Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

Justin Wainscott sheds some light on the original version of my all-time favorite Christmas Carol, “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” today at Theology in Verse. At the time of year where the church’s historic hymnody is at its absolute best, I have found Charles Wesley’s lyrics (particularly the lesser known stanzas included below) to be some of the most theologically rich of any. Plus, my all-time favorite movie closes with the hearty and joy-filled singing of this song.

So, courtesy of Justin, here is Charles Wesley’s original version:

Hark, How All the Welkin Rings
Charles Wesley, 1739

Hark, how all the welkin rings!
Glory to the King of Kings!
Peace on earth and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!
Joyful, all ye nations, rise,
Join the triumph of the skies;
Universal nature say,
Christ the Lord is born today!

Christ, by highest Heaven 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 men to appear,
Jesus, our Immanuel here!

Hail, the heavenly Prince of Peace!
Hail, the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings,
Risen 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.

Come, Desire of nations, come,
Fix in us Thy humble home!
Rise, the Woman’s conquering Seed,
Bruise in us the Serpent’s head!
Now display Thy saving power,
Ruined nature now restore;
Now in mystic union join
Thine to ours, and ours to Thine!

Adam’s likeness, Lord, efface;
Stamp Thine image in its place;
Second Adam from above,
Reinstate us in Thy love!
Let us Thee, though lost, regain,
Thee, the Life, the Heavenly Man;
Oh, to all Thyself impart,
Formed in each believing heart!

Gloria in Excelsis Deo

One of my favorite lyrics from Andrew Peterson’s excellent Christmas album Behold the Lamb of God is from the opening song, “Gather round, Ye children Come:”

Gather round, remember now,
How Creation held its breath
How it let out a sigh,
And filled up the sky with the angels

Heaven bursting forth with praise to God Incarnate stretches the imagination! The message of their song? Glory to God and peace with God. This is what the Incarnation means, and what our church considered on Sunday morning. You can listen to the sermon here.

He has Come into Our Country

You know how it is when some great king enters a large city and dwells in one of is houses; because of his dwelling that single house, the whole city is honored, and enemies and robbers cease to molest it. Even so it is with the King of all; He has come into our country and has dwelt in one body amidst the many, and in consequence the designs of the enemy against mankind have been foiled, and the corruption of death, which formerly held them in its power, has simply ceased to be. For the human race would have perished utterly had not the Lord and Savior of all, the Son of God, come among us to put an end to death. This great work was, indeed, supremely worthy of the goodness of God. A king who has founded a city, so far from neglecting it when through the carelessness of the inhabitants it is attacked by robbers, avenges it and saves it from destruction, having regard rather to his own honor than to the people’s neglect . . .

Athanasius, On the Incarnation (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimar’s Seminary Pess, 1996), 35-36.

Trinitarian Praise at Advent

I once read John Frame write something about how the Incarnation of the Word triggers the explicit revelation of God as Trinity. God’s identity as Holy Trinity was present throughout the whole Old Testament, but it was not until “the only God, who is at the Father’s side” entered the world as a man and “made him known” that the glory of the Trinity was revealed with clarity.  (John 1:18)

I think this is a true and important observation, and the truth of it is demonstrated in the opening narratives of Luke’s Gospel, where you suddenly find copious references to the Holy Spirit coming upon people in relation to the advent of the Son. One example is Zechariah. As he begins his song of praise in Luke 1:67, we read, “And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, ‘Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David . . .”  This is thoroughly Trinitarian worship. Zechariah may not be able to put all the pieces together at this point, but he is praising God the Father for sending God the Son, through God the Holy Spirit.

This is an appropriate response of praise to the coming of Christ, which is a work of the entire Trinity. Let us go and worship likewise!

Ferguson on Five Important Aspects of the Virgin Birth

One of the greatest mysteries for the church to contemplate during advent is the virgin birth of Christ. Why was this necessary? Sinclair Ferguson helpfully points out five important aspects of the virgin conception-birth of Christ:

1) The action of the Holy Spirit (coupled with the absence of conception ‘by the will of man,’ John 1:13) points to the sovereign newness of the work that God is accomplishing,

2) The human nature which was assumed by the Son of God was not created ex nihilo, but was inherited through Mary. It is our human nature . . . Only by the Spirit’s work could the divine person of the Logos assume genuine human nature, come ‘in the likeness of sinful man’ (Rom 8:3), and yet remain ‘holy, harmless, undefiled’ (Heb 7:26), ‘the holy one.’ (Lk 1:35)

3) The revelation of the virgin conception by the Spirit forbids any adoptionist Christology. There is no room for the notion that the man Jesus of Nazareth becomes the Son of God by adoption. The reverse is true: the Son of God becomes the man Christ Jesus by incarnation through the power of the Holy Spirit.

4) The conception of Jesus by the Spirit underlines both his identification with our frailty (he assumes our nature at its smallest and weakest) and his essential distinctiveness, not in relation to the reality of his humanity but in relation to his liability to guilt. He is ‘the last Adam,’ the ‘man from Heaven’ (1 Cor 15:45, 47-49). The work of the Spirit preserves both the reality of his union with us and in genuine human nature, and his freedom from the guilt and curse of Adam’s fall (Rom 5:12-21).

5) The conception of Jesus by the Holy Spirit is the mode by which the Father’s sending of the Son is effected. As such, it underlines the principle that, in the work of redemption which Christ spearheads, each person of the Trinity is engaged.

Sinclair Ferguson, The Holy Spirit, Contours of Christian Theology (Downer’s Grove, IL: IVP, 1996), 41-43.

Benedictus

We continued our December sermon series through the “Songs of the Nativity” in Luke 1-2 by looking at Zechariah’s song, the Benedictus. You can listen to it here.

There are several elements of Zechariah’s song that I found to be particularly thought-provoking. One of the most important observations is the way Zechariah describes the salvation of Christ to be a “Greater Exodus” in Luke 1:67-75.

The Exodus was the most celebrated of all God’s mighty acts of deliverance in the Old Testament, and the language Zechariah uses in the opening verses of his song are taken directly from that narrative. He says that God has “visited his people,” exactly the reason the people give for worshipping the Lord when Moses is first sent to them. “And the people believed; and when they heard that the LORD had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped.” (Ex 4:31) This is also what a Samaritan village will cry out in Luke 7:16 when the Lord Jesus comes among them – “God has visited his people!” Zechariah continues to make use of Exodus imagery when he speaks of the Lord “redeeming” his people, “remembering is covenant,”and “delivering us from the hand of those who hate us.” This is what Christ is doing for those he came to save.

Recognizing this “Greater Exodus” theme is important for us, not just so that we can make neat little connections between the Testaments. It is important because it teaches us about the salvation that Christ has brought to us: it is a mighty act of deliverance from the house of slavery. Christmas is not primarily about sentimental traditions and gift-exchanges; it is about a rescue, a salvation! If we think it a light or common thing to be a Christian, we have failed to understand the way Scripture itself speaks of salvation in Christ, and need to reflect on this Exodus theme. Sometimes this is articulated best in our hymnody:

“God rest ye merry gentlemen, let nothing you dismay. Remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas Day, to save us all from Satan’s pow’r when we were gone astray. O tidings of comfort and joy!”

We also learn here that the goal of Christ’s Greater Exodus is the same as the first Exodus. The Lord had told Pharaoah “Let my son go, that he may serve me.” The whole purpose of God in delivering Israel from slavery was so that Israel could enter into his service as their rightful King. And Zechariah says here that this is precisely the purpose behind the Greater Exodus of Christ: we have been delivered from the hand of our enemy, saved from the sin that enslaved us, but not so we can live to ourselves. We have been delivered from slavery and brought into the service of Christ. We have been “delivered from the Kingdom of Darkness and transferred into the Kingdom of God’s beloved Son.” (Col 1:13) This service is described in the total consecration of our lives unto God: we are to “serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness all our days.” (Luke 1:74-75) This is how we should view ourselves and our lives in light of Christ: we are a band of former slaves who have been freed in a mighty act of salvation by a merciful God, and have now been brought into his service. Reflecting on the Exodus moved godly Israelites to serve the Lord whole-heartedly. Reflecting on our salvation as a Greater Exodus will move us to do the same.

The Nicene Creed

This statement of faith has been a foundational confession of the Christian church on the Deity of all three Persons of the Godhead since the fourth century. I think there is much to be gained from careful reflection and regular confession of this beautiful statement of faith, particularly as we consider the Incarnation of Christ.

The Nicene Creed

We believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father by whom all things were made; who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man, and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried, and the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father. And he shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and the dead, whose kingdom shall have no end.

And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, who proceedeth from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets. And we believe one holy catholic and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins. And we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

Reminding Ourselves that Jesus is Fully God

I am convinced that there is a gear in our minds that automatically demotes Christ to a position beneath the Father, especially as we read the story of his birth at this time of year. There are all sorts of reasons for this, but the point is that we must continuously counter this impulse by consciously reminding ourselves that Christ is fully God. One way we are doing this in our church is by having Scripture readings each Sunday morning from the great NT passages about Christ’s deity – Heb 1:1-2:1, Col 1:15-20, Phil 2:5-11, John 1:1-18, etc. Placing these explicit affirmations of Christ’s deity alongside the accounts of his birth is a powerful way to communicate the glory of the Incarnation.

With this in mind, here is a good quote from J.P. Boyce on the importance of affirming that Christ was fully God while in the days of his flesh on earth.

“The importance of this fact of the Scripture teaching cannot be over-estimated. In its appropriate relations to the other truths taught it becomes the foundation of ever hope. It is not a mere speculation. It enters into the very life of the Christian, enabling him to say, ‘I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to guard that which I have committed unto him against that day.’ (2 Tim 1:12) It is not sufficient for us to know that the person who died for us was divine before he came into the world. The Scriptures assure us, and we need to comfort ourselves with the assurance, that he was equally divine when a babe in Bethlehem, when suffering upon the cross, when ascending from Olivet, and even now, while in human nature, he rules as Mediatorial King, or makes intercession with the Father as our great High Priest. We must even go beyond the idea of some kind of divinity, and recognize him as the unchangeable God, who was, and is, and ever shall be, the Almighty, the well-beloved Son of the Father, whom that Father always hears, and to whom all things have been entrusted, in order that the consummation of his glorious kingdom may be fully attained. The incarnation has been, indeed, of only one person of the Godhead, but of a person truly and essentially divine, whose relations to the divine nature have remained unaltered during his incarnation on earth and in heaven.”

James P. Boyce, “The Person of Christ” in Abstract of Systematic Theology (1887, reprint 2006 by Founders Press, Cape Coral, FL), 275-276.

How is the Son “Begotten” of the Father, yet also “Co-Equal” with the Father?

What does it mean to confess that Christ is “begotten of the Father,” yet is also himself fully God and co-equal with the Father? This may sound like a very fine theological point, and in some ways it is. Yet anytime the Person of Christ is brought up in the setting of a local church, this immediately becomes an issue. How exactly can we say that the Son is equal with the Father? The heretic Arius taught that both of these things cannot be true, and that because Christ is called “the Son,” and “begotten of the Father,” he must necessarily be less than the Father. Arius taught that Christ, though the most glorious of all of God’s creatures and the agent through whom the Father created the world, nevertheless was sill a mere creature at the end of the day.

How should we respond to this? How can we say that Jesus is “begotten of the Father,” yet still his equal? I think William G.T. Shedd is helpful here by offering 5 distinctions that the theologians of Nicea made between the “eternal generation” of the Son, and creation:

The Nicene theologians distinguish eternal generation from creation, by the following particulars:

1. Eternal generation is an offspring out of the eternal essence of God; creation is an origination of a new essence from nothing.
2. Eternal generation is a communication of an eternal essence; creation is the origination of a temporal essence.
3. That which is eternally generated is one of essence with the generator; but that which is created is of another essence from that of the creator. The substance of God the Son is one and identical with that of God the Father; but the substance of a creature is diverse from that of the creator. The Father and the Son are one Nature, and one Being; God and the world are two Natures and two Beings.
4. Eternal generation is necessary, but creation is optional. The filiation of the second person in the trinity is grounded in the nature of deity; but the origination of the world depends entirely upon arbitrary will. It is as necessary that there should be Father and Son in the Godhead, as that he Godhead should be eternal, or self-existent; but there is no such necessity for creation.
5. Eternal generation is an immanent perpetual activity in an ever-existing essence; creation is an instantaneous act, and supposes no elements of the creature in existence.

William G.T. Shedd, History of Christian Doctrine, Vol I. (1863, reprinted in 2006 by Solid Ground Christian Books, Vestavia Hills, AL), 316-317.

Trinitarianism and Christology are Pastoral Issues

Speaking of the Trinity and the Person of Christ as fully God and fully man are not just concerns in a systematic theology class; they are pastoral issues.

We do not have the option of avoiding these complex mysteries if we are to faithfully speak of the Christian God from the Christian Scriptures in the local Christian Church. Never is this more evident than at Christmastime, when we are (hopefully) trying to do more than simply rehash a few sentimental holiday images. Hopefully, we are attempting to draw attention to the weight and the wonder of the Incarnation, that God became a man to save his own rebellious creatures. This is the great mystery that angels long to look into, and on which the Gospel of our salvation is built. These are the truths that move the church to worship. But speaking of the birth of Christ will never create the awe in the human soul as they are designed to do, unless we are willing to dig into the doctrines of Trinity and Christology. We must carefully communicate that the infant in Bethlehem is nothing less than God the Son, the eternal Word made flesh, co-equal with the Father in power, glory, and honor. We must clearly explain that Jesus is not simply the greatest of all of God’s creatures, but that “there never was a time when he was not,” and that his birth is the fulfillment of a perfect plan of grace established in eternity. We must insist that it was “in the fullness of time” that “God sent his Son, born of woman, born under the Law, to redeem those who were under the Law.” (Gal 4:4-5)

And as we insist on these things, questions will arise – questions that were asked at Jerusalem and Nicea and Constantinople, straight through the history of the church, about how these things can be so. Now, we won’t be able to completely explain the deepest mysteries of the Trinity, but we should be able to point to the pertinent texts of Scripture we have wrestled through ourselves, to some of the great hymns of the church, and even some of the ancient creeds we have confessed.

This Sunday night, we are going to have a look at the Nicene Creed together. None of us will leave as experts, in theology or church history. But we will leave having been reminded of the great mystery of godliness; that Mary’s child is “God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God.” And hopefully, we will be moved to worship.