Sanctification

Greco-Roman Deification as a Possible Backdrop to the Early Christian Doctrine of Deification

April 18, 2018 by wagraham Leave a Comment

One of the most common words to describe salvation until the Middle Ages was deification. Deification describes how someone can by grace become like God. The African Christian Athanasius famously summarized the doctrine by saying, “God became man, so that we could become God.”

Now, the language of “become God” ruffles our feathers today. But these Christians did not mean that we possess God’s being or something like that. They basically meant the same thing that we mean by the word sanctification.

The reason why the language of deification troubles us today is possibly because we divide the human and divine realms sharply in the West. God is up there; we are down here. And there is no connection (see Bart Ehrman, How Jesus Became God, 2014: 3–4). In this paradigm, the term deification seems especially unhelpful and misleading: why say deification if you simply mean that you become like God?

Part of the answer lies in how ancient peoples (including Jews and Greco-Roman peoples) conceived of the divine-human divide. [Read more…] about Greco-Roman Deification as a Possible Backdrop to the Early Christian Doctrine of Deification

What Are The Essential Christian Disciplines?

February 22, 2018 by wagraham 2 Comments

To be a Christian is to be part of the “way” (Acts 19:23)* or to walk a certain path of life. But to walk this way does not require physical legs. It requires spiritual vision. It necessitates pursuing holiness without which we will not see the Lord.

Given these high stakes, we need to know how to walk the Way of Faith. So, here are three disciplines that will help you along the way. [Read more…] about What Are The Essential Christian Disciplines?

Why Did Jesus Live (and not just Die on the Cross)?

February 20, 2018 by wagraham Leave a Comment

Christians celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. His death atones for our sins; his resurrection raises us to new life. In Christ, we’ve come from sin and death to righteousness and glory. And yet: in this paradigm, it almost seems as if Christ’s life (the years that he lived) only prepared him to die.

So, why didn’t he just come into the world and die? Why live for 33 years? Here’s why. [Read more…] about Why Did Jesus Live (and not just Die on the Cross)?

How Growing in Godliness Works

February 7, 2018 by wagraham Leave a Comment

And 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.

– Paul

Sometimes we feel like we make no progress. We take one step forward one day and then take two steps back the next. We feel deflated in our pursuit of godliness, of “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22–23).

So how do we make the jump from plateauing in our Christian walk to growing in our walk? The answer is that we pursue the one thing that promises dramatic growth in our Christian life, namely, God.

Here’s what we need to know: Eternal life means knowing God. The way to know God (or to access eternal life) is by looking into the face of Christ to see the Father by the Spirit. And if you do this, you will move from one level of glory to another. Consider the following paragraphs where I discuss these matters. [Read more…] about How Growing in Godliness Works