This I have never understood about the Apostolic faith. To continue the analogy, God as physician simply advises His patients how to eat right, live a healthy lifestyle, etc. But, when He sees evidence that a patient is not following His advice, even in matters of life and death, He just chalks it up to that person's free will. That is the extent of the power He chooses to exert in the matter.
I see this is being directly opposed to the analogy we are given over and over again in the Bible, that of parent-child. While my children live under my roof and I "own" them, in matters of life and death I have absolutely zero love and respect for their free wills. They don't know enough to do what is in their own best interests many times, so I step in to "save" them from themselves. I think this is much closer to how it works with God. Even as mature adults, the human will blow it. God must step in and save those He chooses as His children from themselves.
Theosis is not 'awarded', but attained, not though our efforts or merits, but through our cooperation with God's freely given grace.
My first use of the "awarded" idea was in response to something Kosta said. I was, in effect, asking if he was describing theosis as an award vs. being an attainment. As of your post, he has answered that it is an award, but it is possible that I misinterpreted. It is also possible there has been further discussion which I haven't caught up to yet, so ...
BTW, how does one cooperate without effort or merit?
This I have never understood about the Apostolic faith...
Our Lord Jesus Christ makes that analogy, FK (cf. Mat 9:30-31)
A physician can heal, but his patients must cooperate.
He just chalks it up to that person's free will
No, He patiently offers again and again.
While my children live under my roof and I "own" them, in matters of life and death I have absolutely zero love and respect for their free wills
But they still have free will and, short of making them robots, that free will can produce catastrophic results no matter how much you 'own' them. They choose to obey you.
My first use of the "awarded" idea was in response to something Kosta said
Attainment first, award later.
As of your post, he has answered that it is an award, but it is possible that I misinterpreted. It is also possible there has been further discussion which I haven't caught up to yet, so ...
You that right, FK! :)
My answer is not in any context, but it's an example that has stuck with me since 1970.
If you've done geometry out to the edge of your capacity, you've had this experience. The teacher or the text will assign you an "original", that is, a proposition to prove or a problem to solve on your own, as opposed to something that Euclid or someone did and you have to understand it.
And you struggle for an hour, maybe more. You try this line of attack, you try that, NOTHING gets you there. You're on the verge of blasphemy or tears.
Then, as we say,"it comes to you." And that formulation is, I think, VERY important. Truth is self-disclosing. When we "Get it", it's more often an experience of RECEIVING it, though our language also admits of the meaning "grasp" or "seize". "Comprehend" and "concept" are both words which have the sense of grasping or seizing. But it's interesting the the English word "get" and the Greek work "lambano" both can have the very active sense of grasp (Get him!) or a more passive sense of receive( "I got a letter yesterday").
Now, in that moment when you "get it", there is NEITHER any question of turning away or rejecting it, nor any apprehension of loss of freedom. The gift, as it seems, of "Getting it" delivers freedom, it doesn't take it away, and yet there is no question, at the time, of using one's freedom to reject the gift.
I've had similar experiences with fixing machinery, which neither my background not my inclination suits me to do.
So that is how one cooperates without effort or any sense of deserving merit, in the popular or common sense of the word. Who claims merit for eating food that is set before one when one is starving? One would have to be very sick indeed for eating to be an effort.
I'm not coming down on one side or the other of a theological dispute, not here. I am saying many of us have had an experience where something very like revelation overwhelmed our so-called "free will" and we found that overwhelming to be a gain, not a loss, of freedom.
My answer is not in any context, but it's an example that has stuck with me since 1970.
If you've done geometry out to the edge of your capacity, you've had this experience. The teacher or the text will assign you an "original", that is, a proposition to prove or a problem to solve on your own, as opposed to something that Euclid or someone did and you have to understand it.
And you struggle for an hour, maybe more. You try this line of attack, you try that, NOTHING gets you there. You're on the verge of blasphemy or tears.
Then, as we say,"it comes to you." And that formulation is, I think, VERY important. Truth is self-disclosing. When we "Get it", it's more often an experience of RECEIVING it, though our language also admits of the meaning "grasp" or "seize". "Comprehend" and "concept" are both words which have the sense of grasping or seizing. But it's interesting the the English word "get" and the Greek work "lambano" both can have the very active sense of grasp (Get him!) or a more passive sense of receive( "I got a letter yesterday").
Now, in that moment when you "get it", there is NEITHER any question of turning away or rejecting it, nor any apprehension of loss of freedom. The gift, as it seems, of "Getting it" delivers freedom, it doesn't take it away, and yet there is no question, at the time, of using one's freedom to reject the gift.
I've had similar experiences with fixing machinery, which neither my background not my inclination suits me to do.
So that is how one cooperates without effort or any sense of deserving merit, in the popular or common sense of the word. Who claims merit for eating food that is set before one when one is starving? One would have to be very sick indeed for eating to be an effort.
I'm not coming down on one side or the other of a theological dispute, not here. I am saying many of us have had an experience where something very like revelation overwhelmed our so-called "free will" and we found that overwhelming to be a gain, not a loss, of freedom.