JESUS CAME TO SAVE, BUT FROM WHAT?
Christmas is probably my most favourite time of year. For many people Christmas includes decorations, eating lots of turkey, many different gatherings with family and friends, eating more turkey, drinking hot chocolate, gift-giving/receiving and eating turkey leftovers. It is rightfully seen as a time of celebration, hope and cheer as we celebrate the birth of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Aside from drinking eggnog, one part of Christmas I really enjoy is listening to the familiar Christmas carols. They never seem to get old to me, even after listening to them for the entire month of December.
One carol that I love to sing/hear is ‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing’ written by Charles Wesley and first published in 1739. For you mathematicians out there that’s almost 300 years ago.
I love it so much because of the truth it proclaims. Take a look at the lyrics below, I have highlighted some of my favourite lines.
Hark the herald angels sing / Glory to the newborn King!
Peace on earth and mercy mild / God and sinners reconciled
Joyful, all ye nations rise / Join the triumph of the skies
With the angelic host proclaim: / Christ is born in Bethlehem
Hark! The herald angels sing / Glory to the newborn King!
Christ by highest heav’n adored / Christ the everlasting Lord!
Late in time behold Him come / Offspring of a Virgin’s womb
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see / Hail the incarnate Deity
Pleased as man with man to dwell / Jesus, our Emmanuel
Hark! The herald angels sing / Glory to the newborn King!
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
Hark! The herald angels sing / Glory to the newborn King!
Jesus came to reconcile man with God, a reconciliation that was required because of the sin that had separated mankind from God. And He did that by coming Himself, veiled in flesh for us to see who God is, hear directly from Him, experience firsthand how great of a love He has for us.
And He was pleased, desiring, wanting to dwell within us. Some people have a concept that although God saved them, He can’t stand them. But this can’t be further from the truth. Not only does God love you, but He likes you. He is pleased to live with and within you. And because He lives in you, He has brought light and life. For more than sin, man’s greatest problem was that he was dead to God, absence of true life. But Jesus has given us life, and not any life, but His very own. And with that life, healing. Healing from the shame, guilt, hurts, and rejection that has come from our own failures and from those around us.
So as you celebrate Christmas, if you hear or sing this great hymn, take a moment and reflect on what Jesus is saying to you through it.
In Christ who is our Life,
Ross