My favorite Christmas hymn is “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”. Written by Charles Wesley, and in spite of the fact that nowhere does it say the angels sang, it is chocked full of Biblical language and Christian theology.
Wesley’s second verse tells us about the coming of the Redeemer. Paul in Philippians tells us He was equal with Father in heaven, and in Galatians relates that he came at the perfect time to do His saving work.
Christ, by highest heaven adored;
Christ, the everlasting Lord;
Late in time behold him come,
Offspring of the Virgin’s womb.
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;
Hail the incarnate Deity,
Pleased as man with man to dwell;
Jesus, our Emmanuel.
He is very God and very man, born of a virgin, a supernatural conception to become “God with us”. (Believe it or not, I found one source that changed virgin’s womb to favored one.)
Verse Three:
Hail the heav’n-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings
Ris’n with healing in His wings
Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth
Charles finishes with one of the most succinct representations of the gospel ever penned by man. The power of the truth of man’s depravity and weakness before death, the healing and life-giving power of the Savior, and the means of man’s redemption, a new birth, is multiplied by the simple and short words of Wesley, till they hammer within us and explode with grateful rejoicing.
Of all times of the year, Christmas ought to be the time we are most sensitive to the Gospel. Jesus did not come to this earth to give us health, happiness, a fatter wallet, or a better marriage. He came to give us life, to take away our sin; and He did so by dying on our behalf. We come to Him, not to claim our life, but in repudiation of it so that we might have His.
The woes of this broken world will never know respite but by the change in the hearts of men as they come to Him. Seeing this simple lowly birth as the key to all the problems and hurts of man, the angels shouted, “Glory to God in the highest…”