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The Greatest Christmas Song: Index/Resources

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This is just a place to list, in order, all the posts about “the greatest Christmas song” in order, and to provide you with a few other things to check out if you’re interested…

Here are some other resources that you’ll want to check out if you want to learn about this song. First, the Cyber Hymnal has it in 14 languages, as well as some background on the authors.

Next, a couple of posts from my Dad, Robert Cottrill, at your one-stop-site for interesting hymn facts every day of the year. Check out O Come, All Ye Faithful and also an article about John Wade, and one about Frederick Oakeley.

Someone else was posting about this song this year – Michael Kelley from LifeWay. Check out Word of the Father, Now in Flesh Appearing.

Thanks for reading – I hope that through it all, you have COME to ADORE Him!

The Greatest Christmas Song: Christmas Greetings

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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!

Sunrise in the snowYea (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!

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The Greatest Christmas Song – Why was the Baby there?

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O Come All Ye Faithful may contain a lot of theology, but it’s almost purely for the purpose of worship. You might say, it doesn’t explain a lot. But we do get some important hints in the next verse. (By the way, if you’ve missed the previous posts – introduction, the reveal, and then verse 1, verse 2, and verses 3-5.)

Child, for us sinners poor and in the manger,
We would embrace Thee, with love and awe;
Who would not love Thee, loving us so dearly?

Why was the Baby in the manger? (Remember – He’s not there now! But we are looking at the story in the Scripture, and worshipping as we go.) The answer: “For us sinners.”

true loveThere are few moments that communicate the tender love of God so well as the moment when Mary laid Jesus into the animal feeding trough. It was the best place – I’m sure she made sure the hay was clean, and that Jesus was well wrapped. It was a place where He would be warm.

But – it was not a palace. It was not a crib. It was the only place available. Mary and Joseph were very poor.

“Very God”, as verse 2 says – became so vulnerable and weak and – human!

Paul wrote this:

…when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
Galatians 4:4-7

He came to “redeem” us – to buy us back – from under the judgement of God. And so we ourselves become beloved sons and daughters of God, with the Spirit within us.

Some people complain when worship songs focus on the fact that Jesus died out of love for us – because that was not the only reason. He died in obedience to the Father. He died to bring glory to God. Yes, we can focus too much on ourselves in some of our worship.

But love was a reason why He came. The Father, Son and Spirit together were in agreement to save us. Yes, it was to bring glory to God. But it is also a great demonstration of His love.

And so we sing Who would not love Thee, loving us so dearly? John said it well –

In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
1 John 4:9-10

Paul wrote:

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
2 Corinthians 5:14-15

And in Romans:

…hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Romans 5:5

Did you notice it? We see in those three texts the love of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. But in a special way, the Son “explains” God to us. As John wrote:

No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.
John 1:18

So we do look at the Baby in the manger in love, and awe. What love! Is there any greater love we could focus on this Christmas?

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