God "within" and Theosis

We have some posts referring to having God “within”. The Church has a better understanding of what is called theosis, or divinization. It is a process of purification and of coming to "know" God.

In the words of St. Basil the Great, "man is nothing less than a creature that has received the order to become God." This order of God’s plan of deification is begun through His self-revelation given to us in our sacramental initiation into the Church, Baptism, Confirmation/Chrismation, and Eucharist. In Baptism we put on Christ Jesus and are called into obedience in Christ. As St. Gregory the Great wrote, "obedience is the only virtue that implants other virtues in a soul, and preserves them." It is through our Confirmation or Chrismation that we receive the seal of the Holy Spirit over our senses and soul which allows us to become obedient to God. Then receiving the Eucharist-Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ-our souls are nourished so we may join in His nature. As St. Anathanasius stated, "He became ‘incarnate’ that we might become ‘ingodded,’ and ‘He was made man that we might be God." Through the essence, humility, and obedience of the Son to the Father, acquiescent unto death, we are granted the gift of deification. We only gain this gift of God’s great love, grace and mercy which is poured out for our sins, so that we may become humble and obedient, dying to ourselves that we can live for Christ.

Through our sacramental initiation along with the other sacramental mysteries of the Church, God grants us His grace. In participating in God’s divinity we receive the essence of Jesus, but not the divine nature of Jesus Christ. So it is our nature, the nature of man, which is the essence that we are called to share with Jesus. Because God knew Christ’s human nature before all eternity, He evoked it from non-existence into existence, allowing us to receive His grace so many may become as Christ. His divine nature is only held in union with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one nature. Yet even in the hypostatic union, which is the closest possible union between God and a creature, Jesus’ Sacred Humanity does not become God or visa versa. The Eternal Word remains fully God when He assumes human nature so that the two natures unite in one Divine Person "without confusion, without change, without division and without separation . . . the difference of the natures is not removed through the union but the property of each nature is preserved" (as the definition of the Council of Chalcedon states). Thus, Christ has two natures that of God and that of man. The regeneration of nature in Christ allows us to proceed in the direction that the Father calls us to deification. The grace from this regeneration will allow us to have a vision of God, "face-to-face." Theosis therefore, is a union of grace, which mysteriously assimilates a rational creature to the Creator. Yet despite the profound intimacy of this union, it is the Holy Spirit who prepares the soul to unite with God, while keeping the creature essentially distinct from God.

The Son and the Holy Spirit are then the source of sanctification and it is the Holy Spirit Who prevents God’s will from being foreign to us. St. John Chrysostom wrote in a homily on Baptism that the soul has the natural inclination of being one with its creator even before Baptism. God the Father initiates us through Jesus Christ His Son, the Word, by the power of the Holy Spirit. We are called to a moral life in this essence of nature with Jesus by the fulfillment of God’s commandments. By living out God’s laws the Holy Spirit enables us to grow interiorly. Docility develops by the use of God’s commands with the indwelling guidance of the Holy Spirit. Through the manifestation of the guiding voice of Christ in our lives by the Holy Spirit, we gain the ability to cooperate with God’s divine will, so we too may enter into the divine image of man, Jesus Christ. By the work of the Holy Spirit, we become Christ to others who have never seen or known of Him, because it is Christ who lives and works in us. "The Spirit and our spirit bear united witness that we are children of God. And if we are children we are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, sharing his sufferings so as to share his glory"(Romans 8:15-17). This should be normal for us in the life of Christ, a willingness to bear witness. We gained our sinful nature through Adam and Eve, but through repentance our goal is normality, to be the reflection of Christ Jesus. St. John of the Cross wrote that our souls should be like a window glass that we keep clean from sin, so that we reflect Jesus to ourselves and then back out to others. This reflection grows, as Clement of Alexandria expresses concerning the divinizing goal the incarnation: "Logos, the Word of God, became man in order that you can learn through the intercession of Man, how man can become God by grace."

Hope this helps.

>>As St. Anathanasius stated, "He became ‘incarnate’ that we might become ‘ingodded,’ and ‘He was made man that we might be God."

It's really awesome to think of the Incarnation as an invitation to partake of divinity.

Thanks.

When you see this in Scripture, it is spiritually humbling.

See 2 Peter 1:3-4
His divine power has bestowed on us everything that makes for life and devotion, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and power.

Through these, he has bestowed on us the precious and very great promises, so that through them you may come to share in the divine nature

This sharing in the divine nature, this participation in the divine, is what it is all about.