One of the most powerful
arguments employed by a number of the early Church Fathers for the divinity of
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was the doctrine of deification—i.e. if Jesus
Christ was not God, he could not truly 'save' mankind through deification.
Perhaps the most famous
example of this doctrine was from the pen of Athanasius:
For He was
made man that we might be made God. (Athanasius
- De Incarnation, 54; NPNF, second series, 4.65).
[For more than 100 examples from the CFs, see THIS
THREAD.]
Aquinas was a serious
student of the Church Fathers, and retained the doctrine of deification in his
thought. Note the following:
1459 The word
"God" is also used in three senses. Sometimes it signifies the divine
nature itself, and then it is used only in the singular: "Hear, O Israel:
The Lord our God is one Lord" (Deut 6:4). At other times it is taken in a
denominative sense: in this way idols are called gods: "All the gods of
the peoples are idols" (Ps 96:5). And sometimes someone is called a god
because of a certain participation in divinity, or in some sublime power
divinely infused. In this way, even judges are called gods in Scripture:
"If the thief is not known, the owner of the house shall be brought to the
gods," that is, to the judges [Ex 22:8]; "You shall not speak ill of
the gods," that is, of the rulers [Ex 22:28]. This is the way the word
"god" is taken here, when he says, I said, you are gods, i.e.,
you share in some divine power superior to the human.
1460 Then when he says, If
he called them gods to whom the word of God came, he shows the meaning of
the authority he cited. This was like saying: He called them gods because they
participated in something divine insofar as they participated in God's word,
which was spoken to them. For due to God's word a person obtains some
participation in the divine power and purity: "You are already made clean
by the word which I have spoken to you" (15:3); and in Exodus (c 34) we
read that the face of Moses shone when he heard the words of the Lord.
From what has been said
above, one might argue in this way: It is clear that a person by participating
in the word of God becomes god by participation. But a thing does not become
this or that by participation unless it participates in what is this or that by
its essence: for example, a thing does not become fire by participation unless
it participates in what is fire by its essence. Therefore, one does not become
god by participation unless he participates in what is God by essence.
Therefore, the Word of God, that is the Son, by participation in whom we become
gods, is God by essence. But our Lord, rather than argue so profoundly against
the Jews, preferred to argue in a more human way. He says, and scripture
cannot be broken, in order to show the irrefutable truth of Scripture:
"O Lord, your word endures forever" [Ps 118:89]. (Commentary on the
Gospel of John.)
Like so many of the Church
Fathers before him, Aquinas argues that, "The Word of God, that is the
Son", must be God, for if He is not God, then redeemed mankind could not
become "Gods" (i.e. Sons of God).
More later, the Lord
willing...
Grace and peace,
