Becoming What He Is

In my last post, I wrote about the doctrine of deification and it’s pervading presence in the Bible and church history. Now I’d like to mark some particular aspects of God and who He is in His nature that He so graciously allows us to share in.

Life

“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way and the truth and the LIFE” John 14:6

“He who has the Son has the life” 1 John 5:12

“But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness.” Romans 8:10

God is life (John 14:6). In his very essence, nature, and person are life. He came to us as life and passed through death that we might have His life. The Son is the life! And we have the Son. We now have the life.

This life was not given to us in an impersonal, incommunicable, extra-substance kind of “thing.” We don’t just have some person within ourselves like oil and water, with no interaction, but rather this life, who is Christ Himself (1 Jn. 1:2), has joined Himself to us and made Himself one spirit with our spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). Now we can boldly say that our spirit, in its essence, is life. The very thing that God is (Jn. 14:6).

Light

“God is light” 1 John 1:5

“For you were once darkness but are now light in the Lord” Ephesians 5:8

God is light (1 Jn. 1:5). Along with life, His essence, nature, and person are light. Light of course corresponds with holiness. Our Holy God is Light itself. And the Light came into the world (John 1:4-9). We now have this light (1 Jn. 1:5-8).

Like the life, this light does not simply dwell within us as a separate, impersonal “thing.” It has reconstituted us and made us into light itself (Eph. 5:8). I’d always read this Ephesians verse as “For you once walked in darkness, but now you walk in the light.” That is not what this verse says. According to Romans 5:19, we were made sinners in our very constitution. From birth we were sinners, thus we were once darkness itself. But now, God has come into those of us who believe into Him and made us righteous and light (2 Cor. 5:21).

Glory

“And now, glorify Me along with Yourself, Father, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.” John 17:5

“And the glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, even as We are one” John 17:22

“But we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom which has been hidden, which God predestined before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age have known; for if they had known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” 1 Corinthians 2:7

The Triune God has had a  glory, a shining, an expression from eternity past. It is a part of His person and cannot be shared with anyone else:

“I am Jehovah, that is My name, and I will not give My glory to another” Isaiah 42:8 c.f. Is. 48:11

Yet, He’s given it to us! Unless someone has a better interpretation that allows the word spoken through the prophet Isaiah to remain inerrant in light of John 17:22 and Revelation 21:10-11, I am forced to say that we must be brought into unity with the divine in order to share in what is His alone.

How is this possible?

“Even as You have given Him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom You have given Him.” John 17:2

“Through which He has granted to us precious and exceedingly great promises that through these you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption which is in the world by lust.” 2 Peter 1:4

“And the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. But we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.” 2 Corinthians 3:18

If your experience doesn’t match the clear Word of God, your experience should be what is questioned, not the Word. What I mean by that is, if you have spent your whole Christian life believing that after you prayed that prayer, you’re all done and should just wait for heaven, then you need to change your thought!

God is Spirit, and He is desiring to transform all of His believers today (Jn 4:24; 1 Thes. 4:3). He has given us His life, which is eternal, He has given us His nature, which is divine, and He is transforming us in His glory. He is the Spirit: experiential, subjective, and living today! We need to get to know Him and let Him saturate our whole being:

“To know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death” Philippians 3:10

“And the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Thessalonians 5:23