Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Solus Christus: Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! Advent season is over and today we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is what we have been preparing for in our meditations and devotions over the past several weeks. I know you’re likely spending time with family today and that is a good thing, but take some time to dwell on this verse. We are ending our Advent study in the way we began it—with a passage which (I believe) sums up what Christmas is all about in a single sentence:
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. (2 Co. 8:9)
That’s what Christmas is all about: our God becoming poor and being born in lowliest of conditions so that we, by His poverty, might become rich in His grace.

I would like to end this Advent series with the words to my favorite Christmas hymn, “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing” by Charles Wesley:
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 th’ angelic host proclaim,
“Christ is born in Bethlehem!”
     Refrain:
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 th’ incarnate Deity,
Pleased with us in flesh to dwell,
Jesus our Emmanuel.
     Refrain

Hail the heav’nly Prince of Peace!
Hail the Sun 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.
     Refrain

Come, Desire of nations, come,
Fix in us Thy humble home;
Rise, the woman’s conqu’ring 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.
     Refrain

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 inner man:
O, to all Thyself impart,
Formed in each believing heart.
     Refrain
By His Grace,
Taylor

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