I said, “You are gods, And all of you are children
of the Most High.” (Psalm 82:6)
This is a verse that most
Protestants do not underline in their Bibles. What on
earth does it mean—“you are gods”? Doesn’t our faith
teach that there is only one God, in three Persons? How
can human beings be gods?
In the Orthodox Church,
this concept is neither new nor startling. It even has a
name: theosis. Theosis is the understanding that human
beings can have real union with God, and so become like
God to such a degree that we participate in the divine
nature. Also referred to as deification, divinization,
or illumination, it is a concept derived from the New
Testament regarding the goal of our relationship with
the Triune God.
(Theosis and deification may be used
interchangeably. We will avoid the term divinization, since
it could be misread for divination, which is another
thing altogether!)
Many Protestants, and
even some Roman Catholics, might find the Orthodox
concept of theosis unnerving. Especially when they read
a quote such as this one from St. Athanasius: “God
became man so that men might become gods,” they
immediately fear an influence of Eastern mysticism from
Hinduism or pantheism.
But such an influence
could not be further from the Orthodox understanding.
The human person does not merge with some sort of
impersonal divine force, losing individual identity or
consciousness. Intrinsic divinity is never ascribed to
humankind or any part of the creation, and no created
thing is confused with the being of God. Most certainly,
humans are not accorded ontological equality with God,
nor are they considered to merge or co-mingle with the
being of God as He is in His essence.
In fact, to safeguard
against any sort of misunderstanding of this kind,
Orthodox theologians have been careful to distinguish
between God’s essence and His energies. God is
incomprehensible in His essence. But God, who is love,
allows us to know Him through His divine energies, those
actions whereby He reveals Himself to us in creation,
providence, and redemption. It is through the divine
energies, therefore, that we achieve union with God.
We become united with God
by grace in the Person of Christ, who is God come in the
flesh. The means of becoming “like God” is through
perfection in holiness, the continuous process of
acquiring the Holy Spirit by grace through ascetic
devotion. Some Protestants might refer to this process
as sanctification. Another term for it, perhaps more
familiar to Western Christians, would
be mortification—putting sin to death within ourselves.
In fact, deification is
very akin to the Wesleyan understanding of holiness or
perfection, with the added element of our mystical union
with God in Christ as both the means and the motive for
attaining perfection. Fr. David Hester, in his
booklet, The Jesus Prayer, identifies theosis as “the
gradual process by which a person is renewed and unified
so completely with God that he becomes by grace what God
is by nature.” Another way of stating it is “sharing in
the divine nature through grace.”
St. Maximos the
Confessor, as Fr. Hester notes, defined theosis as
“total participation in Jesus Christ.” Careful to
maintain the ontological safeguard noted above, St.
Maximos further stated, “All that God is, except for an
identity in being, one becomes when one is deified by
grace.”
C. S. Lewis understood
this concept and expressed it compellingly in Mere
Christianity:
The command “Be ye
perfect” is not idealistic gas. Nor is it a command to
do the impossible. He is going to make us into creatures
that can obey that command. He said (in the Bible) that
we were “gods” and He is going to make good His words.
If we let Him—for we can prevent Him, if we choose—He
will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or
goddess, dazzling, radiant, immortal creatures,
pulsating all through with such energy and joy and
wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright
stainless mirror which reflects back to Him perfectly
(though, of course, on a smaller scale) His own
boundless power and delight and goodness. The process
will be long and in parts very painful; but that is what
we are in for. Nothing less. He meant what he said.
(Macmillan, 1952, p. 174)
With the Incarnation, God
has assumed and glorified our flesh and has consecrated
and sanctified our humanity. He has also given us the
Holy Spirit. As we acquire more of the Holy Spirit in
our daily lives, we become more like Christ, and we have
the opportunity of being granted, in this life,
illumination or glorification. When we speak of
acquiring more of the Holy Spirit, it is in the sense of
appropriating to a greater degree what has actually been
given to us already by God. We acquire more of what we
are more able to receive. God the Holy Spirit remains
ever constant.
Theosis in the
New Testament
Many passages in the New
Testament speak to the Orthodox understanding of
deification/theosis. First is 2 Peter 1:3–4, which
states that God’s “divine power has given to us all
things that pertain to life and godliness” through the
knowledge of God, who called us by His own glory and
goodness. Through these things, He has given us His
great promises so that we “may be partakers of the
divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in
the world through lust.”
This verse clearly and
unequivocally states that we can become partakers of
the divine nature. How so? Through God’s divine power at
work in us, we gain life and godliness and are given His
promises so that we can escape from corruption. There is
God’s action in and upon us, and there is response and
corresponding effort on our part.
This brings to
mind Philippians 2:12–13, where St. Paul tells us to
“work out [our] salvation with fear and trembling,” for
it is God who is at work in us “both to will and to do
for His good pleasure.” Thus we get a clear picture here
of the process by which we are renewed and unified so
completely with God that we become by grace what God is
by nature. God works in us, and we cooperate with His
grace.
Another passage of note
is John 10:34–36. In a dispute with the Pharisees, Jesus
refers to the verse quoted above, Psalm 82:6, where
human beings are referred to as “gods.” The Jewish
leaders accuse Jesus of blasphemy and are ready to stone
Him for equating Himself with the Father (vv. 22–33).
Jesus replies, “ Is it not written in your law, ‘I
said, “You are gods” ’? If He called them
gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken),”
then why do they label as blasphemy Jesus calling
Himself God’s Son? Jesus is truly God’s Son, and we are
gods because we share in His sonship.
Consider Acts 17:28–29,
where St. Paul approvingly quotes the Greek poets, who
state that we are God’s “offspring.” Paul concludes
that since we are “the offspring of God, we ought not to
think that the Divine Nature” is like some lifeless
object.
Throughout Paul’s
epistles, we find many descriptive passages referring to
the same concepts that we have been considering: union
with God, sharing in the divine nature through grace,
and total participation in Jesus Christ—the biblical
concept of theosis/deification. In Ephesians 1, Paul
states that we have been given “every spiritual
blessing” (v. 3) so that we should be “holy and without
blame” (v. 4); we are His “sons” (v. 5). He made
“the
riches of His grace . . . to abound toward us” (vv.
6–7). We are given wisdom and insight into the “mystery
of His will” (v. 9), which is to “gather together in one
all things in Christ” (v. 10).
Furthermore, we are
“sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise” (v. 13), the
“guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of
the purchased possession” (v. 14). We are recipients of
“wisdom and revelation” (v. 17), having
“the eyes of
[our] understanding . . . enlightened” (v. 18); knowing
the “exceeding greatness of His power toward us” (v.
19). We are the “body” of Him who is the head and
“the
fullness of Him who fills all in all” (v. 23).
These are descriptions of
sonship, of human beings as children of God with full
pedigree and inheritance rights. We are brought into
God’s intimate inner circle to know the mystery of His
will, being given wisdom and enlightenment. We have
grace lavished upon us and are His body, His fullness.
The whole purpose of God’s mystery is that all things
will be united in Christ and that He will be all in all.
Does this not describe partaking of the divine nature,
becoming by grace what God is by nature?
Certainly there is much
more being described here than “growing in faith and
good works,” progressing in sanctification or mortifying
sin. Those are indeed excellent enterprises, but not
ends in themselves. They are means employed toward a
greater end. St. Paul is outlining this compelling,
inspiring description of our identity in Christ, indeed
showing us what total participation in Christ actually
is. Ephesians 1 is a description of theosis.
In other verses in
Ephesians, St. Paul continues: we are to “be filled with
all the fullness of God” (3:19) and to attain to
“the
measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ”
(4:13). We are to “grow up in all things into Him who is
the head—Christ” (4:15). Again, this describes the
process of being deified by grace, acquiring the
fullness of Christ.
In Romans 6, Paul gives
us a wonderful picture of deification. Through baptism
we “walk in newness of life” (v. 4). We are not to let
sin “reign in [our] mortal bod[ies]” (v. 12), but are to
“present [ourselves] to God” (v. 13) so that sin will
“not have dominion over” us (v. 14). Our members are to
be yielded to “righteousness for holiness” (v. 19).
Therefore we have “been set free from sin, and hav[e]
become slaves of God” (v. 22). Our hope is to share in
“the glory of God” (5:2). Even the very creation
“eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God”
(8:19).
Continuing in chapter 8,
we are indeed called “sons of God” (v. 14) who have
received a “Spirit of adoption,” crying (as Jesus did)
“Abba, Father” (v. 15). The Spirit bears witness
“with
our spirit”—union—that we are “children of God” (v. 16).
We are children, “heirs of God and joint heirs with
Christ . . . that we may also be glorified together” (v.
17). Verse 17 also stipulates, “if indeed we suffer with
Him.” We will come back to that in relation to the
experience of the saints who have attained deification.
In verse 29, St. Paul
writes that we are destined to be “conformed to the
image of His Son.” Furthermore, those He “justified,
these He also glorified” (v. 30). Note that he did not
say God will glorify them only after they die, at the final resurrection. This glorifying can be a present
reality. Verse 32 says that God will “with Him also
freely give us all things.”
Does this not get you
just a little bit excited? Does it not describe
something more than “being saved” or
“going to heaven
when I die”? Is your heart racing just a little? If so,
you are starting to grasp theosis. It is an
understanding of our purpose as believers that is not
just Orthodox, it is thoroughly biblical.
Before we briefly note
some other New Testament passages, let’s consider an
additional way to understand deification from the Book
of Genesis. There we learn that we are created in God’s
image. Through sin, that image has been greatly broken
and damaged, but through redemption in Christ it is
renewed “according to the image of Him who created” it,
as Paul notes in Colossians 3:10. Add all these other
motifs—sonship, being fellow heirs, union, being made
like Christ, partaking of the divine nature—and we see
that these describe the divine image, broken and marred
(but not altogether lost) through Adam’s fall, being
remade in us through Christ’s redeeming work, so that we
become like God. Thus in Genesis we are created in
God’s image; through Christ we are given the opportunity
to acquire God’s likeness. In Ephesians 4:23–24 this
very idea is reinforced: “be renewed in the spirit of
your mind” and “put on the new man which was created
according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.”
And in 5:1 we are enjoined to be “imitators of God.”
A number of other New
Testament passages describe theosis:
Romans 12:1–2: We are to
present our bodies as a “living sacrifice,” doing so as
part of our spiritual worship. And we are to “be
transformed” by the renewing of our minds into the
likeness of God.
1 Corinthians 3:16;
6:17: We are reminded that we are God’s “temple” and
that “he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with
Him”—union with God.
Galatians 2:20: “It is no
longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”
Philippians 1:21: “For
me, to live is Christ.”
Colossians 3:3: We have
“died” and our lives are “hidden with Christ in
God”—total participation in Christ.
1 Thessalonians 5:23: May
God “sanctify you completely”—complete conformity to the
image and likeness of God.
2 Thessalonians 2:14: We
were called by God “for the obtaining of the glory of
our Lord Jesus Christ.”
1 John 4:17: “Because as
He is, so are we in this world”—the possibility of
deification, total participation in Christ this side of
eternity.
John 17:22: In His high
priestly prayer, Jesus says that He has given us the
glory that the Father gave Him.
Revelation 21:7: At the
beginning of the eschaton, Christ says of each of us,
“I
will be his God and he shall be My son.”
1 John 3:2: “We know that
when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall
see Him as He is.”
Philippians 3:21: Christ
will “transform our lowly body that it may be conformed
to His glorious body.”
These passages promise to
all Christians an ending “like Christ” at the
consummation of history. Since that is our end—actually
a new beginning, for which we were created and
redeemed—we are urged throughout the New Testament to
obtain more and more of that reality in this life, as a
“dress rehearsal” for the life to come. In short, this
is what theosis/deification is: the possibility that we
can acquire in this life that state that we will have as
resurrected, glorified persons in the presence of God in
eternity.
Finally, we must consider
our Lord’s transfiguration on Mt. Tabor (Matt. 17:1ff;
Mark 9:2ff). One of the twelve major feasts of the
Orthodox Church, it provides great insight for our
understanding of theosis. Jesus went up the mountain
with Peter, James, and John and was transformed before
their eyes. He appeared to them in His glorified
humanity and was illumined with the light of divinity.
Moses and Elijah, representing the Law and the Prophets,
appeared with Christ as He was enveloped by the glory
cloud, the presence of the Holy Spirit. As at His
baptism, the Father spoke, saying, “This is My beloved
Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!” (Matthew
17:5).
Here we have the whole
Bible summed up in this one event. The Old Testament,
the Law and the Prophets, point to Christ, the eternal
Son come in the flesh. He appears with the Holy Spirit
and the Father—the Trinity. Through His Incarnation He
is joined to our humanity and glorifies it in Himself,
uniting us to God, fulfilling the purpose of our
creation in Genesis. We are to listen to Him because He
is God’s ultimate revelation of Himself to us (cf.
Hebrews 1:1; John 1:14). Furthermore, this event
occurred to prepare the disciples for Christ’s
crucifixion, which would deliver our fallen humanity
from sin and death and raise us up with Him in His
resurrection.
Thus we may be glorified
together with Him. We are joined to Christ in His
glorified, deified humanity and so are united to God.
Through this union we are made partakers of the divine
nature. Through grace we can become what He is.
Theosis in the
Writings of the Fathers
We began with a somewhat
startling quote by St. Athanasius: “God became man so
that men might become gods.” Keep in mind that this is
the same Athanasius who championed the orthodox (in its
common sense of correct) understanding of the full
divinity of Christ in opposition to the Arian heresy.
Numerous other early Church Fathers made similar
statements.
Gregory of Nazianzus,
another great champion of correct views about the
Trinity and Christ’s divinity, stated: “Man has been
ordered to become God.” His close friend, Basil the
Great, said, “From the Holy Spirit is the likeness of
God, and the highest thing to be desired, to become
God.”
Origen noted that the
spirit “is deified by that which it contemplates.” And
Cyril of Alexandria commented that we are all called to
take part in divinity, becoming the likeness of Christ
and the image of the Father by “participation.” Irenaeus
noted, “If the Word is made man, it is that man might
become gods.” Finally, John of Damascus taught that
Christ’s redemptive work enables the image of God to be
restored in us so that we become “partakers of
divinity.”
These are not just
Eastern Church Fathers being quoted. Most, if not all,
are recognized by East and West. Theosis is a
truly catholic understanding of the goal of our
relationship with God in Christ.
Theosis in the
Lives of the Saints
Finally, countless saints
throughout history have demonstrated the possibility of
deification as a reality in their lives. They attained
deification only after intense suffering. Their
sufferings came through persecution and martyrdom,
intense ascetic discipline and countless nightly prayer
vigils wrestling with evil spirits to obtain victory in
the spiritual life. Through suffering such blessed
victory was won.
Two stories of two saints
show the effects of theosis on the body. Some may wish
to discount these accounts as “hero worship” or
“mythology” or “hagiographic exaggeration.” I prefer to
offer them as inspiration to strive toward theosis in
each of our lives.
St. Seraphim of Sarov, a
Russian monk of the nineteenth century, went into the
forest with his disciple, Motovilov, during a snowstorm.
While praying, St. Seraphim became iridescent in
appearance, to the point of emitting what was for
Motovilov an almost blinding light. Accompanying this
glow was a warmth in the midst of the Russian winter
snow, along with a beautiful fragrance and unspeakable
joy and peace. St. Seraphim attributed this blessed
state to his having acquired the Holy Spirit, or
deification.
Abba Joseph, a desert
father, was approached by Abba Lot, who informed him
that he had kept his rule of prayer, fasted, purified
his thoughts, and lived peaceably—what more could he do?
Abba Joseph held out his hands toward heaven, fingers
extended, and said, “You can become fire.” Each
fingertip blazed like a candle. Abba Joseph’s point was
that the younger monk could be set ablaze by the Holy
Spirit.
May we all be set ablaze
by the Spirit, the “Heavenly King, the Comforter . . .
Treasury of blessings and Giver of life”—as the Orthodox
prayer addresses Him. And through that same Holy Spirit,
may we come into union with God and experience “total
participation in Jesus Christ.” May our lives be
“unified so completely with God” that we become “by
grace what God is by nature,” so that we share in “the
divine nature through grace.” So much so that we become
not just Christ-like, but the likeness of Christ.
*************************************
*Mark
Shuttleworth lives in Pittsburgh, PA. He and his
wife, Sara, are members of the Holy Virgin Orthodox
Church (OCA) in Carnegie, PA. Mark was raised in an
evangelical Protestant family, earned a Master of
Divinity at Gordon-Conwell Seminary, was ordained and
served for over ten years as a Presbyterian youth
minister. Mark’s journey to Orthodoxy began in late
2002. He and his wife were chrismated in spring 2004.