O Holy Night
It's Christmas time, which means Christmas music. I have to admit, I don't particularly care for Christmas music, especially when people start playing it in September! There is one song we sing for worship each advent that particularly gets me, however. The song, O Holy Night, gets to me each Christmas season. For example, Jennifer Hudson's O Holy Night, linked here is a beautiful rendition that I really enjoy.
One part of the lyrics stands out to me in particular:
O Holy Night! The stars are brightly shining,
It is the night of the dear Savior's birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining.
Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices!
O night divine, the night when Christ was born;
O night, O Holy Night , O night divine!
O night, O Holy Night , O night divine!
As I wondered about why this part of the song gets to me so much, it dawned on me! These lyrics really witness to me the beauty of the gospel.
"long lay the world in sin and error pining"
One thing the overall story of the Bible teaches us is that we have rejected God the Creator and chosen to live in sin and rebellion against him. The Old Testament points us again and again to the sinfulness of mankind. In Genesis 1-2, the world that God has created for man to live in is perfect and good. In Genesis 3, sin enters the world and distorts everything. Everything is tainted by sin.
We see this continue in our world today. One lament we can have as we watch the news is that the world lays in sin and error, and we long for justice, we long for hope, we long for a better future - we want something to believe in. We are longing for something better.
"til He appeared and the soul felt its worth"
Saint Augustine said, "You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until we find our rest in You."
God is the Creator, blessed forever! God has wired us, our inward parts, to know Him and love Him. Our sin has distorted things, and we try to fill that void with other things. We try self-righteous works, fitness, drinking, drugs, sex, power, nationalism, greed, and anything we can find to fill that void.
That void in our lives is for God. The thing we are longing for is God the Creator. God's created things can never satisfy us. Things can never satisfy our hearts, we aren't materialists. We are created in the image of God, to know God and reflect His glory into the world.
When we don't have God and we try to fill that void with other things like alcohol or sex or power, we become less human and we dehumanize others.
When God appears in our lives, and in our hearts, our soul feels its worth. God opens our eyes to see that He is good and He is worthy of our love and praise. He reveals to us that His beauty surpasses that of His good gifts. Wine, food, sex, these are all good gifts from God but they aren't good gods.
The gospel helps our souls to feel worth because God opens our eyes to His worth.
"a thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices"
The gospel is all about hope and rest.
HOPE
The gospel gives us hope in all things, even suffering, because God has made peace with us through Christ and brought us into relationship with Him:
Hope in God does not put us to shame, because Jesus came into the world and lived the sinless life we couldn't and died in our place taking the punishment we deserve for our sins upon himself so that we could have peace with God. God cannot accept us as sinful men and women, but he does accept us in Christ because on the cross, Jesus paid the penalty for all who believe in him. We have been rendered a "not guilty" verdict because the truly innocent one, Jesus, went to the cross for us taking on our guilt. Because this is done, God has declared us justified, cleared of all charges. We have peace with God and this gives us hope, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
REST
Jesus says, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light (Matthew 11:28–30 ESV)."
The gospel tells us we don't have to earn our salvation. We can't earn our not guilty verdict, but God can give it to us! This is exactly what God does when we rest from trying to make ourselves righteous before God.
The gospel tells us to stop working for our salvation and to rest in Jesus' finished work. We "rest" by trusting that Jesus has accomplished for us what we could never do for ourselves. We cling to Jesus by faith, and that is how we rest in his work.
This world is weary. There are a million groups out there who all think their way is the way to hope, peace, and rest. The gospel teaches us that in Christ we find our hope, peace, and rest. This is why the weary world rejoices at his birth.
"for yonder breaks, a new and glorious morn"
John writes, "The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world (John 1:9 ESV)."
At Jesus' birth, a new and glorious morn appears. God has come into the world through Jesus Christ to recreate all things, to make all things new. This is a day like any other. The resurrection of Jesus from the dead, 33 years after his birth here, is the day when everything started to be made new again.
This is also what happens when God grabs a hold of a person through the gospel. When the gospel is heard and God reveals Christ in someone, a new and glorious morn dawns upon their life. The true light of Christ starts to shine in their heart.
The light of Christ has shone into the darkness of a heart that previously lived in rejection of God, and this person has been born again, created new, to live a new life unto God. Belief in the gospel truly brings someone (like me) from death to life!
"fall on your knees, o hear the angel voices"
The lyrics cause me to think of Luke 2, where the angels rejoice at Jesus' birth!
“Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” (Luke 2:8–14 ESV)
These lyrics also remind me of the gospel.
Jesus taught us to, "Repent and believe." We have to repent of our sins, and we have to believe.
We have to fall down on our knees and say to God, "Have mercy on me, a sinner!" Repentance means changing our mind entirely. Repentance means we see the offer of the gospel, forgiveness and hope in Christ and we give our lives to Jesus, abandoning our self-reliance and entrusting ourselves in faith to him.
When this happens, another glorious truth takes place. When you repent and believe in Jesus, your sins are forgiven and you are made new in Christ, and the angels rejoice!
When a sinner repents and accepts Jesus as Lord and Savior, there is rejoicing in heaven! It's a party!
"Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”
So he told them this parable: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance (Luke 15:1–7 ESV)."
God is pleased to save sinners, and Jesus' birth reminds us of that divine night when the Word became flesh and brought heaven to earth.
If you haven't yet trusted Christ, what's keeping you from the party?
If you have given your life to Jesus are you rejoicing in him today?
Comments
Post a Comment