Theosis

who breathed him into existence.
of Jesus.
Jesus is considered as the Word itself.
THEOSIS: PARTAKERS OF DIVINITY WITH GOD
PROF. M. M. NINAN
What made the difference is the breathing which is absent in the creation
"The earth was without form and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was
hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, 'Let there be light;' and there was light." At the very
beginning of Genesis, you have Gods Word, Jesus; you have God the Father; and you have the Holy Spirit:
the Trinity all represented in creation. But there is no transference of essence of God into the creation. What
is the process of creation? What is the material out of which creation came into existence. The process
evidently is the “Word” spoken.
The Scripture witnesses to this with passages such as John 1:18, which says, “No one has seen God at any
time.” God’s essence is beyond us. We cannot look at it. We can see the incarnate Lord Jesus, because he
was in the flesh - material that was created initially which obviously is not the essence of Jesus - we cannot
see the divine essence.
1 John 4:12, which says, “No one has seen God at any time, but if we love one another, God abides in us,
and His love has been perfected in us” .
Matt. 5:8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God”
- a confusion
To avoid the confusion we propose a non-essential part of God called energeia.
The word energy—in Greek, energeia—literally means “working in.” That is, God’s energies are His working
in this created world, His activity, His operation. God’s energies are His presence among us and in us. The
Energies are what we can see God - through his activity - God in action. His energies are sometimes
identified with His glory, His grace, the uncreated light. The Energies are God’s actions of doing things like
healing, miracles, forgiveness of sins etc. We know God only through his activity within the creation. They
are the witness and the evidence.
Both God’s Essence and Energies are uncreated. They existed before creation. God is His Essence, and
God is His Energies. And both Essence and Energies are common to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. When
it comes to the three divine Persons, there is one Essence and one Energy of God. God is thus both
transcendent—that is, He is beyond us—and immanent—that is, He is within the creation especially in us.
We participate with the energies of God, within the energies of God and are being transformed into the
likeness of His Son in exact replication of the resurrected Jesus who appeared to his disciples and still live in
the Heavens and sits at the right hand of God, His Father —this is called theosis or deification—which is
possible through our adoption as sons and daughters of the Most High because of our incorporation into
Christ. The difference still remain. Jesus is Son who shares the essence of the Father. The sons of God
are joined with God - identified with God in his energies still a creation as it was originally intended.
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