Jamin Bradley

In C.S. Lewis’ science fiction book, Perelandra, a man from Earth finds himself on Venus with a version of Adam and Eve. After much testing, these Venus-natives overcome their temptations and enter straight into the resurrection as their bodies become godlike. Lewis remarks, “You might ask how it was possible to look upon it and not to commit idolatry, not to mistake it for that of which it was the likeness. For the resemblance was, in its own fashion, infinite, so that almost you could wonder at finding no sorrows in his brow and no wounds in his hands and feet.”¹

Though these imagers on Venus did not know the story of Jesus, they found their personhood conformed to the same Yahweh figure, causing them to appear as Jesus. Here Lewis gives us a glimpse of theosis or deification. This belief invites us into a dance with the Trinity, embodied in Paul’s statement that, “we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18).² Under the following headings, we’ll take a brief look at each person of the Trinity and explain why theosis (becoming like God) is important to our lives in the already-but-not-yet.

God the Father

While there are many gods, the Bible understands Yahweh to be the “God of gods” (Deut. 10:17). Everything in existence has been created by him (Rev. 4:11), including the lesser gods of his divine council.³ Nothing can exist outside of Yahweh, nor is anything that exists greater than him. The created cannot usurp the creator, for Yahweh is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent.

He is at the top of the hierarchy of all things and nothing can compare with him. He rules from heaven where heavenly beings see his face (Matt. 18:10) as he invites them to speak into matters on earth (1 Kings 22:19–23; Job 1:6–12). But no human can see Yahweh and live (Ex. 33:20), therefore he must interact with earth differently.

God the Son

While there are many sons of God (Gen. 6:2), the Bible understands Jesus to be the Son of God. Throughout the Old Testament, the term “son of God” is primarily used to denote a spiritual being of Heaven, of which there was one in particular who was quite special. He is known as the Angel of Yahweh, which many scholars have concluded is Yahweh himself.⁴ It is through this angelic/humanlike/physical form that God was able to interact face-to-face with humanity throughout the Old Testament (Ex. 33:11).

But humanity had a human problem that no angel could solve for them.⁵ They listened to a lesser god and sinned in an attempt to become as wise as the gods (Gen 3:5). That lesser god was then cast down to the earth (Isa. 14:12-15; Ezek. 28:11-19; Rev. 12:7–9), where he began to rule over it (Matt. 4:8–10; 2 Cor. 4:4). At that point, humanity was then given over to the consequences of their sin which meant they would die (Rom. 6:23) and go to the underworld, which this lesser god also ruled over (Heb. 2:14; Rev. 1:18). In order for humans to break free of this scenario, they would have overcome sin. God prophesied over Eve that this would one day happen through a human descendant (Gen. 3:15)

In time, it became clear that no human could overcome sin, and so the God of gods who was in the form of the angel of angels who was the Son of God of the sons of God, submitted himself to the womb and became the son of man of the sons of man.⁶ He then lived a sinless life (1 Pet. 2:22; 2 Cor. 5:21; 1 John 3:5), causing Satan to overstep his legal boundaries when he entered Judas (Luke 22:3) and got him killed—for if death is a consequence of sin, then Jesus wasn’t worthy of death. The sinless man then entered into the realm of the underworld like a Trojan horse,⁷ just to surprise Satan and take the keys of death from him (Rev. 1:18). He was then resurrected into an immortal, physical/spiritual hybrid body (1 Corinthians 15:35-57) that can eat food like a human (Luke 24:42), but appear and vanish (John 20:19) and ascend into Heaven like an angel (Mark 16:19).

And those who follow Jesus are promised the same kind of body. In the God-man only, our sin has been dealt with, so if we follow him, we are made anew in him. In this rebirth through the Holy Spirit (John 3:3–8), we are no longer made simply of Adam and dust, but of Jesus and Heaven (1 Cor. 15:47–49).

God the Spirit

While there are many spirits, the Bible understands the Holy Spirit to be the Spirit of spirits, for he is the Spirit of God himself. If Jesus is God’s visible presence with us, then the Spirit is God’s invisible presence with us. The Spirit has created us (Gen. 1:2; Job 33:4) who is both the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9), and he will remake us anew in the resurrection just as he remade Jesus after his death (Rom. 8:11).

But this is where we must be careful, for theosis is not only ahead of us—it is already here. The same Holy Spirit that enables the resurrected Christian to operate supernaturally is already inside of us now. Therefore, just as the human Jesus operated in the power of the Holy Spirit, so might his human followers do the same. Likewise, we do not need to wait for the resurrection to be conformed to the image of Jesus (Rom. 8:29), for the Spirit already wants to grow his fruit in us (Gal. 5:22).⁸

Conclusion

Contrary to messages often preached in churches, the Bible actually believes that we can overcome sin by the power of the Spirit (Rom. 8:13). We are not helpless or lost. We are empowered and Jesus is present with us through his Spirit—a blessing he was willing to die for us to have (John 14:16). If we choose to live our lives in sin, not grow any fruit, and not embrace spiritual gifts, we will miss the crucial ways of the Christian life.

The Spirit calls us to a form of theosis this side of the resurrection, and the Bible is full of stern warnings and judgments for those who do not participate. If we reduce Christianity to nothing more than something that is to come, we will never look like God in this life, which resembles Jesus, which is a person cultivated in our heart, soul, mind and strength via the metamorphosing of the Holy Spirit. We must embrace the beauty of theosis here in the already-but-not-yet.

The early church was wise to defend the Trinity. As we have seen here, God, Son, and Spirit are all the same person. There are many gods, sons, and spirits out there trying to get our attention, but none of them can do what Yahweh has done. We have been created, liberated, and recreated by one person in three forms.

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¹ C. S. Lewis, The Space Trilogy (HarperCollins e-books), 432-433, Kindle Edition.

² This passage is perhaps even more provocative of if we translate metamorphoō as metamorphosed instead of transformed. Just as the butterfly is the same entity as the caterpillar, its transformation is so intense that we can hardly recognize it.

³ These lesser gods have become corrupt (Ps. 82) and only have authority and power because Yahweh gave it to them (Deut. 32:8). For more on these divine council views, see Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible, 1st ed. (Bellingham, WA: Lexham, 2015), Logos Bible Software.

⁴ For reasons why, see, Michael S. Heiser, Angels: What the Bible Really Says about God’s Heavenly Host, (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2018), 57-68.

⁵ For more on this human problem, see, Tim Mackie and Jon Collins. “Son of Man Series,” produced by Dan Gummel, The Bible Project, January 14, 2019-March 11, 2019, podcast, https://bibleproject.com/podcast/series/son-of-man-series/

⁶ Strong overtones of the angel becoming man rings out in Isaiah’s prophecy: “For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isa. 9:6). (I’ve written about some of the connotations of this passage here:https://jaminbradley.com/2020/12/21/the-angel-of-the-lord-becomes-human/.) Intriguingly, the LXX translators translated these four-fold titles to simply say, “his name is called ‘angelos of the Great Council.’” (Rick Brannan, et al., “Isaiah 9:6,” The Lexham English Septuagint (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012.)

⁷ Gregory A. Boyd, The Crucifixion of the Warrior God: Volumes 1 & 2 (Minneapolis, MN; Fortress Press, 2017),1066-1068, Kindle Edition. 

⁸ There is much more I’d like to say about the Holy Spirit in this paper, but I don’t have time. I’ve written several hundred more pages on the topic in my book, The Rush and the Rest.