“Let us make the human being according to our image and according to our likeness’ [Gen. 1:26]. By our creation we have the first, and by our free choice we build the second. In our initial structure co-originates and exists our coming into being according to the image of God. By free choice we are conformed to that which is according to the likeness of God. And this is according to free choice: the power exists in us but we bring it about by our activity. If the Lord, in anticipation, had not said in making us “Let us make,” and, “according to our likeness,” if he had not given us the power to come to be according to the likeness, we would not have received the likeness to God by our own authority. Yet now he has made us with the power to become like God. And in giving us the power to become like God, he let us be artisans of the likeness to God, so that the reward for our work would be ours.”
St. Basil the Great, On the Human Condition, pp. 43-44.
