Today we’ll take our final look at O Come All Ye Faithful, my vote for the all time greatest Christmas song.
We’ve finally made it to the last verse:
Yea, Lord, we greet Thee, born this happy morning;
Jesus, to Thee be all glory given;
Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing.
O Come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord!
Yea (yes), Lord, we greet Thee! The most important greetings we can give at Christmas, or any time. We recognize what God did when He sent His Son as a baby so many years ago. And we focus our worship on Him!
Born this happy morning! Wait – how do we know Jesus was born in the morning? It’s symbolic, silly! You know, like – the sun rising at dawn? Jesus, of course, rose from the dead early before dawn – the true Light dawning!
(Actually, I have no idea what the intention of the author was, but I think that’s probably it. I believe in Latin it’s just “today”, with no time specified.)
Jesus, to Thee be all glory given. We learned last time about the purpose of His coming. He deserves glory not only because of who He is (God of God, Light of Light), but because of what He accomplished.
We’ve been studying about that in the book of Hebrews:
But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honour because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
Hebrews 2:9
He is given glory because He came to die for sinners. He took our place.
As Peter said,
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
2 Peter 3:18
Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing. Well, I preached on this over the summer, so you can listen to that here. But here’s part of the story – Jesus is the Word of God – He is the way the God reveals Himself to us. It’s a good part of the message of John 1:1-14 … the Word who is God, the True Light coming into the world, became flesh. John takes the concept of the Word of God all throughout the Old Testament and applies it to Christ.
In Hebrews 1:1-2, it says it this way:
Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
What language does God speak? He speaks “Son”. The Son is how we hear God – how we know what God is like. There is no greater revelation than Jesus Himself.
Why is this song so great? Because it matches an appropriate triumphant melody with majestic and triumphant words. Just listening to the song without the words, you can almost hear the pilgrims stomping down the road to see the Baby in the manger.
It calls both human and angelic worshippers to contemplate and adore. It focuses on something greater than human love, or temporary joy. It is a call to worship something far greater than ourselves, far greater than Christmas.
We look at a certain moment in time, when the Light of the World was seen for the first time – a tiny Baby, coming willingly, humbling Himself, to bring us something that would last forever.
For those of us who recognize Him as Lord, who accept Him as our Saviour, this Light explodes in our hearts as it first exploded into existence when the world was created (2 Corinthians 4:6).
Open the Scriptures this Christmas, and see again the Baby in the manger – Light of Light, worshipped by shepherds, wise men, and angels – come to save sinners – to save His enemies – Christ, the Lord! And as we worship the Lord who is now in Heaven, we wait for His return in glory, when the light will dawn again – “…waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us…” (Titus 2:13-14)
O Come! Let us adore Him! Christ, the Lord!
