CW 383: The Only Son from Heaven
It seems like the Christmas season gets earlier every year. Stores start putting up Christmas displays in September and October. Radio stations start playing Christmas music at the beginning of November. The unfortunate side effect of this is that by the time Christmas arrives, people are ready to be done with Christmas. I noticed a few of my neighbors already had their Christmas lights and decorations taken down the day after Christmas.
The church takes a longer view during the Christmas season. We celebrate Advent as we wait in anticipation for the birth of our Savior. The festivals of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are high points in the church year as we marvel at the incarnation of our God. The Sundays that come between Christmas and Epiphany give us a chance to reflect on the early life of our Savior and celebrate that our God loved us so much that he humbled himself to be born of a virgin.
The Only Son from Heaven reminds us of this beautiful truth. Our hymn this week tells us that our Savior came from heaven for one purpose: to conquer sin and death for us. This is the joy we have at Christmas. It’s not about the lights and decorations, or the trees and presents. Christmas is about our Savior who won for us our freedom from sin.
Verse 1: The only Son from heaven, foretold by ancient seers, by God the Father given, in human form appears. No sphere his light confining, no star so brightly shining as he, our Morning Star.
What a joy and wonder it is that God keeps his promises. The Old Testament is a record of God’s promises. He promised Adam and Eve that he would send a Savior to crush the head of the serpent. He promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that all the nations of the world would be blessed through their offspring. He promised David that his throne would endure forever and through the Prophet Isaiah God promised that a virgin would give birth to Emmanuel, God with us. God kept all of these promises when he sent his Son to be born of a woman, born under law, in order to free us from our sins.
Verse 2: O time of God appointed, O bright and holy morn! He comes, the King anointed the Christ, the virgin-born, grim death to conquer for us, to open heav’n before us and bring us life again.
Christ came to this world for one purpose. He came to suffer and die to save us. As we see the baby lying in the manger, we also see the agony of the cross. Jesus Christ needed to be true God and true man to save us. As true man, he could live under God’s law and be tempted in every way that we are. As true God, he kept God’s holy law perfectly in our place. As true man, he could die on the cross and as true God his death paid for the sins of the world. By his death and resurrection, Christ conquered the power of death and hell. His death paid the debt of our sins and gave us the certainty of eternal life.
Verse 3: O Lord, our hearts awaken to know and love you more, in faith to stand unshaken, in spirit to adore, that we, through this world moving, each glimpse of heaven proving, may reap its fullness there.
The message of Christmas fills our hearts with joy. God loved us so much that he sent his Son to save us. Christ loved us so much that he humbled himself and suffered for us. As we consider the miracle of the incarnation of our Lord our hearts are filled with gratitude. As we make our pilgrim way through this world we strive to live our lives according to God’s will. We seek to keep his commands and show our love and thankfulness by using all that he has given us for his glory. We also seek to share with those lost in the darkness of sin that Christ is the light of the world. Salvation is found in he who suffered and died to save us.
Verse 4: O Father, here before you with God the Holy Ghost and Jesus, we adore you, O Pride of angel host. Before you mortals lowly cry, “Holy, holy, holy, O blessèd Trinity!”
The final verse of our hymn reminds us of the mystery of the Trinity. We worship a God who is one God in three persons, and three persons in one God. This is a mystery that goes beyond our limited human ability to comprehend. We rejoice that our God is so awesome and majestic that he is beyond our understanding. We stand in awe and praise his glorious name that our mighty Lord fought to save us and, in his mercy, lowered himself to be born of the Virgin Mary to free us from our sins.
The Only Son from Heaven is a wonderful hymn of praise that reminds us of the true meaning of Christmas. Christ came to this world for one purpose: to suffer and die to save us. As we move past the busy holiday season, we rejoice for this opportunity to praise God for the miraculous birth of his Son.