Achieving Your Potential in Christ:
Plain Talks on a Major Doctrine of Orthodoxy
After: Fr. Anthony M. Coniaris
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The Purpose of Being is to BecomeWhen asked what he thought the business of the Church was, one person said, "It is to show people what they can become by the grace of God." The one thing that holds us back from becoming what God created us to be is sin. That is why the Church calls on us constantly to repent: because it is sin that holds us back from greatness, from achieving our great potential of theosis.
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Simon PeterWhen Jesus first met Simon Peter He saw beyond the exterior to the depth of his soul. He knew the kind of person Simon Peter had always been - impetuous, easily influenced, even cowardly. But Jesus saw what He could do in the life of this man, how He could change him from the kind of person he he had been to use him for His glory.
So, after gazing at Simon intently, Jesus spoke these words, "You are ... but you shall become." "You are" expressed the real and actual - what was; "You shall be" referred to the potential - what can be.
That's the way God looks at you and me. He looks at a shepherd boy - David - and sees in him a king. God sees our shortcomings and weaknesses. But He sees beyond these. He sees what we can become through His Son Jesus Christ. He sees our potential to become all that He originally created us to be.
In John 1:42, "Jesus looked at him, and said, 'So you are Simon the son of John? You shall be called Cephas'" (which means Peter). You are! You shall be! The actual and the possible! Realism and idealism! What is and what can be! And between the two, the Lord Jesus Christ. His presence is like a mighty bridge spanning the vast chasm between the actual and the potential.
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Power to BecomeGod gives us power to become. "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God" (John 1:12). The Apostle Peter once came upon a lame man begging for alms. He walked up to the cripple and said, "Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk" (Acts 3:6).X power to get up and walk out of a crippled past into a life of power, meaning, peace and joy;
That is the kind of power Christ gives us -
Psychiatry can tell us what is wrong with us, but only Christ can give us the power to rise out of sin and sickness to become what we ought to be and can be: children of God and gods by grace.
Before Darwin, people believed that creation had ceased. God had created the world long ago and had stopped. After Darwin, people came to realize that God has not finished the creation of the world. He is still creating. This is part of what theistic evolution is. Our own creation is still going on. Man is evolving intellectually. Everything from the Ford automobile to the Einstein equation has been created in the past 100 years.
Tilhard DeChardin, the great anthropologist, believed that the destiny of man is to rise toward spiritual perfection until at last he is united with God. God has given us the power to become better than we are. He has given us the ability and the grace to evolve not only intellectually but also spiritually. We do not have to be captured by our past or by our smallness or by our sins. With God's power, we can rise to new heights of intellectual and spiritual perfection. The ladder of divine ascent is there for us to ascend, to climb each day, that we may achieve theosis and be united with God.
Bishop Maximos Aghiorgiussis writes, "The fathers make a distinction between the image of God in man, and his likeness to God; image is the potential given to man, through which he can obtain the life of theosis (communion with God). Likeness with God is the actualization of this potential; it is becoming more and more what one already is: becoming more and more God's image, more and more God-like. The distinction between image and likeness is, in other words, the distinction between being and becoming."
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Achieving the IdealMany of us go through life wishing for the ideal - the ideal parent, the ideal child, the ideal husband or wife.... We forget that none of us is a finished product, complete like a piece of beautiful china. Each of us is in the process of becoming. How many divorces occur because there is a foolish idea in our minds that some perfect mate exists somewhere, and that we must shed the present mate to find the perfect one? We forget that the perennial problem in marriage is not to find the ideal partner, but to become the ideal partner.
It is this power to become better than we are, a new creation, sons and daughters of God, gods by grace, that Christ offers to those who receive Him and believe in Him;
X power to overcome the world;
X power to crucify every besetting sin;
X power to shout in triumph over every trouble and temptation in life, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13);
X power to become what we are by baptism: children of God, heirs of God's kingdom.
Salvation according to Orthodox theology is not a state of being but a state of becoming, a constant movement toward union with God (theosis) which can never be fully achieved in this life. It is a process that begins here and is consummated and perfected in heaven.
Never would the saints of the church say, "I am saved. I have made it. I have arrived." They were always on the way. So they kept praying the Jesus Prayer to the very end: "Lord Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner." The Christian life is constant growth, constant becoming, a constant journey from being the image of God, to becoming the likeness of God.
Speaking of this ongoing growth toward theosis, Vladimir Lossky writes,
"The deification or theosis of the creation will be realized in its fullness only in the age to come, after the resurrection of the dead. This deifying union has, nevertheless, to be fulfilled ever more and more even in this present life, through the transformation of our corruptible and depraved nature and by its adaptation to eternal life."
The great saints of the church were humble men and women who radiated God's grace and love. They were not converted just once. They were not "born again" just once. Nor did they repent just once. Their life was a daily conversion and a constant repentance. They were saved once at the cross of Golgotha, but they were also being saved daily in the yielding of their will to Jesus. Daily they sinned and daily they repented. Daily they fell and daily they rose.
Fundamentalist Christians are constantly proclaiming on radio and TV that all we have to do to be saved is make a "decision" for Christ and be "born again" by believing in Jesus. They tell us that one becomes a full and complete Christian as soon as this happens. The whole process of growth is thereby omitted. One goes immediately from the cradle to mature spiritual adulthood.
Orthodoxy believes that to confess faith in Christ is the beginning, not the end. It is a journey, not a bed on which to lie while we wait for the Lord's return. The moment we become like the Pharisee and say, "I have arrived. I am where I am supposed to be. I thank God I am not like the others" - at that point we become stagnant and stagnation in the spiritual life is condemnation.
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There Is Greatness In UsThe Bible tells us that it was God who formed us in our mother's womb. And when He formed us, He placed within us the highest possible potential: theosis, union with God. Part of man's tragedy is that this great potential remains only a potential and is not fully developed. Man is indeed a frail creature, but he is endowed by God with a fantastically great potential.
"What lies behind us, and what lies before us, are small matters compared to what lies within us" says Ralph Waldo Emerson. All of us are born equal. Our job is to outgrow equality by reaching out to achieve our potential in Christ. There is greatness in us!
X Your Best Friend
Henry Ford was having lunch with a friend one day. The friend asked him, "Who is your best friend?" Ford took out a pen and wrote on the white napkin before him these words, "Your best friend is the person who brings out of you the best that is within you."
X That makes Christ your best Friend.
X That makes the Church your best friend.
X That makes the Bible your best friend.
For their purpose is to help you achieve the great potential God has placed within you.
Gloria Steinem, feminist leader, said once, "By the year 2000 we will, I hope, raise our children to believe in human potential, not God." Human potential not God! The truth is that without God you not only lose your human potential; you end up in hell. With God, your potential becomes heaven itself where "eye has not seen what things God has prepared for those who love Him" (I Corinthians 2:9).
The tragedy for most of us is that we die before we are fully born. We die with so much unlived life in us. We have a hundred acres of possibilities and only about one-half acre under cultivation. We are a picture of unfulfillment. As Oliver Wendell Holmes puts it, "Many people die with their music still in them."
In the New Testament, the Greek word for sin is "amartia." Translated literally, it does not mean "to break a rule." It means rather "to miss the mark, the target, the bull's eye." That is the great tragedy of sin which occurs when a person doesn't measure up to his or her full potential and fails to become all that God created him to be. Thus, sin is to miss the target, to fail to claim and develop the fantastic potential God has placed in us. For, man is not only hell bent, the potential God has placed in us makes us also - and even more so - heaven bent. As St. Paul writes in Romans 5:20, "Where sin abounded, grace abounded much more."
Orthodox theology calls the potential for which God created us: THEOSIS. Don't be frightened by this word. It's really a very simple concept, namely, the core of the good news of Orthodoxy is that we are called to share in the very life of God.
Salvation in Orthodox theology is much more positive than it is negative. It means not only justification and forgiveness of sins; it means also - even more so - the renewing and restoration of God's image in us, the lifting up of fallen humanity through Christ into the very life of God. Christ forgives us and frees us from sin and death that we may proceed to fulfill our potential, which is to become like God in Christ and to share in His life.
Christ came to save us from sin to participate in the life of God. In other words, we are saved from sin for theosis, which is our great potential. Jesus came to earth to tell us:
X"You give Me your time, and I will give you My eternity.
X You give Me your weary body, and I will give you rest.
X You give Me your sins, and I will give you forgiveness.
X You give Me your broken heart, and Ill give you healing.
X You give Me your emptiness, and I will give you My fullness.
X You give Me your humanity, and I will give you My divinity."
Theosis is the positive aspect of salvation. To describe theosis we can us the following words:
X transfiguration of man,
X putting on Christ,
X restoration of the image of God in us,
X restoration of communion with God,
X participation in the life of God,
X participating in the kingdom of God,
X incorruption,
X receiving the Holy Spirit,
X becoming temples of the Holy Spirit,
X ascending to the throne of God,
X being by grace what God is by nature.
To describe further what our potential - theosis - is, we can say the following:
X Jesus came to lift the fallen all the way from the gutter of sin to the throne of God in theosis.
X Theosis is what God wants for us who are created in His own image: to become like Him in whose image we are made.
X Theosis is a personal sharing in the life of God through faith, prayer and the sacraments.
X Theosis is the rich potential God has placed in each baptized person.
X Theosis is the name for the process of salvation, initiated in baptism, by which we are Christified, i.e., united to Christ and changed into His likeness.
X Theosis is the transfiguration of our life-style, implying concern for our neighbor, mutual sharing, love, stewardship of ourselves, our possessions and of the earth.
X Fr. Georges Florovsky wrote, "Theosis means no more than an intimate communion of human persons with the living God. To be with God means to dwell in Him and to share His perfection."
Christ the Savior came to redeem us from sin that we might proceed to acquire the gift of theosis which He offers us by grace. Salvation does not end with the forgiveness of sins; it begins there. It is at baptism that our journey to God, to theosis, begins. Salvation is not only a matter of "Are you saved?" It is also a matter of "Are you being deified? Are you growing in Christ?"
We are saved from sin for theosis. "Original sin," said Fr. Georges Florovsky, "was not just an erroneous choice... but rather a refusal to ascend toward God." Salvation is an ongoing process that leads from initial salvation in baptism, through sanctification, and on to "deification by grace."
Vladimir Lossky said, "What does it matter being saved from death, from Hell, if it is not to lose oneself in God." St. John Chrysostom writes, "It is not enough to leave Egypt (sin and death), one must also enter the Promised Land (theosis). Between Egypt and the Promised Land lies a desert." Hence the need for ascesis (struggle, discipline, war against the passions) in our journey through the desolate desert of sin and death toward theosis (the Promised Land).
Theosis is a beautiful word, but what does it say to those who are trying to cope with a terrible illness, or struggling to make a go of a sour marriage, or to those who are burdened with anxieties and cares? Theosis has everything to say to struggling humanity. It tells us that we have the capacity through the presence of God within us to transcend and overcome any and every difficulty in life, including the greatest one of all: death. Theosis tells us that we are not paupers or beggars, but sons and daughters of God, sharing His glory, partaking of His Nature, destined to inherit His eternal kingdom. Theosis tells us that "yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us" (Romans 8:37). Theosis tells us to "hang in there" no matter how hard the struggle or the temptation because God has great things in store for us. As St. Paul says, "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us" (Romans 8:18).
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Our Aim in LifeIt is no wonder that the Orthodox Church considers our aim in life to be union with God, or theosis! We were created to share in God's life. This is what makes us different from animals. We were created to be receptacles of God's life, without which we cease to be truly human.
When someone asked an Orthodox priest one day what he thought was the main emphasis of the Orthodox Church, he replied with one word, "Theosis." And he was right.
The Bible and Theosis
THE BIBLE HAS MUCH TO SAYabout theosis. The most quoted verse for theosis is one which seems rather isolated to some, i.e., II Peter 1:4, "...become partakers of divine nature," or as the NEB translation says, "to share in the very being of God." Although II Peter is a very explicit statement about theosis, there are many other verses in the Bible that refer to salvation as "participation" or "sharing" or "fellowship" with God.
The Apostle John writes that God's Son and Spirit have appeared on earth to bring God people and the world into the fullness of God's being and the life of the Kingdom: "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And of His fullness we have all received..." (John 1:14, 16).
In John 17:22-23, Jesus prays the prayer of theosis: "And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one...."
"For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich" (II Corinthians 8:9).
"There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus... But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you" (Romans 8:1, 9-11).
Theosis, participation in the life of God, is further evidenced in verses such as the following which speak of God in us: "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him" (John 14:23). "...It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me..." (Galatians 2:20). Paul's desire is that "Christ is formed in you" (Galatians 4:19).
When the Apostle John says that "it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is," he is referring to the future theosis of those who were now made children of God (I John 3:2).
Psalm 82:6, which is quoted by Jesus in John 10:34 is another strong reference to theosis: "'I said, "You are gods"'?" We see in this verse that even in the Old Testament, which is the guardian of monotheism, the word "gods," which Jesus quotes, was applied to people. It speaks of the God-given potential of theosis.
When we unite ourselves unto Christ we become "transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord" (II Corinthians 3:18). "And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man" (I Corinthians 15:49).
Christ took His human nature into heaven. There our glorified and deified human nature already stands before the throne of God. "For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3).
"But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:4-6).
"...Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27). When Christ dwells in us, His presence creates a unique "hope of glory." Describing this "hope of glory," C.S. Lewis wrote in his book "The Weight of Glory": "The promise of scripture may very roughly be reduced to five heads... firstly, that we shall be with Christ; secondly, that we shall be like Him; thirdly... that we shall have 'glory'; fourthly, that we shall in some sense be fed or feasted or entertained; and finally, that we shall have some sort of official position in the universe - ruling cities, judging angels, being pillars of God's temple."
Truly, when we consider God's promise regarding theosis, "it does not yet appear what we shall be" (I John 3:2).
The author of Hebrews takes this a step further when he speaks of our share in or partaking "of the heavenly calling" (3:1), and he declares that we are made partakers of Christ and of the Holy Spirit. Finally, the Apostle Paul again affirms that those who rise in Christ will "put on" God's own incorruptible immortality.
St. Paul speaks of the fullness of God's presence abiding in us, when he prays, "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all" (II Corinthians 13:13).
All these verses constitute only a small part of the many references to theosis found in the scriptures.
It is said that the greatest compliment God ever paid man was when He said to him, "be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect" (Matthew 5:48).