Deification, also known as theosis in Greek, is a word from Latin that refers to a deeply grace-filled life with the Holy Trinity that begins here and will be completed in the resurrected life. Deification developed much more in the East than in the West, and Orthodox Christians are reminded of this transformation into becoming like God in the Eastern liturgies as well as in the writings of the Eastern church fathers. Beyond the juridical pardoning of sins and guilt, beyond mere restoration of what was lost, deification entails an elevated life and a transcendent goal for humanity. Metropolitan Hilarion writes that God earnestly wants to give us his divinity and God gives us the deepest desire of our heart — to become like Him. Deification is the original plan of the Holy Trinity, whether or not we sinned in the garden. Diadochus of Photiki teaches, “for God formed people to be gods.” Great Vespers for the Transfiguration (Sticheron at the Aposticha) hymn, “O Christ, making the image that had grown dark in Adam to shine once again like lightning, and transforming it into the glory and splendor of your own Divinity.” Holy Thursday, Ode Four hymns, “I will be with you in my Kingdom, as God with gods.” We become god as much as iron that is put into the fire takes on the likeness and heat of fire but does not become fire itself, as the fathers taught. This idea of salvation and justice is not congruent with the ancient religions. Christ does not hold a scale nor is He depicted blindfold, but Christ holds a scroll and a cross.
Metropoitan Hilarion writes that salvation is not “a one-time event.” God gives us His divinity and holiness and we give Him our humanity and weakness, writes St. Symeon the New Theologian. He developed this eternal exchange as taught by the fathers of the Church, like Irenaues, Ephraim, and Athenasius who had formulated this reversal teaching earlier. Symeon describes deification as birth-giving, “ineffably he begot me spiritually” and as a process, “while I remained a man, he made me god.” The human race is returned to God in a better state because He is “the lover of mankind.”
Salvation isn’t given without a mutual offering to God, that is, to offer ourselves as living sacrifices. We experience this deification by becoming pure sacrifices and lovers of God and all mankind, as if we too were blind folded like lady justice. Many ancient civilizations prized and worshipped justice. The Egyptians worshipped Ma’at, the goddess of justice, law, truth and order; however, the Pharaohs could not see the lover of mankind in their dealings with the enslaved Hebrews and the encounter with the One God. Moses experienced the divine light on Mt. Sinai. Likewise, our communion with God through purification, illumination and the Eucharist will place us on the path of contemplating the Divine Light. Deification refers also to the deeper transfiguration of a person’s soul and body with Christ’s “Divine Spirit” so that “man becomes tri-hypostatic by grace.” To become godlike is to become an image of the Holy Trinity in the very structure of our soul and within the bones of our body.