Flourishing Life

“For [Christ] was made human, so that we might be made divine.” – Athanasius, On the Incarnation of the Word.

“Jesus is the reason for the season” goes the familiar refrain. It’s true enough—after all, the holiday is called Christmas (Christ Mass). That tells us the what: we celebrate the Nativity of the Son of God, the Incarnation, the birth of Jesus—Emmanuel, God-with-us.

But what about the why?

Why the Incarnation? Why was it necessary? And what does it mean for us now?

This is where Athanasius helps us see deeper. “For he was made human, so that we might be made divine.” That language can sound strange to Western ears. We’re not accustomed to talking this way. Athanasius represents a more Eastern theological imagination, while many of us in the Western Church have been shaped by teachers like Augustine.

Speaking in broad strokes, Western Christianity has often approached salvation in forensic terms—guilt in need of pardon, sins requiring forgiveness. Eastern Christianity has tended to use a more therapeutic lens—sin as a sickness that needs healing, salvation as restoration to health. From Athanasius’ perspective, sin is not merely something we do; it is a condition that distorts our humanity. And what is sick cannot heal itself.

So the Son of God takes on flesh. He enters fully into our humanity to heal it from the inside out. Salvation, then, is not just forgiveness from the penalty of sin but liberation from its power. It is the restoration of humanity to what God originally intended—women and men renewed in the image of their creator.

Interestingly, John Wesley—though firmly within the Western tradition—was profoundly influenced by this way of thinking. His emphasis on sanctification reflects the conviction that God does not merely forgive us, but transforms us, making us holy and whole by grace.

Jesus took on human flesh to heal us, restore us, and renew us. This is the purpose of the Incarnation—not simply to change God’s attitude toward us, but to change us.

This Christmas, as you celebrate the mystery of the faith, invite Jesus Christ to apply his healing grace through the work of the Holy Spirit, so that your life may increasingly reflect the beauty, wholeness, and love of the One in whose image you were created. Christmas isn’t merely a reminder that God came near; it is a declaration that God is still at work, restoring what sin has broken in us. As you reflect this season, consider not only what has God forgiven, but also what does God want to heal? In the midst of the noise and hurry, make space to pray: “Lord Jesus, heal what sin has wounded and make me whole.”