Theosis, Part 4, The Economy of the Son
Let us continue our journey discussing the mystery of theosis, the destiny of uncreated and created being in union. In this blog we leave our exploration of human anthropology and look very briefly at some points of interest regarding the economy or work of the Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
In our fallen state created being is separated from God by nature, but also by will. The will has created sin as our new existential mode, and therefore created an infinite distance between created and uncreated. We said earlier that the natural separation of uncreated and created ought to have been overcome by deification, but this distance became an impassible abyss after man willed his new state–sin and death. Humanity now exists in sin and death, his new state near to non-being. Whereas before the fall, man was called to overcome the distance created by nature (created vs. uncreated), now after the fall, man is incapable of breaching the triple barrier of sin, death, and nature.
Man is incapable of saving himself, so he cries out for salvation, the removal of these obstacles. God in His providence condescends to the liberty of men, and coordinates His actions in order to govern the fallen universe to accomplish His will without doing violence to the liberty of creatures. He increasingly ‘descends into’ the world by acts of providence, and finally, in His economy, He enters this process of condescension as a person. The chasms of death, sin, and nature are broken by God, in Christ, in the inverse order. Jesus Christ, our salvation, heals nature by His incarnation, sin by His crucifixion and entrance into Hades, and the “last enemy,” death, by His glorious resurrection. “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death” (1 Cor. 15:26).
Let’s make some notes about the human nature of Jesus Christ. This humanity had the immortal and incorruptible character of the nature of Adam before he sinned, but Christ submitted it voluntarily to the condition of our fallen nature. In this action, Christ assumes not only human nature but also that which was against nature, all the consequences of sin, though He himself remained outside original sin in virtue of the Virginal birth. He took an individual nature liable to suffering and death, and descended to the last outpost of being.
At that time, hellenistic thought could not admit the union of two perfect principles, yet the Church declares the antinomy (radical distinction) of the incarnation: the unlimited is limited in an ineffable manner, while the limited is stretched to the measure of the unlimited. It took until the fourth century for this Christian ‘foolishness’ to triumph over the hellenistic ‘wisdom.’ The Church declared the distinction between ousia (nature) and hypostasis (person) and then added the further distinction by adding two different natures in one hypostasis. Note the apophatic character of the Nicean formula regarding the incarnation: “…made known in two natures being mingled, without change, indivisibly, inseparably… the union does not destroy the difference of the two natures, but on the contrary, the properties of each nature only remain the more firm since they are found united in one person or hypostasis which is neither separated nor divided into two persons…”
The ‘how’ of this union of natures remains a mystery based on an incomprehensible distinction–the identity of the nature and of the person. But Christ reveals that the perfection of the person consists in self-abandonment: the person expresses itself most truly in that it renounces to exist for itself. It is the self-emptying of the Person of the Son, in the Divine kenosis. The entire mystery of economy consists of this kenosis of the Son of God.
The two natures of Christ remain distinct and unmixed. However, being united hypostatically (in His Person) without being transformed into one another, they permeate one another. This permeation is one the whole unilateral, coming from the divine nature and not from the human nature. However, the Divinity, having once penetrated the flesh, gives to it an ineffable faculty of penetrating the Divinity. The humanity of Christ is a deified nature that is permeated by the divine energies from the moment of the incarnation (iron penetrated by fire). Therefore, in each act of Christ, two distinct operations act in conformity to both natures, and by both natures (the sword reddened both cuts and burns at same time). Each nature acts according to its own properties.
The two wills are distinct also, but He who wills is one, and wills in conformity with each of the two distinct natures. The volition has one object because the two wills are united, the human will be freely subjected to the divine will. Note that this liberty is not the same as our free will, that faculty of choice which belongs to the person. The divine person has no need to choose. Choice is a limitation, characteristic of our debased liberty. The divine will permits the human will to will, to manifest fully what is proper to humanity. It always ‘prevents’ the human will, in such a way that the humanity wills ‘divinely’ in accord with the divinity which allows it to expand. The two wills are not in conflict.
The incarnation introduced into His divine person all sin-scarred, fallen human nature, therefore, His earthly life was a continual humiliation, continually submitting to fallen conditions. His human will continually renounced what naturally belonged to it, and accepted what was contrary to incorruptible and deified humanity. What we see here is two distinct assumptions of human nature by the Word: a natural assumption (deified human nature) and an economic assumption (subject to the conditions of fall). This natural assumption is ‘masked’ by the economic assumption. It may help to remember the account of the Transfiguration of Christ upon Mt. Tabor. In His economy Christ appeared as any other man, while in His transfiguration Christ shows the natural assumption, shining with the glory of God!
“What is not assumed, cannot be deified.” What must be deified in us is our entire nature, belonging to our person which must enter into union with God, to become a person recreated in two natures: a human nature which is deified, and a nature, or rather a divine energy, that deifies. In our nature we are new, parts of the humanity of the Son, pure and incorruptible. But, our persons have not yet reached union. Redemption and purification of nature do not yet provide all the conditions necessary for theosis. The work of Christ is an objective, consummated work. Yet, the work of the Holy Spirit is waiting for accomplishment….
To be continued…
