November 7 – Becoming by Grace What God Is by Nature
To embody union with God is to discover these beautiful characteristics emerging from within and slowly transfiguring us into the very image and likeness of God himself. Carl McColman
Gregg’s Reflection
When I first came across St. Athanasius’s words — “God became man so that man might become God” — they startled me. Raised in traditions where salvation was mostly about avoiding hell or going to heaven, I had never heard of divinization or theosis. Yet in the Eastern church, this teaching has always been central: that God’s goal is not simply forgiveness, but transformation.
Divinization does not mean we lose our humanity or become identical with God. Rather, grace elevates what God has made, slowly reshaping us until Christ’s image shines through us. Augustine described this as being changed into God — not absorbing Him into ourselves, but being absorbed into Him.
This truth has become a source of hope for me. My faults and weaknesses do not disqualify me from transformation. In fact, they may be the very places where God’s grace most wants to take root. To be divinized is to become more fully ourselves — but ourselves as God intended, radiant with His image and likeness.
Scripture
And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 3:18
He has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become participants in the divine nature.
2 Peter 1:4
Ancient Quotes
The glory of God is a living human being, and the life of the human consists in beholding God.
Irenaeus, Against Heresies, IV.20.7
What God is by nature, we become by grace.
St. Athanasius, Martin Laird, Ocean of Light, p. 135
I am the food of the strong. Grow and you will eat of me. And you will not change me into yourself, like the food of your flesh; but you will be changed into me.
Augustine, Confessions, in McGinn, Essential Writings of Christian Mysticism, p. 317
Modern Quotes
Union with God is not a reward for perfection; it is the natural movement of grace drawing us into the divine life.
James Finley, Christian Meditation
To embody union with God is to discover these beautiful characteristics emerging from within and slowly transfiguring us into the very image and likeness of God himself.
Carl McColman, Christian Mystics, p. xix
Journaling Prompts
- How do I respond to the idea that God’s ultimate desire is to divinize me — to make me share in His life?
- What qualities in me already reflect God’s image, and where do I sense God is still reshaping me?
- Do I tend to think of salvation more as escape, or as transformation into Christ’s likeness?
- How can I open myself today to God’s grace at work within me?
Go deeper into this week’s theme:
Read the full Week 45 Reflection: Transformation/Divinization/Fire