Trinity and Humanity

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Scripture: Acts 3-4 (CSB)

Summary:

What does healing look like when Jesus Christ, not healing itself, is at the center?

In Acts 3, Peter and John encounter a man who had been unable to walk from birth. He asks them for money, but Peter tells him, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk!” The man is raised to his feet, strengthened, and begins walking, leaping, and praising God. Yet Peter and John immediately refuse to make themselves the center of what has happened. The healing points beyond them to Jesus. That is where our understanding of healing must begin.

Pastor Timothy Brassell reminds us that if we want clarity about healing and wholeness, we should not primarily pursue healing and wholeness, we should pursue Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Healer, and our healing is found in Him. The healing in Acts is not ultimately Peter and John’s ministry. It is Jesus’ Ministry, and by the Holy Spirit they are participating in what He is doing.

This is profoundly Trinitarian. The Father desires the complete healing and wholeness of His creation. The eternal Son truly entered our broken humanity, living, suffering, dying, rising, ascending and being glorified in our human nature. And the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, personally shares Christ with us, conforms us to Jesus, and enables us to participate in His ongoing Ministry.

Gregory of Nazianzus expressed this profound truth about Jesus and our healing: “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, Letter 101, To Cledonius

Jesus did not save us from a distance. The Son of God assumed our real humanity, body and soul, and our hope for healing rests in who Jesus is and what He has accomplished in our humanity. That helps us understand why Acts 4 brings healing and salvation together. Salvation means that something broken is being made right, and Jesus has come to save the whole human person, body, soul, our relationship with God, and our relationships with one another.

The Gospel therefore does not allow us to reduce healing merely to the physical. Nor does it allow us to separate physical healing from God’s larger purpose for humanity. In Jesus Christ, God is for our healing through and through. At the same time, Pastor Tim reminds us of something essential: every healing we experience before Jesus’ bodily return is partial, provisional and temporary.

Even the man healed in Acts 3 eventually died. Every person Jesus and the apostles physically healed eventually faced death. So while we gratefully receive healing, pray for healing, seek medical care and resist sickness, we must never make physical health itself our ultimate hope. Jesus is our hope, not healing itself. Present healing is a sign. It points beyond itself toward the Kingdom that has already broken into our world in Jesus Christ and toward the complete healing and glorification of humanity that will be revealed when Jesus returns.

Irenaeus beautifully expressed the direction of this saving and healing work of Christ: “Our Lord Jesus Christ, who did, through His transcendent love, become what we are, that He might bring us to be even what He is Himself.” — Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies, Book V, Preface

Our final hope, then, is not simply that God will fix something that is wrong with us today. Our hope is Jesus Christ Himself and the glorious future of humanity in Him, and this has important implications for healing in our times. Peter and John did not minister to the man from a distance. They looked at him. They spoke to him. Peter reached out his hand and lifted him. The healed man even held onto Peter and John. Their participation in Jesus’ healing Ministry was deeply personal and embodied.

In a world increasingly shaped by technology, efficiency, isolation and distance, Christians must be careful that we do not become disembodied healers. Technology may assist us, but it cannot replace the costly, personal love of neighbor into which Jesus calls us. Sometimes participating in Jesus’ healing Ministry may begin with something as simple as looking another person in the face and asking: “Can I pray for you and for your healing?” And then we point beyond ourselves to Jesus, the One in whom everything broken ultimately finds its healing.

Acts 4 also reminds us that participating with Jesus does not guarantee comfort or safety. Peter and John were arrested for proclaiming Jesus and participating in His healing Ministry. Yet filled with the Holy Spirit, they continued speaking boldly about what they had seen and heard. Healing, therefore, is not ultimately about making ourselves comfortable, healthy or safe. It is about participating with the Father-Son-Holy Spirit-God, in the healing and redemption already accomplished and still being brought to completion in Jesus Christ.

Reflective Moment

Where might Jesus be inviting you to participate in His healing Ministry right now? Is there someone you have kept at a distance who needs more than an efficient response. Someone who needs your presence, your prayer, your compassion, or simply to be seen? Ask the Holy Spirit to help you see that person through the eyes of Jesus and to participate in what He is already doing.

Because the healing is His.
The Ministry is His.
And the ultimate outcome belongs to Him.

The Father is for our complete wholeness.
Jesus has taken our humanity into His own and is our Healer.
And through the Holy Spirit, we are invited to participate personally and boldly in His healing Ministry. Watch the full Gospel Message, to hear more about what healing means when Jesus Christ Himself remains at the center of our hope.