Love cannot be coerced. The very instant force enters into a relationship, love departs. That is why the Muslim Allah who demands subjugation is so unsatisfying and so completely different from the Judeo-Christian God. Allah does not love.
For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another (Galatians 5:13).
The notion of complete self-giving and union with a freely chosen beloved creates fear in many of us. It feels like a loss of freedom since in our fallen and morally degraded states personal freedom is confused with unrestricted self-indulgence. As a result, it is more natural for us to defend our egos and false corrupted selves rather than give them up. Our egos prefer to diminish and dominate others in order to exalt ourselves, which is the opposite of love.
It is frightening to contemplate becoming subsumed and encompassed in another, even if the other is God. We fear that our selves (actually our egos and false selves) will be obliterated and we will diminish and disappear. The core of this fear is a misunderstanding — the obliteration of the authentic self is not what love nor deification is.
Doing whatever we want whenever we want to is not freedom; it is license. The irony is that license inevitably leads to slavery, the polar opposite of freedom. License causes us to become slaves to our vanity, our lusts, and our disordered appetites. We submit ourselves to their domination. Our wills become so weakened that we cannot freely choose the good; we are compelled to choose our vices. We can see this in consumerism and promiscuity of all types. We think we should be happy when we achieve the right positions, do the right things, have the right friends, and have the right stuff. We deny that we are unhappy. We think that the problem is not the strategy, but that we didn’t pursue the strategy assiduously enough.
Sometimes the problem is a lack of imagination. We can’t think of anything else to do. Ancient wisdom and the quiet promptings of God are drowned out in today’s frantic world and cannot penetrate our distracted minds.
By contrast, God is the only being who is truly free and at peace. He is a perfect limitless being who does as he wills and chooses. In addition, as the perfect Good, all that he wills and chooses is good. As the perfect Being in whom everything exists, he determines what reality is, not just for himself but for the others he creates. The only way that man as a limited being can be truly free is to participate in the unlimited freedom of God. But, doesn’t that still leave the problem of the obliteration of our individual will? If I turn myself over completely to God, what is left of me? Even if “me” is a disordered and unhappy person, it is still “me” and perhaps the only “me” that I’ve ever known.
Yet in reality, when our wills are perfected and not dominated by disordered appetites and lusts, we naturally will what God wills and in turn, God wills what we will. We will and think and act in perfect harmony, effortlessly and without limits. When that occurs, it is as Jesus promised, “You are gods” (John 10:34). There is no “me,” not even “us,” just me in perfect harmony with myself and God.
There is a difference between harmony and regimentation. A goose-stepping totalitarian military or comrades looking and acting as clones in front of a Supreme Maximum Leader is regimentation. Political correctness and the increasingly aggressive cancel culture of the modern world impose a dehumanizing regimentation. The obliteration of the individual into a group is the satanic counterfeit of harmony. Participation in God, who has created each of us as unique masterpieces in his image, is more similar to a symphony orchestra, where individual members play their unique parts in harmony to create a sublime reality.
The Bible is a history of deification, as well as a roadmap for how to reach it. Some places it is explicit. This is particularly true of St. Paul’s letters, including his letter to the Philippians.
For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself (Philippians 3:20-21).
How do we achieve this “citizenship in heaven” (deification)?
Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross (Philippians 2:1-8).
We achieve citizenship in heaven by imitating Christ — particularly in the humility and willing suffering of his love. The requirement for citizenship in heaven is deification. There is no citizenship in heaven without it. Anything that is not glorified (deified) does not fit and has no place.
Paul writes “Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation.” The word “robbery” is dramatic, particularly when used in relation to Christ Jesus, and immediately catches our attention. It is the Greek word αρπαγμος or harpagmos which is used only once in the entire Bible. It does mean robbery, but with the implication of seizing or plundering. What Paul is saying is that Christ has equality with God by his own divine nature, not by anything he has done or taken, or even what he could do or take. Therefore, taking on an additional human nature for the purpose of our salvation does not diminish or change his divine nature in any way. He is God regardless. However, the context here is a discussion of how we can achieve the “citizenship in heaven” that Christ already has. Paul highlights in a colorful way for his readers that citizenship in heaven cannot be robbed, seized, or plundered, but comes from having a divine nature like Christ or acquiring one through deification. Deification is a gift of grace received through radical humility. People who think they can sneak their way into becoming citizens of heaven by their own efforts, ideas, and earthly merits are not merely wrong, they are delusional. Can anyone really think that God who knows and sees everything won’t notice a robber in his own realm sharing his very being? In the gospels, Christ even noticed the woman who was simply touching the hem of his garment because of the healing (or divine) power leaving him (Matthew 9:20). Even Christ who has a divine nature is a citizen of heaven through his radical humility, then how can it be any different for anyone else?
To achieve citizenship in heaven, Christ will transform and conform our lowly sinful body to his perfect deified body.
I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead (Philippians 3: 8-11).
A major theme of the letter to the Philippians is to condemn the Judaizers and the circumcision party of this time who taught that the old law was binding and needed for salvation, rather than the cross of Christ alone. Some early Jewish Christians were under this Pharisaical influence. Paul makes clear that we do not have “righteousness from the law,” rather we have “righteousness from God by faith,” “the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings.” The law offers no deification, only fellowship with Christ does.
No one other than the glorified can reside in the presence of God. In the case of the Judaizers and circumcisers, who recommend what he calls “mutilation” (Philippians 3:2), their confidence in their own ideas and wisdom is their “shame” not their salvation.
For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame—who set their mind on earthly things (Philippians 3:18-9).
This passage, particularly, the phrase “whose god is their belly” is usually seen as a vivid injunction against carnal sins such as gluttony. In the context of the epistle, this attack on “gluttony” is sudden and jarring. While carnal sins are indeed destructive, that is not likely what he has in mind. Paul’s point is much more profound.
The Greek word for “belly” that Paul uses here is κοιλια or koilia. It does indeed mean stomach or abdomen. However, it also metaphorically means the innermost part of a man just as it does in English. In colloquial English, we also use the word “gut” to mean the same thing. Their “god” is within them in their deepest parts — their “belly” or their “gut.” In other words, their god is themselves. Paul’s point is that we have to let go. We have to let go of our own deepest parts, our own ideas, our egos, earthly things, and rely on the Cross alone to get us to heaven. Paul is so emphatic and concerned about people “following their own gut” that he is even “weeping” as he warns against it. Following our gut regarding what is necessary for salvation leads to destruction. Only the Cross of Christ leads to salvation — period. We cannot add or subtract things from God’s plan, including things that may seem good, just because they make sense to us. What is worse is imposing our own wrong ideas upon others. Not only is the “belly” a god for themselves, but people who suffer from this fault relentlessly try to make their “god” a god for everyone else. Their god is a tyrant they impose over others every chance they get — not just over friends and families, but depending upon their charisma and influence, sometimes over whole countries and religions.
Following our inner “god” as a measure of righteousness gives us false confidence that we are on the right path. To quote Paul again, “I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law” (Philippians 3:9). The law, particularly the Pharisaical law, is from human beings (“my own righteousness”) which is “rubbish” whose “end is destruction.” The only righteousness comes from God. We must follow Christ’s example of radical love and humility, not our own “gut.” Following our gut is the temptation of Satan and the original sin to be “as gods” (Genesis 3:5) that has led to so much misery.