That Creatures Partake of God’s Energy, Not His Essence

¹ After this it was inquired by us, since those who drive out the Church say that all things partake of the essence of God, as though the divine essence and the divine energy were undifferentiated, and there is nothing else of God, according to them, except essence alone—whereas we were taught from the holy Scriptures that God has both essence and power and energy, differing from the divine essence; rather, both powers and energies; for thus he will be not only tri-hypostatic, but also almighty—it was inquired, then, of what all things partake: of the divine essence, or of the divine energy of God. The divine synod said: “We know the divine essence and the divine natural energy to be inseparable; for energy could never be apart from its own essence. But concerning the things created from the beginning by God,” it said, “who does not know—unless he be deranged after the manner of the contradictors—that every created thing partakes of the energy of the one who created it, but not of the essence? For neither does the house partake of the essence of the builder, nor the ship of the essence of the shipwright, but of the art and the energy, according to the Theologian of Nyssa. And that the saints too, deified by the union with God, partake not of the divine essence, but of his divine energy, the great Gregory in theology presents, writing concerning our Lord Jesus Christ: ‘That he is called Christ on account of the divinity; for this is the anointing of the humanity, sanctifying not by energy, as in the case of the other anointed ones, but by the presence of the whole Anointer.’ And the great Basil: ‘The Holy Spirit fills all things by power; but it is participable only by the worthy, participated not in one measure, but dividing its energy according to the analogy of faith.’ And again elsewhere: ‘Just as the reflections of faces do not occur in all materials, but in those that have acquired a certain smoothness and transparency, so the energy of the Spirit is not in all souls, but in those that have nothing crooked or tortuous.’ And Saint Maximus: ‘All things that God is, he too who has been deified by grace will be, apart from identity according to essence.’ And the great Dionysius: ‘Cyclically the divine intellects are moved, being united to the beginningless and endless illuminations of the beautiful and good.’ Having brought them forth in the plural, then, he showed them not to be the essence of God—for that is never brought forth in the plural—and having called them ‘illuminations,’ and having named them ‘beginningless’ and ‘endless,’ he showed them to be divine and uncreated energies. And our Lord and God, in the holy Gospel according to John: ‘He who believes in me,’ he says, ‘as the Scripture said, rivers of living water shall flow from his belly.’”

² This he said concerning the Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive. For the Holy Spirit was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified. Expounding this, the divine Chrysostom: “Rivers,” he says, “shall flow from his belly, hinting at the lavish and ungrudging character of the grace; which elsewhere he calls ‘a fountain of living water springing up unto life eternal’—that is, it shall have much impulse. Elsewhere, then, he calls it ‘life eternal,’ but here ‘living water.’ And he calls ‘living’ that which ever energizes. For the grace of the Spirit, when it comes into the understanding and is established, wells up more than any fountain, and does not cease, nor is emptied, nor stands still. Showing at once both the unfailing character of the supply and the unspeakable character of the energy, he called it a fountain and a river—not one river, but unspeakable ones; and there too he presented the flood by the ‘springing up.’” And after some words the same: “No longer was there a prophet among them, nor did grace oversee their holy things; since, then, the Holy Spirit had been sent, and was about henceforth to be poured out lavishly—and the beginning of this distribution came after the Cross—and not only of lavishness but also of greater gifts; for the gift was more wondrous, as when he says, ‘You know not of what spirit you are.’”

³ And again: “For you have not received a spirit of bondage, but you have received a Spirit of adoption.” For the ancients too had the Spirit, but did not impart it to others; whereas the apostles filled myriads. And since they were about to receive this grace, but it had not yet been given, on this account he says, “The Holy Spirit was not yet”—that is, given—since Jesus was not yet glorified, calling the Cross the glory of the Lord. For since we were enemies and sinners, and lacking the gift of God, and hateful to God, while the grace was a proof of reconciliation—and a gift is given not to enemies, nor to the hated, but to friends and to those who have pleased—it was necessary that first the sacrifice on our behalf be offered, and the enmity in the flesh be destroyed, and we become friends of God, and then receive the gift. For if this was so in the case of the promise to Abraham, much more in the case of grace. And again the same, in the thirty-sixth homily of the same work: “And in our case too,” he says,

⁴ “the water does not simply work, but when it has received the grace of the Spirit, then it looses all sins.” And after a little: “But even if the whole world come, the grace is not used up, nor is the energy spent, but remains alike, and such as it was before. And just as those rays of the sun illumine each day, and are not spent, nor does their light become less by the abundant supply; so, and much more, the energy of the Spirit is in no way lessened by those who enjoy it.” And again the same, in the fifth homily of the same work, expounding “All things came to be through him,” says: “Having spoken of the creation, John adds also that concerning Providence, saying, ‘In him was life.’ For lest anyone disbelieve how the so great and so many things came to be through him, he added that in him was life. Just, then, as in the case of a fountain that has depths, however much you draw, you in no way lessen the fountain; so also in the case of the energy of the Only-begotten, however many things you believe to have been brought forth and made through it, it has become no less.” And again, when the Gospel had said, “Of his fullness we all received”—for to this we must for now lead the discourse—“He does not have the gift,” he says, “as a thing participated, but is himself the very fountain and very root of good things; self-life and self-truth; not holding in himself the wealth of good things, but overflowing it also upon all others; and after overflowing, remaining full, and in no way lessened by the supply to others, but ever welling forth, and imparting these good things to all, remaining at the same perfection. But what I bear is participated; for I received it from another, and a little of the whole, and as it were a paltry drop toward an unspeakable abyss and a boundless sea. Rather, not even this example can present what we attempt to say. For if you take a drop from the sea, by this very thing you have lessened the sea, even if the lessening be imperceptible; but in the case of that fountain it is impossible to say this; rather, however much one draws, it remains in no way lessened. Wherefore one must especially pass to another example—itself also weak, and unable to present what we seek, yet leading us by the hand from the former

⁵ toward the conception now set before us. Let us suppose there to be a fountain of fire, and then from that fountain ten thousand lamps to be kindled, and twice and thrice as many, and many times over. Does not the fire remain at the same fullness even after imparting its energy to so many? It is plain to everyone. But if even in the case of bodies—divisible, lessened by subtraction—something of this kind was found, which, even after furnishing to others the things from itself, is in no way harmed, much more will this come to pass in the case of that incorporeal and undefiled power. For if, where the thing shared is essence and body, it is both divided and not divided, much more, when the discourse is about energy, and energy from an incorporeal essence, will there be nothing of such suffering. On this account John also said, ‘Of his fullness we all received.’ We all received. We the twelve, the three hundred, the five hundred, the three thousand, the five thousand, the many myriads of the Jews, the whole fullness of the faithful both then and now and to be hereafter—of his fullness we received. And what did we receive? ‘Grace for grace,’ he says.” And the great Basil, expounding the forty-eighth psalm, says: “Man God made from the earth, and his ministers a flame of fire; yet nevertheless the power of conceiving and understanding their own Creator and Maker exists also in men. ‘For he breathed into his face’—that is, he deposited a certain portion of his own grace in man, that by the like he might recognize the like.” And again the same, in the [books] to Amphilochius on the Holy Spirit: “Renewing man, the Lord, and giving back again the grace which he lost from his inbreathing, having breathed into the face of the disciples, what does he say? ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” And the divine Damascene, in the [chapter] on foreknowledge and predestination of his theological chapters: “This man,” he says, “the Creator fashioned male, imparting to him of his own divine grace, and through this making him in communion with himself.” And again the great Basil, in the [books] to Amphilochius: “Who,” he says,

⁶ “is so deaf to the good things prepared by God for the worthy as to be ignorant that the crown of the just is the grace of the Spirit, furnished more lavishly and more perfectly?”

⁷ But also Saint Cyril, in the third of the [books] to Hermias, when this Hermias asked him concerning the divine indwelling and participation in us, and said, “Yet most gladly would I inquire of you how the fulfilling of both the Father and the Son might be conceived and accomplished in us, being one and not diverse,” Saint Cyril, answering, says: “And indeed,” he says, “there is in this nothing at all hard or contentious. For how otherwise than through the Holy Spirit, who fills us with divine gifts through himself, and shows us to be partakers of the unutterable nature?” And again the same in the Thesauri: “But if the Holy Spirit were truly a thing made, according to the madness of the heterodox, how would it have the whole energy of God? For no one, I think, will reach such a pitch of right thinking as to dare so much as to say that the divine essence labors naturally, through certain organs brought from without into being, toward certain ones fit to receive.” And the great Athanasius, in the letter to Serapion: “All things,” he says, “of the Father are the Son’s; wherefore the things given by the Son in the Spirit are gifts of the Father; and the Spirit being in us, the Word too, who gives this, is in us, and in the Word is the Father; and thus is the saying, ‘I and the Father will come, and will make our abode with him,’ as has been said. For where the light is, there too is the radiance; and where the radiance is, there too is its energy and self-formed grace. And teaching this again, Paul wrote once more to the Corinthians in the second letter, saying, ‘The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.’ For the grace and gift given is given in Trinity, from the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit. For as the grace given is from the Father through the Son, so there could be no communion of the giving in us except in the Holy Spirit. For by partaking of him,

⁸ we have the love of the Father, and the grace of the Son, and the communion of the Spirit itself. From these, then, the energy of the Trinity is shown to be one.”

⁹ But also Saint Anastasius, in his discourse on the Spirit: “There agree,” he says, “also the things said by the divine Paul concerning the Spirit. For the believers, having become temples of God, have rightfully obtained the grace of the Spirit: ‘Know you not that you are a temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in us?’ And again: ‘Know you not that your bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God?’ These things teach outright that the all-holy Spirit is of the divine nature. For if the believers are styled a temple of God, since they received the grace of the Spirit, then the Holy Spirit is from God. For having received his indwelling grace, they were named temples of God.” And the divine Chrysostom, in the fourth of the expository [homilies] on the Acts, unfolding “And there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire”: “Well,” he says, “did he say ‘divided’; for they were from one root; that you may learn that it is an energy sent from the Paraclete.” And again the same, in the same place: “And they were all filled,” he says; “they did not simply receive the grace of the Spirit, but were filled.”

¹⁰ But also, when the Massalians said that those who among them have been purified are constituted in participation of the essence of God, and brought forward that Gospel saying, “I and the Father will come, and will make our abode with him,” and very senselessly distorted this too toward their own impiety, the synod that convened against these very Massalians, rebuffing their evil opinion, declared: “There comes about a certain visitation of the Paraclete,” it says, “and God dwells in the worthy; yet not as the Godhead is by nature.”