What He Assumes, He Heals
“For that which He has not assumed He has not healed; but that which is united to His Godhead is also saved.”
Gregory of Nazianzus, Epistle 101.7
“And the Word became flesh and lived among us.”
John 1:14
The quote above is from an early church father named Gregory of Nazianzus. It’s a famous one in early church studies and sums up the significance of Jesus’ incarnation. For God to have fully reconciled humanity to Himself, He—through the Word made flesh—must have fully taken it on Himself. Jesus was not part human or a shapeshifter taking on only the external form of our existence. He became fully human in order to bring us back fully into relationship with God.
On reflecting on this quote—and extending the idea further—I wonder whether it might be a useful summary of how we are called to allow God, by His Spirit, to assume the entirety of our flesh, the whole of our personhood, in order that He might heal it. This is what it is to work out the fullness of our salvation.
Look at Jesus’ encounter with individuals. He was rarely satisfied with the part of themselves they presented to Him. He saw beneath and invited folk to open the whole of their lives to God. Look at the rich young ruler in Mark 10. He came asking what it was to be good, and Jesus exposed his idolatry (of wealth) despite his otherwise moral behavior. Or consider the Samaritan woman in John. She was collecting water and responds defensively in her encounter with Jesus. Yet, Jesus sees beneath her façade and draws attention to how she has been badly treated by various men, passed pillar to post and now is living with a man not her husband. And then Jesus invites her to full knowledge and worship of God through the Spirit and in truth, and to go deeper than the entrenched religious divides that put Jews and Samaritans at odds with each other.
That which He has not assumed He has not healed.
Gregory of Nazianzus might have applied it to the incarnation, but I invite you to consider, today, where in your own life the Lord needs to come in and reconcile your heart and life to Him, where He is naming parts of your life filled with sin or brokenness and asking you to let Him in.
“Now pay attention; I am standing at the door and knocking. If any of you hear My voice and open the door, then I will come in to visit with you and to share a meal at your table, and you will be with Me.”
Revelation 3:20, The Voice
