Theõsis came up in class recently. I was largely unfamiliar with the term and  suspected it to be of Mormon error. Deification is not a definition that sits well with Christians, especially those from Protestant roots, especially within the Reformed tradition. It is an awkward explanation. The deification of Christians? Parktakers of the divine nature in some mystical sense where we ourselves become gods? That is weird and rightly so. It is Eastern and odd for me.

However, there is something amazing and perhaps inexplicable in Western categories when it comes to union with Christ. Paul said, “I don’t live anymore, Christ lives in me” (Gal 2:20). Peter wrote about us becoming “partakers of the divine nature” (2Pet 1:4). I brought the issue up in Table Talk today. Pastor John was right on to leverage the subject by emphasizing that our role is primarily beholding, not becoming. Glorification, the Western term, does involve the transformation of the corruptible man. But it is unto the end that we can become inhabitants of the New Jerusalem, it is for us to become fitting to behold the glory of God forever, completely free from sin’s inhibitions.

The transformation that we undergo should not distract us from the One of Whom and By Whom we are being transformed. Conformity to the image of Christ is less about our conformity and more about Christ. The point is the glory of God manifested in a dead man becoming the workmanship of God, all by and for God (Eph 2:1-10). And it is now that we can take seriously what it means that we are changing from one degree of glory to the next (2 Cor 3:18)…

It is now that we can really feel our identity. It is now that we actually get who we are. It is here that we come to the end of ourselves. The Heidelberg is not mechanical. Really, our only comfort in life and in death is that we are not our own, but belong body and soul, in life and in death, to our faithful Savior Jesus Christ.