The goal of the Way is the salvation of soul and body. When Christ returns at the end of the age, all the dead will receive their immortal bodies through resurrection and, following the Judgment, everyone who belongs to Christ will enter into unending Life with Him. This is the fulfillment of salvation at the conclusion of time, but salvation is not just for the future. God has called us to experience salvation now, in this life, as a foretaste of the future Heavenly Kingdom.
We call the fullest experience of salvation in this life theosis or deification. Simply put, theosis means union with God. More precisely, theosis refers to the experience of being healed, transfigured, and united with the Holy Trinity through participation in the Divine Grace.
If a cold piece of iron or steel is placed in a hot fire, the metal takes on the properties of the fire. The metal glows bright with light and radiates heat as flame. If the metal is removed from the fire, it returns to its dull, cold state. Gold may be purified in fire. The flame refines the precious metal by separating the pure gold itself from impurities. When participating in the Divine Grace, which is the Uncreated Fire, the Orthodox Christian experiences purification, illumination, and union with God.
Christ Himself has shown us what the experience of human salvation looks like. At His Transfiguration on Mount Thabor, Christ revealed His Glory to Ss. Peter, James, and John. These three Disciples witnessed the God-Man Jesus Christ radiating, not with created light, but with Uncreated Light, that is, His own Divine Energy. Even His clothes were transfigured by contact with His Holy Illuminating Body.
Although the Divine Glory always shined brightly from Christ, the darkened eyes of human hearts were not capable of perceiving it. On the mountain, Christ opened the spiritual (noetic) eyes of His three Disciples so they could witness His Glory. Ss. Peter, James, and John did not just behold this vision with their physical eyes. The vision of the Uncreated Light is an internal experience that affects soul and body.
Jesus Christ radiated with His own Divine Glory on Mt. Thabor because He is God by Nature. (The Son of God is God in Essence with the Father and Holy Spirit.) For us, salvation means becoming by Grace what Christ is by Nature. In other words, salvation means participating in the Divine Energy so that we are healed, transfigured, perfected, united with Him, and know Him by experience. The true human being at the height of spiritual potential is one who has been united with God. To put it yet another way, Christ shares His Glory with us so that we may be like Him. Notice that union with God, seeing the Uncreated Light, beholding the vision of Christ in Glory, knowing God with the heart, being like Christ, partaking in the Divine Nature, theosis, deification, and divinization all describe the same experience.
This is real theology, both practical and mystical. In our day, theology is often confused with the study of philosophy. A philosopher knows rational concepts related to God, but a true theologian is one who knows God by experience with his heart (nous) through prayer.
The Way of salvation may be summarized like this: Always do what is in harmony with human nature and avoid whatever is in contradiction to human nature so that you may become what is beyond human nature.
Read: Matthew 16.28-17.1-9; Luke 9.27-36; Ephesians 2.1-10; 1 Peter. 3-9; 2 Peter 1.3-4, 16-18; 1 John 3.2; Revelation 21.22-27
Text copyright © 2018 by Fr. Symeon D. S. Kees