We saw previously that to begin with, the faithful receives the Holy Spirit in his heart and later, when he attains enlightenment, he also receives Jesus Christ, the light-bearer.

 

However, the Apostle Paul informs us that there is one more stage for the Christian who reaches "full knowledge":

 

"...for Christ to dwell - through faith - in your hearts; that you be rooted with foundations in love, so that you will be able to understand - together with all the saints - what its breadth and length and height is, and to know the love of Christ that exceeds knowledge, so that you may be replete in every fullness of God."

[Ephesians 3: 17-19]

 

The above words indicate that, after having reposed in the heart of the faithful and enlightening him, Jesus Christ helps him also to comprehend all the dimensions of divine love, as He did with all the other saints. In this way, he comes to transcend "knowledge" by attaining "complete knowledge" and becoming united "with all the saints", with God's love.

 

Let us bring to mind the words of the Apostle Paul:

 

"…prophecies… tongues… knowledge, shall be abolished… for when that which is perfect comes, that which is partial shall be abolished.  When I was an infant, I spoke as an infant... when I became an adult, I abolished infantile things. We presently see things through a magnifying glass, indistinctly; but then, face to face... at present, I know partially; but then, I shall know fully (=awareness - future tense, επιγνώσομαι), just as I have been known fully (=awareness - past tense, επεγνώσθην)...."  [1 Corinthians 13:8-12]

 

Thus when a person attains perfection, he will not have simple "knowledge" (union), but "full knowledge" (full union), as the product of his complete union with the fullness of Divinity (with the Father also).  It is worth noting that the Apostle Paul had already reached "full knowledge", when he said (at an earlier point in time): "then shall I have full knowledge, just as I have been fully known".

 

"Full knowledge" therefore is not just one more continuous state.  It is a state that a person attains, then returns to the state of "enlightenment", until he again returns to "full knowledge".  Even though the Apostle had - in the past - found himself in a state of "full knowledge, he was anticipating it again in the future ("then shall I have...."), where he would once again experience the things that he described.  "Full knowledge" will become permanent, only after the Lord's Presence. Thus, with the advent of the Father also, the Christian is filled with "the fullness of God". In him now dwells the fullness of Godhood:  Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  The Christian is now a godman by Grace, given that he has reached the stage of having within him the same fullness of Godhood that Jesus Christ had:

 

"...until all of us have reached the unity in faith and awareness of (full union with) the son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ..."  [Ephesians 4:13]

 

And indeed, the Apostle Paul tells us in his Epistle to Colossians 2:9,10 about Jesus Christ:

 

"for within Him dwells all the fullness of godhood bodily, and you are made full, in Him...." inasmuch as all the fullness of Godhood deigned to dwell in the human body of Christ,  [Colossians 1:19), thus has the fullness of Godhood deigned to dwell within the body of perfected Christians. This is because whatever the Head of the Church (Jesus Christ in His physical aspect) partakes of, His Body (the Church) will also partake of, by Grace.

 

In the perfected Christian therefore, the Father also comes along to dwell within him, just as He dwelled within Jesus Christ also:

 

"…so that you may know that the Father is within me, and I am within the Father".  [John 10:38]

 

"...do you not believe that I am within the Father and the Father is within Me?  By dwelling within me, the Father does His work. Believe me, that I am in the Father and the Father is in me…"     [John 14: 10,11].

 

It is in the same manner that the Father can also dwell within every perfected Christian:

 

"so that all may be one, just as You, Father, are within Me, and I within You, so that they too can be one, within us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me. And the glory that You gave Me I have given to them, so that they may be one, just as we are one:  Me within them, and You within Me, so that they may be perfected in one, and so that the world may know that You sent Me and have loved them as You have loved Me...."  [John 17:21-23]

 

Therefore, apart from the Holy Spirit - Who comes during catharsis-cleansing - and the Son (Who comes during enlightenment), the perfected "friend of God" who reaches theosis (complete awareness) also has the Father within him, thus completing godhood in full:

 

"...If one loves Me, upholds my word, My Father will also love him, and we shall come towards Him and make an abode near Him...."  [John 14:23]

 

Given, therefore, that the fullness of godhood dwells within a perfected Christian, we refer to him as a "Theumen" (deified). He is the one who has attained the "likeness of God" and fulfilled his purpose.