Communal Theosis

Justification as Communion with God

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, not in isolation but in an essential and mutually constitutive relation–that is, in communion. And yet, this communion is not immediately complete, and the traversing of this cosmic interval (the joining of heaven and earth, fully actualized in the eschaton) we call time and history. In the beginning, the earth was “formless, void and dark.” It was not evil, but it was incomplete, lacking what heaven has: light, meaning, form, actuality, determinateness in the freedom of hypostatic communion. It is significant that in Genesis 1, the only action of God’s that He does not explicitly bless as “good” is the creation of the firmament dividing heaven and earth. The last of the “good” related pronouncements in the story of our earliest origins (excluding the tree of knowledge of good and evil) concerns the creation of Eve from Adam’s side. God deems it “not good” for Adam to be without a partner, and, thus, with the creation of Eve, the very purpose of heaven and earth is unveiled in a manner that had not yet been disclosed (or possible). With the creation of Eve, the divine life can now truly be shared with the human family (as image of God—keep in mind that “male and female” together constitute the image of God), because now Man can manifest the qualities only possible in hypostatic communion. All of the “good” and “not good” pronouncements in Genesis 1-2, from an anagogical perspective, concern the sole telos of creation, the very will of God–the incarnation of the Word. Adam and Eve “sum up” God’s work throughout the six days, as there are now persons on earth who He can share His life, knowledge, authority and power with. God’s sole intention is to exist in a synergistic and reciprocal relationship with His creation. The failure to realize our divine telos is the cause of our condemnation, and it is only in Christ that we are re-aligned with our purpose and “justified.”

The Church is the communion of the justified; those partaking of, actualizing, and sharing the justice of God. God’s justice is not, however, some arbitrary determination He makes in relation to creatures, as if there is no “natural” or “ontological” basis for God’s juridical character. Rather, justice itself is a divine energy, something first and foremost characteristic of God Himself, and mutually interior to every other energy, including mercy. Thus, if God is just, our “justification” can consist of nothing other than our genuine reception of what is God’s–theosis. But what exactly is God’s justice?

According to Fr. Dumitru Staniloae, justice has to do with “right order,” balance, and harmony–all three perfectly realized within the “ordered” communion of the three divine persons: “Justice towards creatures has its foundation in the equality of the Trinitarian persons. But it is only by deigning  to come down that God creates creatures and makes them share in his happiness accord­ing to a justice which reflects the equality of the divine persons.”¹ The equality-in-hierarchy of the three divine persons is the standard of justice, so that the measure of our own justification is nothing other than our God-likeness, and specifically our Christ-likeness, as we are “sons” of God meant to be brought into the filial relationship the Son possesses with the Father eternally and by nature. When the proper hierarchy is disturbed, as in, for example, when Adam and Eve failed to properly submit themselves to the only true telos of their being, divisions and fractures within the world begin to appear. An unjust world is one that is no longer in a proper relation with the source of its order, harmony, and peace. The consequence of this fall away from the source of life can be nothing other than death, which is, ultimately, the essence of the curse against the old humanity. 

Death was both a penalty from God and the simple natural consequence of separation from Him (that cannot be separated, as God’s will upholds “nature”). The only source of life is the Holy Spirit, and by separating himself from the Holy Spirit, Adam’s condition turned to one of disintegration. As we know, in order to solve this problem, the Eternal Son, in whose Image we are made, assumed a human nature. In uniting human nature with His own divinity, He glorified it and made possible true participation in God. Christ freely took the penalty of our sin–death. The death of Christ on the Cross is His condemnation, and in that sense, we can speak of substitutionary atonement. Yet because Christ is life itself, in dying, He filled death with life and turned it back, being raised from the dead in a glorified and transfigured body. Because Christ shared in human nature, He communicated His glory to it, thereby ensuring the resurrection of the dead. 

But how exactly is a person justified? In contrast to the typical evangelical view, which regards faith as the instrument by which Christ’s obedient works are counted as if they were the believer’s, for Orthodox theology, it is faith itself which justifies because of what faith is. Faith is the unique quality of the relation of a father to his son. The son is not employed by the father as if he could obligate his father to pay him a wage. Rather, he is loved by his father, and the father freely gives gifts to his son. It is this openness of interpersonal life, this absolute trust in one another, that constitutes the “faith” of the three divine persons, a faith always-already realized in its true essence as the fullness of love. Our faith in God, then, is part of our process of deification: just as God is faithful, we are meant to become faithful. In faith, we trust that God has our good at heart and will fulfill His promises to us, giving us the Holy Spirit and raising us in glory. As Hebrews says, faith is that which justifies because to do good for God, one must “believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.”

Faith, in fact, was what characterized the life of Christ, the Eternal Son. Paul speaks of the “faithfulness of the Messiah.” Christ lived as an obedient Son of the Father. He wholly consecrated Himself to God, a consecration that was consummated in His giving up of His own life to God on the Cross. Through all of this, Christ trusted absolutely that God would bring life out of death–just as Abraham did with his own old body and with the offering up of his promised son. Thus, the faith of Christ reached its appointed goal with His self-consecration to God. It was faith which gave birth to Christ’s self-gift, even as the faith is distinct from the self-gift. God’s reward for Christ was the resurrection of the dead and the inheritance of the world. The Jews and Romans declared Christ guilty on the Cross, but God declared Christ righteous precisely in and through the transformation of His body. It is for that reason that St. Paul says Jesus was “justified by the Spirit” in 2 Timothy 3:16. Thus, we are “justified by the Spirit,” when, by this same Spirit, we participate in the faithfulness of Christ. This filial faithfulness is the basis of our adoption into divine sonship, which is justification. 

One of the central arguments of Michael Gorman’s work on justification concerns the translation of certain verses in the writings of St. Paul, specifically those such as Philippians 3:9 and Romans 3:21, both of which are concerned with our justification (becoming “righteous”) despite our sins. In both these verses, Paul articulates the way in which we are justified in and through Christ. However, Gorman argues that many of the translations of these passages can be misleading. For example, the ESV: “And be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.” In contrast, the KJV reads: “And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.” While it is seemingly a small, single word difference, it is not hyperbole to say that much of the Protestant Reformation hinges on it. The classical Reformation doctrine of “justification via the imputed and alien righteousness of Christ,” which we receive in faith, is seemingly much more compatible with the “faith in Christ” translation. However, Gorman and many other scholars argue that the more accurate translation is “faith of Christ,” in which case our faithfulness isn’t a mere private belief that justifies us as atomized individuals (even if this “individual” justification implies one’s participation in a community of believers), but our participation in the faithfulness of Christ, forming a community of those who share in the one faith.

Thus, Gorman uses the term “communal theosis”² to describe the “becoming righteous” of the many members of the Church together, as they are sanctified both “vertically” (in their relation to God) and “horizontally” in relation to one another. He argues that the establishment of right relations both vertically and horizontally is the purpose of the covenant and, thus, of Christ’s faithfulness in restoring the covenantal relationship between God and man through his perfect realization of vertical and horizontal righteousness. Christ neither fell into the sins of “idolatry” (improper vertical relation) or “immorality” (improper horizontal relation), and therefore, as the Incarnate Lord, He is both God’s perfect kenosis towards man and man’s total obedience to God. On the Cross, this obedience is most fully manifested, so that all who desire to be justified must “come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” The New Testament authors are clear that baptism is essential within this process, as it is in baptism that we participate in the death and resurrection of Christ: “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:4-5)

Through participating in His death and resurrection, we are united to Christ, we become part of His body and receive all that He received on account of His faithfulness. Christ’s mission was nothing other than to establish this “body,” this community of justified believers, formed through their participation in the Spirit of Christ which He has poured out. It is through becoming a unity-in-distinction, “many members with One Head,” and a communion defined by self-sacrificial love for God and neighbour that we reflect the image of the God who is the perfect communion of distinct persons: “...for Paul, becoming the  ‘righteousness/justice of God’ in Christ means becoming a  people of faith(fulness) and love who embody and participate in God’s reconciling/justifying work — God’s new creation — (2 Cor  5:17) — as God’s covenant community.”³

1. Dumitru Staniloae, Experience of God (Vol 1).

2. See Michael Gorman’s Inhabiting the Cruciform God.

3. Michael Gorman, Inhabiting the Cruciform God.