If we would be fundamental in full, we must be fundamental with respect to all the truths. Among the many truths there are three great mysteries which were discovered by the church fathers in the second century: the mystery of the Divine Trinity, the mystery of Christ’s person, and the mystery of man’s deification—that God became a man that man may become God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead. Although Christians hold the truth concerning the Triune God and the truth concerning the person of Christ, after the first five centuries the truth concerning deification was gradually lost. In February of this year, I became burdened to release messages on this truth.
After I began to speak concerning God becoming a man that man may become God in life and in nature, I learned that the Catholic Church is also paying attention to this matter of deification. Not long ago a brother showed me that the Catechism of the Catholic Church, recently published by the Roman Catholic Church, presents the following:
ARTICLE 3
“HE WAS CONCEIVED BY THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, AND WAS BORN OF THE VIRGIN MARY”
Paragraph 1. The Son of God Became Man
I. WHY DID THE WORD BECOME FLESH?
460 The Word became flesh to make us “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet. 1:4): “For this is why the Word became man, and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God” (St. Irenaeus, Adv. haeres. 3, 19, 1). “For the Son of God became man so that we might become God” (St. Athanasius, De inc., 54, 3). “The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Opusc. 57:1-4). (Catechism of the Catholic Church, pp. 115-116).
Here we see that the Catholic Church teaches that the believers in Christ can become God. Furthermore, another brother told me about a book, written in Arabic by a Catholic priest, which says the same thing about man becoming God. In order to be perfectly fundamental, we need to be clear concerning this great truth—the truth that God became a man that man may become God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead.
However, it is not adequate just to have the proper ground and to be perfectly fundamental. What we are, how we live, and how we behave mean a lot. God’s people in the Old Testament received of God through Moses a set of books called the law. Today God is dealing with us not according to the law but according to the compound, life-giving, indwelling, consummated Spirit. In the Old Testament time, God’s people were required to behave themselves according to the law. Today we are required by the New Testament to conduct ourselves according to the compound, life-giving, all-inclusive Spirit (Rom. 8:4).
God dealt with all the good kings of Judah according to the law of Moses in detail. Anyone who was wrong with the law even a little would lose a great part of the enjoyment of the good land. This typifies and signifies that today we must conduct ourselves according to the spiritual law, and the spiritual law is just the Spirit Himself, the compound Spirit.
We need to be careful in every detail. For instance, when we talk to our spouse, we have to talk according to the spirit. We need to walk in all things according to the spirit (Rom. 8:4). We need to be warned and be on the alert that whatever we say, whatever we do, whatever we express, our attitude, our spirit, and our intention must be purified by the life-giving, compound, all-inclusive Spirit. Otherwise, we will lose much in the enjoyment of Christ, today’s good land.
Now we are studying the books of history in the Old Testament. We need to learn the lessons from all the details recorded in these books. Consider the case of Asa. He was a good king and he did many good things. However, he offended God by forming an alliance with Ben-hadad king of Syria (2 Chron. 16:1-6). Furthermore, he became angry with the seer who rebuked him for trusting in the king of Syria instead of trusting in Jehovah. It might have been because of this offense that Asa became severely diseased in his feet. This disease caused his death (vv. 7-10, 12-13).
From the cases recorded in the books of history, we see that God is not only loving but also fearful. Therefore, as Paul says in Philippians 2:12, we must learn to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.