The angelic host sang in a heavenly chorus heralding the birth of the Saviour of the world. The greatest of all mysteries of all time was revealed when God entered history. He was born of the virgin Mary and united humanity with His divinity. Indeed, the ultimate promise of the Christian faith is God’s gracious call to become partakers of the “divine nature” ( 2 Peter 1:4), as God’s power grants us all things pertaining to life and godliness through the knowledge of him.” (v.3). The believers receive the gift of divine knowledge from the ‘giver of wisdom’, ‘the Lord of all knowledge.’ (Colossians 2:3; Eph. 1:17-20, 3:20). Even as “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Rom.8:16). Undeniably, true knowledge comes through direct revelation being personally experienced by the believer.
Sadhu Sundar Singh received direct revelation from Christ Jesus, who spoke. “How long are you going to persecute me? I died for you. For you, I gave my life.” Sunder found “the Living Christ”. Singh said, By faith, a believer gets engrafted into Christ, and thus we become new creatures. Christ and the believer maintain their separate identities in union. There is no Vedantic absorption. The same illustration taken from Chandogya Upanishad to demonstrate tat tvam asi, “that art thou,” is explained by Sunder Singh to mean faith-union with Christ, without the absorption of personality. It’s like when the fire is in iron or a sponge absorbs water. Indeed, in union with Christ, we become “the children of God” (John 1:12), adopted as sons ( Rom. 8:14-15). Sunder Singh is always Christocentric in his thought. The starting point of theology for him is the personal experience of Christ.
Our responsibility now is to live divinely, as Peter states: make every effort to add to your faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, godliness, mutual affection, and love (2 Peter 1:5).
The love of God poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit empowers us to love God and others joyfully. Divine nature is manifested in love, righteousness and holiness. Let’s live as children of God in every area of our life.