What then is the meaning of the word “God” when applied to the Father or to the Son?
The word “God” (theos) can be used, first, in an absolute and personal sense, of God the Father as St Paul writes: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with all of you” (2Co 13:14; see Q091, Q093); “I beseech you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in your prayers to God for me” (Rom 15:30; see Q266).
This first, personal sense belongs to God the Father, which is why the Creed reads: “I believe in one God, the Father Almighty.”
“God” can also be used in a qualitative sense, as synonymous with being uncreated and co-eternal with the Father: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God [personal: the Father], and the Word was God [qualitative]” (Joh 1:1; see Q093, Q097); or as the EOB renders it, “the Word was what God was.”
Finally, “God” can be used in a representational or functional sense, of one who bears divine authority, as of Moses (Exo 7:1; see Q402), of Solomon (Psa 45:6, cited in Heb 1:8; see Q368), and of human judges (Psa 82:1; see Q402), inasmuch as they were types of the Lord himself. Of Jesus, however, it is confessed in the fullest sense: “Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’” (Joh 20:28; see Q187, Q607); “No one has ever seen God; the only-begotten God, who is close to the Father’s heart, has made him known” (Joh 1:18, Alexandrian text; see Q139, Q383); “for the blessed hope: the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Tit 2:13; see Q093, Q226).
In a further, theological sense, that of participation in the life of the Trinity, theos is applied even to the elect, according to the celebrated teaching of the Fathers: “the Word of God… became what we are, that he might make us what he is” (St Irenaeus, Against Heresies, V, preface; see Q024, Q090); “He assumed humanity that we might become theos [divine].” (St Athanasius, On the Incarnation, 54; see Q033, Q095)
St Gregory the Theologian records the saying of St Basil the Great, that man is “a creature who has received the command to become god” (St Gregory the Theologian, Oration 43.48, “In Praise of Basil”; see Q017, Q024). This deification (theosis) is by grace and participation, never by nature: the creature never crosses into the uncreated essence.
