Man's goal is Deification

Fr. John (Majed) Shama

”Babeș-Bolyai ”University
Faculty of Orthodox Theology,
Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Preliminaries

The present century will see a more sustained tradition of scholarly work on the doctrine of
deification.1

The goal aimed to is to be deified. One can reach this goal only by unity with Jesus Christ, in
other words, to be a new creation in Christ.

Saint Basilios the Great says that there are three creations: "We find three creations mentioned in
the scripture, the first, the becoming from non-existence into existence, the second, the change
from worse to better, and the third, the resurrection of the dead. In these, you will find the Holy
Spirit co-operating with the Father and the Son [...] Now, humanity is created a second time
through baptism, for if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature" 2

To be deified or not, by and through Jesus Christ, is a matter of choice as well as whether to
become a new creation in Christ or not. All this begins in Baptism and continues with man's
acceptance and will to be completely changed. To become a new creation in Christ.

This total submission, full acceptance, and complete obedience to Jesus Christ commandments
definitely lead a person to become deified.

Christ Jesus tolerates one's ignorance; He tolerates our weakness in faith as well as lack of
knowledge. He tolerates one's unexplained and unreasonable pride and incomprehensible
haughtiness. God tolerates inappropriate and unsuitable behavior of people who were supposed
to act as the Sons of GOD. Moreover, God tolerates people even though they assault Him by
words, thoughts and actions.

1
See more in Norman Russell, The Doctrine of Deification in the Greek Patristic Tradition, Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 2004.
2
Basil The Great: Letter 8, in Fathers of the Church: A new Translation, Washington, D.C., 1947, p. 36.
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Why GOD created humans? What is the purpose of this act of creating them? What is the goal of
their existence and the mankind purpose of being?

Probably these questions do exist in one's mind and for sure there are many philosophers, the
believers and non-believers who argue these questions and also theologians try to answer them
and relate to these delicate issues.

All of us agree that each person must behave in a good way and to live according to rules in
purpose to have a better world to live in. But, notice that the good world to live in is totally a
different world with different doctrines of life depending on people's beliefs and opinions. Some
of them are atheists, some of them believe in a creator but they have different opinions regarding
this creator, some of them believe in God as a creator but they still have a different doctrine
regarding this God and regarding their rules and beliefs.

I. Man's goal doctrine

We do not intend to discuss the other doctrines above, but we will focus on our belief according
to the Orthodox Church teaching.

Among other things, the Holy fathers of the Orthodox church say that the goal is: "Deification".
The deification of the man that God Created on His own image, means to be united with God,
not outwardly externally or sentimentally, but it should be actually, complete full union between
the Creator and the man.

We try to illustrate the Creator's work in renewing the Creation by and through Jesus Christ. As
Apostle Paul said in his second Epistle to the Corinthians: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he
is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." (2 Cor
5:17).

The New Creation in Christ is an extensive and delicate subject. Jesus Christ deals with
humankind in a psychological way, in a different way with each one of us.
Jesus Christ succeeded to attract His people and to change the inner soul, renew it and turn into a
New Creation, a totally different creation from the old one.

2
Saint Paul describe this change of behave and attitude in a very deep way in his letter to the
Ephesians: "that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt
according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on
the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness."(Eph
4:22-24)3.

The old man becomes a new man in Christ who united the two in Himself, in His flesh united the
old man creating one new man from the two:" having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is,
the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from
the two, thus making peace"(Eph 2:15).

The claim that Jesus was able, in a short period of time, to change humankind minds, wrong
concepts and ways of living is completely misleading. Jesus Christ made the people come back
to the "Creator", to know and follow Him. Leaving everything materialistic while they are
physically still on earth but craving to be with Him in heaven.

Our Lord Jesus Christ touches our soul and spirit by changing it and renewing it to be a New
Creation, for that Apostle Paul said: "... If anyone is in Christ then he is a new creation..." (II Cor
5:17).

To be a New Creation in Christ is to be totally changed in a way that the old person dies (not
physically), and becomes new person with a new behaviour and way of living with all what does
that mean.

This teaching of orthodox anthropology raises man to the highest spiritual levels that can make
him have the opportunity to reach deification if he wants to.
We must always remember the superior honour that God gave to man when was Created, Jesus
Christ tells us: "Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect." (Mat
5:48).

3
See more on these verses in Stelian Tofana: "Die Erneuerung Des Menschen in Der Paulinischen Theologie",
Ostkirchen Und Reformation, Edited by Irena Zeltner Pavlovic, Martin Illert (Hrsg.), Germany 1980, p. 395.
3
Theologian Origen says: "If you remain in what is of the earth, you will be turned away in the
end. You must be changed yourself, you must be converted, you must be made "heavenly".
Genesis, Homily 9"4

God Creates us to behave in such a way that resembles the Lord Jesus. He is our Leader and the
Character that we should Imitate.
This is how God Created us from the beginning: "just as He chose us in Him before the
foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love" (Eph
1:4).

You were dead and now you are alive, you were alienated from the Grace of God and now you
are again close by and through the unity within the Body of Jesus Christ:
"Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh who are called Uncircumcision by what
is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands that at that time you were without Christ,
being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise,
having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off
have been brought near by the blood of Christ" (Eph 2:11-13).

Jesus Christ makes the unity between the Jewish and the Gentiles; makes the two to be one in
Him. The Humanity became one new person, one new man in Christ: "For He Himself is our
peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having
abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so
as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace," (Eph 2:14-15).

We shall be conformed to the image of His Son, meaning to be exactly like His Son- Jesus
Christ: "For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son,
that He might be the firstborn among many brethren."(Rom 8:29)
Hence, Jesus Christ is the firstborn among many brethren. There is somehow resemblances
between us -who are newborns in Christ, New Creation in Christ and Jesus Christ Himself. We
are brothers, similar, and have the same image, He is the firstborn and we follow Him.

4
See in Gerald Bray: 1-2 Corinthians, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, New Testament VII, Inter
Varsity Press Downers Grove Illinois, 1999, p.175-176.
4
T. Ryan says: "Just as Adam was the progenitor of the original creation, Christ is the progenitor
of the new creation. in the conclusion of Paul's argument in 8:28-30, his soteriology is rendered
in terms of Adam Christology. Christ has fulfilled God's original purpose in creation to have
humanity reflect his glory. As Adam was the image bearer in the original creation, Christ is the
image bearer of the new creation and believers are to be formed according to his image (Rom
8:29)."5

How can such a resemblance be actually possible if not in deification? In a full unity with Christ!

Is the Image of Jesus Christ only to be a "better" man or woman? Certainly not, logical thinking
cannot accept such a result, it does not worth neither the Incarnation of Jesus Christ nor the
salvation that God gives human beings.
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son"(Joh 3:16).6

Apostle Paul mentioned the same idea. In purpose to give us, the human beings, the salvation,
redemption, unity, to be new creation in Christ, God did not spare His own son:"He who did not
spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give
us all things?"(Rom 8:32.). What things we may obtain that worth all this Sacrificing? What can
make me a brother to Jesus Christ? On His image? What can worth this huge Love from God to
human beings to give His only begotten Son and not to spare Him?

Jesus Christ said that God the Father and He are working:"...My Father has been working until
now, and I have been working."(Joh 5:17).
All this for our sake, the human-the man, for sure should be a goal beyond morality or making a
better man.
Unity with Jesus Christ is the only way that gives us the ability to be on His Image, which means
to deify by and through Him.

The New man in Paul's doctrine has a different manner in life, different behaviour, different
thoughts, different understanding of the rules of this life, different source and a very

5
T. Ryan Jackson: new creation in Paul's letters, (a study of the historical and social setting of a Pauline concept),
Raleigh NC, 2009, P.156
6
See more about God's Love in Raymond E. Brown: The Gospel According to John (I-XII), vol. 29, New York,
1966, p. 133.
Also, see in George R. Beasley-Murray: Word Biblical Commentary, John, vol. 36, Texas, 1987, p. 51.
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distinguished future7.
To be a new person in Christ means to be in Christ and Christ into you, to be fully united with
Jesus Christ and to become as one. This unity can be seen in an obvious and clearer way, in Jesus
prayer before His suffering began.
Jesus Christ prayed to the Father and asked Him that the believers be united with the Holy
Trinity8 in full unity: "I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me
through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they
also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me." (Joh 17:20-21)

This unique connection and unity have an important/real significance, Jesus Christ says in a very
clear way that the purpose of His incarnation, all the suffer, the cross, the resurrection, and the
whole salvation plan and stages are only for one goal which is to make the human, the man,
united in the Holy Trinity, me and you Father are united, says Jesus. You Father in me and I am
in you and this is the way I want them (the believers in my name) to be in us.

Since the very beginning, God's will was to give the man the glory of being united with Him and
live with Him. This was the first plan when God created the man. Jesus Christ incarnation is to
rebuild and re-fix what was ruined by man's behaviours and thoughts.

Kerry Robichaux comments on this issue:"Systems that see the Christian life as simply judicial,
ethical, or moral, as in much of modern Christianity, will not derive much benefit from the
possibility that human beings can become god through His salvation. But, then again, a salvation
that is simply judicial and makes of human beings nothing more than forensic objects, or one that
amounts to no more than an improvement of our ethics or morality and makes of us nothing
more than "better" men and women, offers little benefit to us as creatures and to God as
Creator."9

7
The new man in Christ unites the whole human beings in one, in Christ. This is one of the results of being united
with Christ, this unity of human beings can be done only in and through Jesus Christ Himself. The new man, could
be from the Jews or the Gentiles, since there is no more difference between human beings, all of them are invited
and welcomed to be in Christ so all of humanity be as one in Christ. One God, One People.
8
The unity with the Holy Trinity will not be in the essence of God, but with the uncreated light or energies, with the
Holy Grace.
9
Kerry S. Robichaux: "Can Human Beings Become GOD?" , Affirmation & Critique, Volume VII, No. 2, Anaheim,
CA, 2002, p. 44.
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The Word incarnation (the incarnation of the LOGOS) makes the deification possible and
reachable since one is getting united with the Word of God, meaning a man can be united with
God.10

A man can improve his life and his manners without any need for the incarnation of Jesus Christ.
There are so many characters, leaders upon the history of the world who influence positively or
negatively the world and man's life.

God's incarnation contains larger essence, larger meaning, a heavenly purpose, to give the
humanity, the man that GOD Create in his image, the Deification.

II. Deification & New Creation in Christ:

Deification is another expression of the words "new creation in Christ". These are simple words
that mean: to be similar to Jesus as He was on earth.
Jesus in His Incarnation took our flesh and became similar to us -without sin- so we can be able
to become similar to Him.

The Man should struggle in this life -the legal spiritual struggle- in purpose to reach one goal
which is to be pure the same as He is pure (I Joh 3:3), to be righteous the same as He is, and do
only the righteousness (I Joh 2:29).
Being similar to the Lord Jesus, as He was on earth, means that we reach the Deification.
Man that reaches this highest spiritual level stops making any sin at all, fulfilling the Holy words
of Apostle John: "Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor
known Him." (I John 3:6)11, "Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains
in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God." (I Joh 3:9)12.

Apostle Paul says: "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation" (II Cor 5:17) and
Apostle John says: "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should

10
Should Be careful to understand the meaning of unity with GOD, it does not mean to be united with the essence
of God since no one can possibly do that, but we can be united with the Holy Grace, to be inside the uncreated light
and in the presence of God, present in the meaning of being in real close in a way to observe the unobserved things.
11
See more on this topic in Stephen S. Smalley: Word Biblical Commentary, 1,2,3 John, vol. 51, Texas, 1984, p.
151-176.
12
See more on this topic in Stephen S. Smalley: Word Biblical Commentary, 1,2,3 John, p. 151-176.
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be called children of God!...." (I John 3:1) . Believers who are in Christ become the new
creatures, the sons of God which is very similar to Jesus as He was on earth as Apostle John
says: "He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked." (I Joh 2:6)13.
This means exactly to behave or to walk in the same way, or same path in life, as He did.
Jesus Christ abideth in us and we abideth in Him and be united.

when a man crucified with Christ, live not him but Christ lives in him, this means that this man
suppose to be as Jesus the man, to behave as Jesus behaved in flesh, Christ lives in you means
the old man does not live anymore but the new man, the Christ inside you: "I have been crucified
with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the
flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. " (Gal 2:20).

We refer to a man or to the believer who is united in a very special and unique way with the
Father and the Son as Apostle John says: "...and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with
His Son Jesus Christ." (I Joh 1:3) .

Apostle John declares that now believers should be called sons of God (I John 3:1). Since
believers are sons of God, they ought to change, and become new, to live in the new light, to
abideth in Jesus Christ, To be like Him: " ..., but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be
like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. (I Joh 3:2) .

Stephen S. Smalley says regarding to the verse "...because as he is, so are we in this world." ( I
Joh 4:17) and on this topic: "On such a theological basis John may be implying here that the
relationship of believers to God in the world can and should reflect that of Jesus to God (As it
was on earth, and as it still is in heaven: this includes the Son's own "confidence" before God; cf.
2:1). ’’As he is (in the father's love), so we are (in him, and therefore in the Father's love) in the
world (obediently making God's love known).’’ The likelihood that this interpretation is correct
is increased by the fact that John's thought here, as we have paraphrased it, now links directly
with that in v 16, and explains it further."14

Kerry Robichaux says:

13
Read on this topic in Stephen S. Smalley: Word Biblical Commentary, 1,2,3 John, p. 41-64.
14
Stephen S. Smalley: Word Biblical Commentary, 1,2,3 John, p. 259.
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"... anyone who has merely dabbled in the history of Christian doctrine knows that Deification -
as the notion is called- has not been completely foreign to Christian thought across the ages...
...Deification relates to the very core of the Christian faith -in fact, redefines it in many ways- the
issue should be seriously considered by every believer in Christ who is more than a mere babe in
the Lord."15

Kerry Robichaux continue and emphasises that Deification is a central notion in Saint
Athanasius faith and it is very related to His beleive in Holy Trinity, the deity of Christ and the
Deity of the Holy Spirit: "Deification, on the other hand, was much more central to the faith for
Athanasius,..., He firmly held that deification was the central goal of salvation for all the
beleivers."16

Let us highlight that Saint Athanasius area of expertise, so to speak, is the central core of the
faith, not Christian practice and experience. Thus, special attention must be given to the teaching
of Saint Athanasius since He is the greatest definers and defenders of the most crucial doctrines
of Christian faith.17

Great father Athanasius; does not mean to become GOD instead of God himself neither means to
have our own power, to have eternal life relying on ourselves. But he means that we get these
capacities from one source who is the source of everything, God.

Father Athanasius wrote in his work defending the true faith against the heretics: "if He (the
LOGOS) was himself too from participation, and not from the Father His essential Godhead and
Image, He would not deify (theopoieo -make God), being deified Himself. For it is not possible
that He, who merely possesses from participation, should impart of that partaking to others, since
what He has is not His own, but the Giver's, and what He has received, is barely the grace
sufficient for Himself."18

15
Kerry S. Robichaux: "Can Human Beings Become GOD?" p. 32.
16
Kerry S. Robichaux: "Can Human Beings Become GOD?" p. 32.
17
Saint Athanasius was the defender of the Christian faith, the Deity of Christ, Deity of Holy Spirit, defined -in 367-
the authoritative list of books that make up our new testament. Thus, we the believers and the teachers in christianity
must accept the teaching of Saint Athanasius, specially the teaching regarding the Christian faith, in our case to
accept the doctrine of Deification since He use this notion in His discussion to convince the Deity of Christ.
18
Schaff, Philip, and Henry Wace: Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. IV. 51. Athanasius: Select
works and Letters. Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, 1997.
9
Kerry S. Robichaux comments on this and says: 19
"In proving that the Logos, the Son of God, was of the same substance with the Father, and
therefore as much God as the Father was, Athanasius points out that Christ could not make
human beings God if He were not Himself God in His own right but only God by virtue of
having been made so by God, of having been deified Himself. Because Christ is truly God and
possesses in Himself the full essence of God as the Father does (Col 1:19, 2:9), He can rightly
deify human beings. Athanasius's argument stands upon the assumption that Christ deifies
human beings, an assumpation that he does not feel to defend. This he does repeatedly in his
writings, particularly against the Arians."

Saint Augustine makes the idea of Deification clearer he says: "God wishes to make you a god,
not by nature, like Him whom He begot, but by His gift and adoption. For just as He through His
humanity was made a partaker of your mortality, so He makes you a partaker of His immortality
by exaltation."20

St. Basil the Great says in this issue:

"humankind is nothing less than a creature that has received the order to become God."21
"The Holy Spirit, being God by nature, . . . deifies by grace those who still belong to a nature
subject to change"22

Jaroslav Pelikan, the eminent historian of Christian doctrine, in commenting on the early church
debates concerning the role of the Holy Spirit in salvation, simply notes that "salvation was not
merely vivification but deification" 23.

Among theologians of the Greek-speaking East, the distinction is made between the essence and
energies of God, which is first clearly employed by the Cappadocians of the fourth century and

19
Kerry S. Robichaux: "Can Human Beings Become GOD?", p. 32.
20
See more in Sermons, 166, quoted in Bonner Gerald: "Augustine's Conception of Deification". Journal of
Theological Studies, New Series, 37:2, Oxford University Press, October 1986: p. 378.
21
See in Daniel B. Clendenin, Partakers of Divinity: The Orthodox Doctrine of Theosis, St. Basil, quoted by
Gregory of Nazianzus in Funeral Oration for St. Basil,´ in Stavropoulus, Nature 18.Quotedin JETS 37, no. 3
(September 1994), p. 365.
22
See in Daniel B. Clendenin, "Partakers of Divinity: The Orthodox Doctrine of Theosis", p. 371
23
Pelikan, Jaroslav: The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (100-60). The Christian Tradition: A History of the
Development of Doctrine, Vol. 1. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1971, p.216.
10
later on was fully developed by Gregory Palamas in the fourteenth. now it is an accepted
doctrine of Eastern Christianity.

Bishop Kallistos Ware24, explains the distinction and how it relates to deification trying to
understand Palamas teaching:
"According to Palamas, the divine essence signifies God in his otherness and transcendence, the
energies God in His nearness and immanence. As regards his essence, God is beyond all
participation and unknowable. As regards his energies, God is open to sharing and participation,
that is to say, He is knowable, although never exhaustively known. In St. Basil's words, "we
know our God from his energies, but we do not claim that we can draw near to his essence. For
this energies come down to us, but his essence remains unapproachable". Applying this
distinction to the doctrine of salvation, it follows that in theosis [Greek for "deification"] we
share not in God's essence but in his energies." 25

Conclusions

Jesus Christ Deifies persons who believed in Him, obeying Him and fulfill the commandments,
to walk in this life on earth as He walked. They were so many deified people at Saint Athanasius
time and definitely before him. Saint Athanasius in his defense against the Arians, did not feel
that there is a need to defend this assumption since it was a fact.

A fact that Father Athanasius uses in his argument and in his polemical writings against the
Arian, a fact that no one can deny.

Accordingly, the man in Christ is:

"a new creation" (II Cor 5:17), do not commit a sin no more: "Whoever abides in Him does not
sin..." (I Joh 3:6), live the life as Jesus the Son of Man lived on earth, righteous "... as he is
righteous" (I John 3:7), pure "as he is pure"(I Joh 3:3), the man will obtain that goal which is to
be in fellowship with the Father and the Son Jesus Christ "truly our fellowship is with the Father,

24
British scholar and de facto spokesman for orthodoxy in the English Language.
25
Ware, Kallistos: "Salvation and Theosis in Orthodox Theology", in vol Luther et la Reforme Allemande dans une
perspective Oecumenique. Chambesy & Geneve: Editions du Centre Orthodoxe du Patriarcat Oecumenique, 1983.
p.177.
11
and with his Son Jesus Christ"(I Joh 1:3).

The main goal in life is to reach this high level of spirituality to be as Jesus was on earth:" but we
know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him" (I Joh 3:2).

In Baptism we can participate with the Holy Trinity Energies, and be able to begin this process to
change and conformed in purpose to be like Him.

First Christians as well as many Christians reached this level of Deification and recognize it as a
way of life, as a goal of man. Till nowadays there are saints who reach this level in their spiritual
life.

Theologians should again raise this issue and highlight the importance of Deification.

To be a new creation in Christ absolutely means to reach Deification. This is a process of

change, a matter of conversion, need time and effort to complete it, but man's goal is to reach the
goal which is to be a New Creation and when a man completely is a New man then he reaches
the goal, he reaches Deification.

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