The Father William Most Collection
Justification
[Published electronically for use in classes taught by Fr. Most and for private theological study.]
By justification we become sharers in the divine nature (2 Pet 1:4), which is the case since we are "God's children now:" (1 Jn. 3:2). Children partake of the nature of their Father. He has already given us the first payment or pledge, the Spirit, in our hearts (2 Cor 1:22). It is only because the veil of flesh is still with us that we cannot directly see Him, as we shall when it is removed, so that we see Him face to face 1 Cor 13:12). But now we are temples of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us (1 Cor 3:16 and 6:19). Even our bodies can be called a temple of the Spirit (1 Cor 6:19 again) though the full effect of it is to come in the future (Rom 8:19). The Spirit within us is transforming us to be a new creation (2 Cor 5:17; Gal 6:15) so that in the next life we shall see Him "face to face" (1 Cor 13:12). That means see Him directly. But when I see a human directly I do not take him into my mind, I take in an image. However in seeing God face to face, there can be no image, for images are finite; He is infinite. So He joins Himself directly to the soul or intellect, without even an image in between. Hence the need of real purity, for as Mal 23:2 says: "Who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner's fire".
Contrast this with being total corruption- which logically leads to what the Missouri Synod of Lutherans feared to face (Brief Doctrinal Position, 1932, #14. ) saying "As to the question why not all men are converted and saved, seeing that God's grace is universal and all men are equally and utterly corrupt, we confess that we cannot answer it." They could have answered, from Luther's works, but refused to answer, for they saw it meant absolute blind predestination: if all are equally corrupt, there is nothing on which God could base a decision on who is saved, who is damned. But Luther Himself was not so reticent. He said (Bondage of the Will tr. J. Packer and O. Johnston, Revell, 1957, p. 273) a human has no free will and is like a horse. Either God or the devil will ride him - and so he does good or evil - but he has no choice who rides. Hence it is heaven or hell, without any choice on his part. (ibid. pp. 103-04).
