Chapter 11 — Becoming What Christ Is (Theosis)
In the light of Christ’s Incarnation, Cross, and Resurrection, salvation cannot be reduced to a legal transaction, a moral upgrade, or an emotional experience. It is something far deeper and far more astonishing:
Human beings are called to become what Christ is, by grace.
Not gods alongside God.
Not absorbed into God.
But truly and really participating in the divine life through union with the incarnate Son.
The ancient word for this is theosis — deification, or divinization — not in the sense of blurring the line between Creator and creature, but in the sense of sharing in God’s life without becoming identical with His essence.
This chapter unfolds:
Humans made to grow into the likeness of Christ
Christ empties Himself to lift humanity to His level
Theosis as the true meaning of salvation
Adoption as participation in Trinitarian life
Not moral improvement — ontological transformation
1. Humans Made to Grow into the Likeness of Christ
From the beginning, humanity is not created as a finished product. We are created with a direction and a destiny: to become like the One in whose image we were made — the eternal Logos, who in the fullness of time becomes Jesus Christ.
1.1. “Image” as Capacity, “Likeness” as Destiny
The early teachers of the Church often distinguished between:
Image — the structural capacity to relate to God
Likeness — the realized resemblance achieved through growth and communion
Every human being bears the image:
reason and freedom
desire for truth
longing for love
sense of justice
openness to the transcendent
But the likeness — actual resemblance to Christ’s character, love, and mode of existence — is not automatic. It is:
dynamic
relational
acquired through grace-filled cooperation
The tragedy of the fall is that humanity diverted this capacity away from its true goal. The gift remained, but the direction was lost.
1.2. Christ as the Archetype of Humanity
Christ is not merely a moral example; He is the living archetype of humanity:
the pattern according to which we were created
the form toward which our nature tends when it is healed
the standard of what “human” truly means
To grow into the likeness of Christ is not to become less human, but to become fully human for the first time:
free from inward fragmentation
free from fear that drives self-centeredness
free from the compulsions that distort desire
Christ shows us:
a human mind fully aligned with truth
a human heart fully open to love
a human will fully surrendered to the Father without servility
Theosis means:
our humanity being gradually conformed to His humanity, which is perfectly united to His divinity.
2. Christ Empties Himself to Lift Humanity to His Level
Theosis is only possible because of a prior movement in the opposite direction: God descends. The Son does not remain distant; He enters our condition.
2.1. Kenosis — The Self-Emptying of the Son
When we say Christ “empties Himself,” we do not mean He stops being God. We mean:
He renounces the manifestation of His glory for a time.
He accepts the limitations, vulnerability, and weakness of our condition.
He enters into a world run by distorted powers, false mediators, and broken systems.
He allows Himself to be misunderstood, rejected, and crucified by the very humanity He came to heal.
This self-emptying (kenosis) is not a temporary performance but the revelation of who God eternally is:
not grasping
not dominating
not self-protective
but self-giving love
The God who empties Himself into creation is the same God who eternally gives Himself in love within the Trinity.
2.2. Descent for the Sake of Ascent
Christ’s descent is not an end in itself; it is ordered toward raising us. He becomes what we are (without sin) so that:
we might become capable of sharing what He is
our humanity, united to His, might be carried into the heart of the Trinity
the gulf of fear and ignorance might be bridged from God’s side
He takes:
our weakness, to give us His strength
our mortality, to give us His incorruptible life
our shame, to give us His sonship
our fragmented nature, to give us His wholeness
The movement is clear:
He comes down to our level,
not to leave us there,
but to bring us up into His.
This is the pattern of theosis: descent of grace, ascent of humanity.
3. Theosis as the True Meaning of Salvation
If salvation is reduced to “going to heaven when you die,” or “having your sins forgiven,” or “avoiding punishment,” the heart of the Gospel is lost. These may be results or aspects, but they are not the core.
The true center of salvation is:
Humanity being united to Christ, and through Him participating in the life of the Father by the Spirit.
That is theosis.
3.1. Beyond Legal Metaphors
Legal images—guilt, penalty, acquittal—can sometimes illuminate aspects of sin and mercy, but if they become central, they distort the Gospel:
They make the fall more foundational than Christ.
They make the cross a legal transaction rather than a cosmic healing.
They make grace a change of legal status rather than a change of being.
In such a framework, “salvation” means:
You were guilty, now you’re pardoned.
You were in danger, now you’re safe.
But in the patristic and truly Orthodox frame, salvation means:
You were alienated from divine life; now you are united to it.
You were disfigured; now you are being transfigured.
You were enslaved; now you are being deified — made capable of God.
Legal metaphors cannot carry this weight.
3.2. Theosis as Union Without Confusion
Theosis does not mean:
we become equal to God
we merge into God’s essence
we lose our identity
we become little rival deities
It means:
we remain fully human
we are permeated by divine energies and life
we are conformed to Christ’s likeness
we share His relationship with the Father
we act, think, love, and perceive in synergy with the Spirit
The distinction remains:
God by nature
humanity by grace
Yet the union is real:
like iron placed in the fire — still iron, but now radiant, hot, and glowing with the very fire that penetrates it.
Theosis is that:
humanity glowing with the fire of divine life in Christ.
4. Adoption as Participation in Trinitarian Life
Theosis is not an abstract mystical state. It has a concrete relational name: adoption.
4.1. Adoption as Sharing the Son’s Position
Christ is the Only-Begotten Son by nature. We become sons and daughters by adoption. This is not a metaphorical “we’re kind of like children”; it is a real sharing in Christ’s own relationship to the Father.
Through union with Christ:
we receive the Spirit of adoption
we are given the right to address God as Father in the same Spirit as the Son
we are counted as members of the household of God
we share, in a creaturely way, in the Son’s inheritance of life, glory, and love
Adoption is not sentimental; it is ontological. It re-roots our identity in the Trinity’s life.
4.2. Adoption Is Always Through Christ
We do not have a separate relationship with God alongside Christ. All adoption:
is in the Son
comes through the Son
is sealed by the Spirit of the Son
leads to the Father
This preserves the order of reality:
The Holy Trinity is the ultimate horizon.
Christ is the Mediator and zero-point.
We enter the Trinity’s life only by being joined to Christ.
Theosis is therefore Christic:
we do not become “gods in general”; we become sons and daughters in the Son.
4.3. Participation in Trinitarian Life
To be adopted is to be drawn into:
the Father’s embrace
the Son’s obedience and love
the Spirit’s joy and energy
This means:
Our prayer becomes participation in the Son’s prayer to the Father.
Our love becomes participation in the love that eternally circulates within the Trinity.
Our knowledge of God is no longer external but participatory — we know God by sharing His life, however faintly and humbly.
Theosis is thus not just about “becoming divine”; it is about living in the Trinitarian circulation of love and life.
5. Not Moral Improvement — Ontological Transformation
One of the most persistent confusions in modern Christianity is the reduction of salvation to moral improvement:
becoming a “better person”
fixing one’s behavior
cleaning up one’s life
trying harder to follow rules
Morality matters, but morality is not the center; it is a fruit.
5.1. Moralism Is a Symptom of Forgetting Christ
When Christ is reduced to a teacher, example, or judge:
the Christian life shrinks into ethics
holiness becomes “being good”
sin becomes merely rule-breaking
grace becomes help to obey
Theosis overthrows this reduction. Christ is not merely a moral teacher; He is:
the Mediator
the New Adam
the Cosmic High Priest
the Revealer of the Father
the Bearer of divine life
To live in Christ is not primarily to obey better; it is to exist differently.
5.2. Ontological Transformation: A Different Kind of Being
The new humanity in Christ is:
animated by the Spirit
anchored in the Son’s relationship to the Father
oriented toward divine communion as its natural environment
This is ontological change:
our desires are reordered
our perceptions are purified
our capacities are enlarged
our very mode of existence becomes more transparent to God
Morality flows from this as a symptom of health, not as the program of healing. If we aim for moral improvement without ontological change, we end up with religious anxiety and pretense.
If we allow ontological transformation in Christ:
morality is transfigured into love
obedience becomes joy
virtue becomes participation in divine life, not self-improvement
5.3. Sanctification as Deepening Theosis
What many traditions call “sanctification” is, in the language of theosis:
the progressive deepening of participation in Christ
the gradual burning away of what is false, fearful, and distorted
the unfolding of the image into likeness
This is a lifelong process:
not linear
not without setbacks
not without struggle
but always grounded in the reality that Christ has already united humanity to Himself. We are not climbing up to God from nothing; we are learning to live out a union that Christ has already accomplished in Himself.
Conclusion: Becoming What Christ Is, By Grace
Theosis is the heart of salvation:
Humanity was created to grow into the likeness of Christ.
Christ empties Himself to unite our nature to His.
Salvation is not primarily legal pardon, but deification — sharing in divine life.
Adoption means real participation in the Trinitarian communion.
This is not mere moral improvement, but ontological transformation through union with Christ in the Spirit.
To say “we are saved” in this framework is to say:
We are being drawn, step by step,
into what Christ already is —
fully human, fully alive in God.