Saturday, March 01, 2008

Partakers Of The Divine Nature

“But if we have truly been made partakers of the divine nature and have become closely akin to it by the fact that our supernature raises up to it, we have been taken into the ambit of its life; then God immediately and in His own nature, as He is in Himself, becomes the object of our activity. Then, illuminated by His light, we shall know Him by coming into His presence; we shall no longer be limited to seeing Him as He is mirrored in creation. Permeated by God’s fire and elevated to kinship with Him, we shall embrace Him directly with our love; for we shall love Him as God who communicates His nature to us, not merely as the Creator of our nature. Our confidence will be directed exclusively to God Himself as He is in His own divine might which transcends all creation, that might by which He leads us toward an end that no created power can attain or hinder, by which He wills to bring us to the possession of Him in His divine glory; and thus we shall repose on the heart of our Father. In a word, if we are made partakers of the divine nature, our lives and our activity must be specifically similar to God’s. Therefore our activity must have the same specific, formal object that characterizes the divine activity. The divine essence must be the immediate object and motive determining supernatural activity in our own lives.”

-Matthias Scheeben in Nature and Grace. (They really ought to republish this book!)

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