Meaning of NATURE

The inherent qualities of a being that are manifested in the various characteristics that mark and exhibit its existence; The sum of these characteristics is what is called its nature, and in this way one being is distinguished from another (cf. Gen. 1:12).

Men are by nature children of wrath (Eph. 2:3); On the other hand, the Christian becomes a moral participant in the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4), whose characteristic is love: he is made a participant in the holiness of God (Heb. 12:10).

Thus the work of God that forms his nature finds expression in the Christian. The Creator can designate and predicate the nature of a thing before it has actual existence; but we, as creatures, can discern nature only on the basis of existing being, and therefore we can only speak of nature as a characteristic of being.

“Nature” is also a descriptive term for the vast system of created things around us; Not only has the Creator given rise to each of its parts, but also to its use, its order, its increase, its decay, things that are often called "laws of nature", the laws that govern each one of its components and which constitute its properties.