Rom 6:22).

Apart from Christ, our righteousness is “as a filthy rag” but once we are in Christ and are walking by faith, our practice of righteousness is no longer a filthy rag, but becomes a blessed and needful fruit of our redemption. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled (Matt 5:6). 

As the title verse implies, becoming a “partaker of the divine nature” is predicated on escaping the lust of the world. It is imperative that we each individually make that escape so that we take on the divine nature and then Christ be formed in us. That’s the goal of our redemption, to restore our fellowship with God and to be conformed to the image of Christ. Much is said today about Christianity being a “relationship” rather than a religion. Which is true, but we have to be careful that we don’t lose sight of the fruit that this relationship should naturally produce. We can talk all we want about intimacy with Jesus, but if it doesn’t produce a stark hunger for righteousness, godliness and a literal transformation of our character, attitudes and demeanor, then we’ve missed it altogether. But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Cor 3:18).