PART THREE: Union: From Religious Maturity to Relational Intimacy
Part Three
Union
From Religious Maturity
to Relational Intimacy
UNION IS ABOUT BEING DRAWN so close to God that what he wants is what we want, and what he loves is what we love. Our will becomes united to his—we move with more freedom because our life is aligned with his. In this final stage we make a decisive shift from self-centeredness to others-centeredness. We become a healing presence to people around us, not because we’re trying to prove anything, but because we’ve spent our lives dwelling in Christ.
Throughout Scripture, the call to this kind of union is unmistakable: “I will be your God and you will be my people.” “Abide in me.” “I in them and you in me.” Union is the story of the vine and the branches, the lover and the beloved, the bride and the bridegroom, the God who walks with his people in the cool of the day. This final stage is about becoming deeply rooted in that eternal relationship.
The tradition calls this union theōsis (Greek for “becoming godlike”). It is the lifelong participation in God’s own life by grace. The wisest Christian writers tell us that as we’re drawn into deeper union, three signature experiences take shape. First, we become less concerned with being noticed and more free to notice others. The tradition calls this sharing in God’s glory—a life that is radically others-centered. Second, we begin to experience a kind of love within ourselves that asks for nothing in return. This is charity—a self-forgetful delight in giving ourselves away. Love is not just what it means to be divine (1 John 4:16); it’s also ultimately what it means to be human. And finally, we discover that union is not our destination, but our destiny. This is ascent—the soul’s unending movement into the infinite love of God. The higher we rise, the more the way opens above us.
So here we stand, at the final transformative threshold. We can’t know everything that awaits, but we can know this: In union we will discover a transformation more expansive than any heart has dared to dream or imagine.