The Old Testament is filled with stories about how God’s people kept separating themselves from Him. Even though this occurs over and over again in scripture and into our lives today, God never abandons His people and maintains intimate and direct interactions in His people’s lives no matter how much they reject Him. God continually works at restoring His people to Him, back to life. In the Holy Scriptures, God Himself tells us of our unique calling. God tells us “I said, you are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High” (Psalm 82:6 and John 10:34)[1]. God promises mankind to supply man, by Grace, with what God is by nature. Orthodox Christians we believe this process of regaining the image and likeness of God is called Theosis, meaning deification. This means that as human beings we each have a unique calling between the Lord’s first and second Coming which is to be on a path toward achieving Theosis. We are each destined to become a god; that is to be like God Himself, to be united with Him. The Apostle Peter tells us the purpose of life: “..as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him…by which have been given us ..great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature…” (2 Peter 1:3-4) Therefore, human nature should be moving toward spiritualization, polishing the soul so that it may be transformed from its present dullness to a shining spirituality. We are transformed into His likeness which should be natural for us and in accordance with grace. It is the union of the whole person with God.[2] The Theosis of man will be completed at the Second Coming of the Lord; however, it can be begun in this life by working at transforming our corrupt and weakened nature little-by-little. God has given us this ability through the Church. The Holy Spirit sanctifies and deifies through the Church. The work of our Theosis, which Jesus Christ accomplished objectively, is completed by the Holy Spirit, making it possible for every faithful Christian.
The Orthodox Christian Faith teaches, “The true aim of the Christian life is the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God”[3], to restore the original “likeness to God” given to mankind by God before the fall of Adam. God’s Grace bestows Theosis; man cannot achieve Theosis on his own; it is not a solitary process but a synergistic social process. The process of achieving Theosis is a life-long synergistic process between God, man, and all of God’s creation, through Jesus Christ and the sacramental life of His Holy Church; and, will only be fully realized by God’s Grace on the last day, the Second Coming of the Lord.
Looking into the time of Jesus Christ on earth, the Lord’s First Coming, we know that in the fullness of time, within God’s Divine plan for the salvation of man, the Virgin Mary was able to respond to God and accepted man’s salvation on behalf of all mankind and God sent forth His only-begotten Son, “born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption to sonship.” (Gal.4:4-5). During Jesus’ ministry on earth, He repeatedly speaks to us, calling us to Theosis saying: “…you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven” (Matt 5:44). Reading the Incarnation story in New Testament, Christ was anointed by the Holy Spirit of God since the conception. Christ’s humanity is the humanity of the anointed one, the Messiah. At the same time Christ is also the son of the Virgin, but also the natural Son of God. He is human and fully Divine at the same time. Within His humanity, he suffered of hunger, thirst, humiliation, and the pain of the cross; but also by being fully Divine, he was able to overcome eternal death to which humanity had condemned itself.
When we read the story of the Transfiguration of the Lord on Mt. Tabor (Matt 17:1-9; Mark 9:2-13; Luke 9:28-36) in the New Testament, we understand that Jesus although completely human, is revealed in His divine nature because He is also completely God. At the time of Jesus’ Transfiguration on Mt. Tabor, His ministry on earth was not yet complete and we are given a powerful image of the entire church, living and departed, with the story of the Transfiguration. We are told that Jesus becomes bright, white as the light. This is a radiance given by the Holy Spirit indicating that through Jesus, humanity is united with God and humanity, through Jesus, has become capable of being the temple of the Holy Spirit. That humanity is now capable of being united with God.
We are also told in the story of the Transfiguration that God the Father speaks aloud testifying to the Sonship of Jesus to the entire church: those who are alive on the earth represented by Peter, James and John, and those who have died prior to the Lord’s Resurrection represented by both Moses and Elijah. The communion of saints (Heb 12:1) is manifested in the appearance of Moses (who died a human death and descended into Hades awaiting the Lord’s Resurrection along with all those who had died prior to the Lord’s Resurrection – representing the Law) and Elijah (who did not die but according to the Old Testament was taken to heaven – representing the Prophets; and, since he did not die also representing all those alive in Christ), together with Jesus and those who are still living on the earth represented by the 3 Apostles. This representation is the cloud of witnesses which includes not only the Old Testament saints but also the saints and martyrs of the Lord in all ages. This gives us hopes that if they made it, so can we[4].
Of all the miracles given by Jesus in the New Testament, the miracle of the Transfiguration reveals what the true miracle really is. The true miracle is that God accepted to descend and become man thereby uniting His Divinity with humanity for mankind’s salvation from eternal death. The deification of man was in God’s plan of salvation from the beginning of creation. Christ fulfilled the Prophecy and Law between the ancient prophets Elijah and Moses at the Transfiguration; and, between the two thieves at the Crucifixion redeeming the fallen. St. Paul in Romans 1:1-4 clarifies this in his greeting as he indicates that man is restored to union with God and is lead to human participation in deification which God promised through His prophets in the Old Testament. The Son of God becomes man without ceasing to be God; thus humanity has the ability to be once again restored to God through Jesus.
Forty days after Jesus’ Crucifixion and Resurrection, He ascended to sit at the right hand of God the Father. Thinking of this, one realizes that through Jesus Christ, human nature is brought to the right hand of the Father in the Holy Trinity and is thereby deified. But, it is also revealed in scripture that man must work for his deification – it will not come about passively. Even Jesus showed us through the example of His own life, the way of suffering. The work that must be done on our part, the work at controlling our own tendencies to sinfulness; the willingness on our part to do God’s Will and invite Him into our being to stay with us, to be the temple of the living God. God promised us that he would make His home among us and live with us and we will be His people and He will be our God (2 Cor. 6:16-7).
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[1] Op.Cit.,Partakers of Divine Nature, p. 17
[2] Ibid., p. 18
[3] The Orthodox Church, Timothy Ware, p. 230
[4] Op.Cit., Orthodox Study Bible, New Testament and Psalms p. 533
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