Grace is Uncreated

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”

Grace is Uncreated.

There are some significant theological differences between how the East and West sees grace itself. The Eastern concept of grace is that it is an uncreated divine energy of God, and it’s contrary to the Western, Thomist and Scotist view of created grace. Some Western theologians posit that there are both created and uncreated graces, but more ancient theologians have taught or implied that grace is uncreated, including a Doctor of the Church, St. John Damascene, as well as St. John Chrysostom and the Cappadocian Fathers.

The reason why Eastern theologians believe it’s important to affirm that grace is uncreated is because if grace were created, it would mean that we are not actually encountering God, but rather a created effect, when we encounter grace. God Himself is acting in the world, not a separate or created gift. God’s gift is Himself.

Grace is an uncreated energy of God that allows us to partake of the divine life. When we encounter grace, we are encountering God directly. When we reject grace, we are directly rejecting God, but when we accept it, we are accepting God Himself, directly.

As St. Damascene said:

Wherefore by the place of God is meant that which has a greater share in His energy and grace. For this reason Heaven is His throne. For in it are the angels who do His will and are always glorifying Him. For this is His rest and the earth is His footstool. For in it He dwelt in the flesh among men. And His sacred flesh has been named the foot of God. The Church, too, is spoken of as the place of God: for we have set this apart for the glorifying of God as a sort of consecrated place wherein we also hold converse with Him. Likewise also the places in which His energy becomes manifest to us, whether through the flesh or apart from flesh, are spoken of as the places of God.

St. Damascene speaks of God’s essence, energies, and grace in his seminal work, “An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith.” In Book 1 he speaks at length about God’s essence and energies, and affirms they are God. In the final sentence in the quote above, he says the places where His energy become manifest to us are the “places of God.” Since grace is an energy of God, and where His energies are He Himself is, St. Damascene is indirectly confirming that grace is uncreated, as it’s intrinsically related to His energies. This was apparently the uncontested view, at least in the East. Interestingly, St Augustine did not explicitly teach that grace is a created entity either, but his writings seem to imply he does not see it as God Himself, but as a divine effect. St. Aquinas, as well as Bl. Scotus, fleshed out this idea.

If grace were created, it would mean that theosis itself was not actually uniting us to God, but only to a created effect. This is problematic from a Gospel perspective, because we understand theosis to be becoming like Christ by uniting to Him. Grace is not something between man and God, it is God. Just like love is not between man and God, but it is God (1 John 4:7-21).

Many Bible passages support the idea that grace is uncreated. As Revelation 3:20 says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”

By understanding grace as an uncreated energy of God, we can see that God Himself is knocking at the door of our souls, wanting to come inside and into communion with us. If grace is created, then some created thing is standing at the door and knocking. At the very least, it is a proxy for Christ instead of Christ Himself.

2 Peter 1:4 says “Through these, he has bestowed on us the precious and very great promises, so that through them you may come to share in the divine nature, after escaping from the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire.”

Since grace makes us partakers of the divine nature, it necessarily needs to be uncreated, because the divine nature is uncreated.

Grace is also God’s very own fullness. As John 1:16-17 says, “from his fullness we have all received, grace in place of grace, because while the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”

Grace flows from the fullness of God, which proves it is not something external to Him. When we receive grace, we are receiving God, not something other than Him, or some kind of created intermediary.

Romans 8:11 says “If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit that dwells in you.”

Grace is given through the Holy Spirit, who is of course uncreated. Therefore, if grace was something that was created, it would mean the Holy Spirit is giving us something other than Himself.

2 Corinthians 3:18 says “All of us, gazing with unveiled face on the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

Since we are being transformed into God’s image by beholding His glory, we are obviously not receiving something created. God’s glory is not created, and only God Himself can transform us into the likeness of the Deity, which is Himself.

How do we know that God’s glory is uncreated though? John 17:22. “The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one.”

In this case, if grace was created, we would just be receiving a created copy of Christ’s own glory, instead of His actual divine presence. This is also supported by certain passages in the Old Testament as well, for example Psalm 104:30, which says “When you send forth your spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the ground.”

Here we see that the Holy Spirit renews the world. This is grace at work, and as previously mentioned, the Spirit is uncreated. This is dogma in all Christian theology.

The idea of grace being created is also theologically problematic for understanding certain events in the earthly ministry of Christ Himself, such as the Transfiguration. Consider Matthew 17:2, “and he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white.” The light that Christ radiated here was His divine glory - it was the same grace that affects theosis. Christ was not radiating something created, but uncreated light.

I hope this article helps explain why the East sees Thomistic “created grace” as insufficient. If grace was created, we are not truly experiencing God, but some kind of intermediary. The Biblical proof of the Eastern position is very strong, and theosis, or divinization, requires uncreated grace in order to unite us to God directly. Thomism teaches that grace is a created supernatural quality, or an infused habit.

The official teaching of the Catholic Church allows for both the Thomistic and Eastern understanding of grace, as well as the essence-energies distinction articulated in Byzantine theology. This is affirmed in the UGCC Byzantine Catholic Catechism, 266.

The Source of all grace is God the Father. From the Father, through the Son, and in the Holy Spirit, the grace of God descends upon all creation and sustains its existence. By the power of grace, being has been wisely ordered, the laws of nature have been established, and the beauty of the universe and of humankind has been designed. Of all that was created, only humankind, called to life in God, has been granted the ability to cooperate with the Holy Spirit, the Treasury of Blessings, who grants God’s grace in a variety of gifts (see 1 Cor 12:4-13). In this cooperation (in Greek, synergia), the natural powers (in Greek, energiai) of humankind are united with the divine and uncreated gift of the grace of the Holy Spirit.

A final thought for Roman Catholics who are considering the Eastern position here. What was the Theotokos filled with? Do you think she was filled with something created, or with the Holy Spirit, when she was filled with grace? Consider Luke 1:35:

And the angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.” The Greek word used in verse 1:28 for “filled with grace” is “kecharitomene.” This implies not only a permanent state of grace, but a permanent filling of the Spirit, not a “habit” or “supernatural quality.” In light of Marian consecration, and having a devotion to the Holy Rosary, it does not sit well with me to speak of Holy Mary, who holds the title of Spouse of the Holy Spirit, being filled with a habit. When we receive grace we are receiving the Holy Spirit too. In Hebrews 10:29, the Holy Spirit is called “the Spirit of grace.”

A final quote, from St. John Chrysostom: “He possesses not, says he, the gift by participation, but is Himself the very foundation and very Root of all good, very life, and very Light and very Truth, not retaining within Himself the riches of His good things, but overflowing with them unto all others, and after the overflowing remaining full, in nothing diminished by supplying others, but streaming ever forth, and imparting to others a share of these blessings, He remains a sameness of perfection. I possess by participation a small portion of the Whole…”