Page 104

Alexandr Korol
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Page 104

Post by Alexandr Korol »

Next, what caught my attention – the system, the Spirit led me to read on Wikipedia about what “theosis” is. Now I will highlight what stood out the most. “Theosis is the Christian doctrine of the union of man with God, the participation of the created human in the uncreated divine life through the action of divine grace. This term is not found in the text of the New Testament. However, there are certain indications: ‘That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us.’ – John 17:21.” And even more specifically: “By which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.’ – 2 Peter 1:4.” Who first used the term “theosis” is not exactly known. It appears in the 4th century in one of Gregory of Nazianzus’s letters to Basil the Great. Some researchers call Athanasius the Great’s formula (Father of the Church, 4th century), ‘God became man so that man might become God,’ the classic and essentially a more precise formulation of an idea already belonging to Irenaeus of Lyon (2nd century). Theosis is a continuous process, a striving of man toward God, a moral assimilation to Him: “Be holy, because I am holy.” – 1 Peter 1:16. As a person undergoes theosis, transforming his nature, he is granted the fruits of the Holy Spirit: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” – Galatians 5:22-24.”
Next, Wikipedia writes: “All the properties of Adam before the fall are restored: communion with God, dominion over all creation, and others. Gregory of Nazianzus states that when a person is freed from sin, they become the visible God: Man (1 Tim. 2:5), so that the Incomprehensible One, otherwise inaccessible to the bodily due to the immeasurability of His nature, not only became accessible through the body but also sanctified man by Himself, becoming like leaven for the whole mixture, freeing all of man from condemnation by uniting with Himself the condemned, becoming for all that which constitutes us, except for sin – body, soul, mind – all that death had penetrated. And the sum of all this is man, the God visible in contemplation.’”
“The term, developed in Orthodoxy, characterizes the ultimate goal of Christian life. A goal that does not end with bodily life but leads to abiding with God in eternal life. In the sacrament of baptism, God sows the seed of a new human nature in a person, and, nourished by the grace of the sacrament of the Eucharist and other means, through the moral perfection of the Christian, it grows, transforming the person.”