“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, 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.” – 2 Peter 1:3-4
All of us are living our lives in one of two stories. In one sense, no two of us are the same—we come from different places, head in different directions, and end up in different destinations. Yet, beneath that surface variety, from God’s perspective, there are only two stories that define our lives.
2 Peter 1:3-4 shows us how God changes our story through Jesus. This passage is like a powerful bomb, shattering the empty promises, broken patterns, false narratives, and fool’s errands that plague our lives. It unveils the story of God’s gracious freedom, delivering us from the story of empty bondage.
But if you invert this passage, you get a very different story, one that sounds something like this:
Our human power has worked in us all things pertaining to death and godlessness, through the knowledge of the world, which calls us to its own shame and brokenness. By it, we have been duped with empty and deceptive promises, so that through them we become practitioners of selfishness, enslaved by the corruption that is in the world because of desires that go against God’s design.
The Default Story of Our Lives
If 2 Peter 1:3-4 describes the story of God’s transforming power, then its inverse reflects the default story of our lives without Him. The plot of this broken story has five points:
1. We keep grabbing at life in our own power, but it never delivers.
2. We buy into the world’s ways, only to sink deeper into brokenness.
3. We are deceived by promises that never fulfill.
4. We run after these promises because selfishness defines our existence.
5. We are trapped in a corrosive pattern, one we helped create with our twisted desires.
This is the default story of our lives.
Trapped
Many of you may remember the 1998 film The Truman Show, starring Jim Carrey. It taps into one of our deepest fears: have you ever wondered if your whole life was just a big joke that everyone else was playing on you? That’s the reality of Truman’s life. He is trapped in a fake world, thinking he’s living a normal life, but it’s all for show. His every move is scripted, and he’s constantly being watched. The climax of the movie arrives when Truman seeks to break free from the false reality he’s starting to question.
In a way, we are all like Truman—born into a nightmare without even realizing it. We are trapped, stuck, and clueless, enslaved to an empty world without God.
That’s why Jesus tells us that if the story of our lives is to change, we must be born again. A new life script requires a new nature. If we are to break free from the false story with its enslaving patterns, something deep within us must change.
Transformation
Over the next five weeks, we will explore why we need God to change our story and why that change can only come through a radical transformation of our entire being.
