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The astonished heavens

December 28,  2008  - Dale

The Christmas sky is full of light and stars and angels, and although the heavens are bright they are really lighting up the earth and what is happening down below. It looks as though the main action is on the earth.

“Peace on Earth” - one of the most popular Christmas slogans – suggests the same thing.  But the actual saying is, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased.” 

What glory in heaven is God getting from the birth of Jesus?  How come the angels are applauding God?  How does the birth of Jesus increase God’s fame in heaven?

One way to think about it is to ask what three words best sum up the story of Jesus’ birth. Three possible words might be King, Saviour, and God. The first two are clear enough descriptions of Jesus’ role in fulfilling promises made by the Old Testament prophets. These alone are enough to make God famous in heaven and earth because he kept the promises he made before hand and rescued his people from sin and death.

When we think about Jesus’ birth we remember that he was to be the Son of God, or the Son of the Most High. This tells us something more about Jesus.

But it tells us something even more amazing about God. Something that must have brought astonished wonder to the hosts of heaven. The birth of Jesus began a new era in the life of God. The Son who was always with God and who was God, who always existed, who shared the same being and life as the Father and the Holy Spirit, became human. He took human life to himself. He was born as a real human being and yet was still the eternal Son, sharing the one life of the one God.

The one true God that the Jews had worshipped in the words, “Yahweh our God, Yahweh is one.”, had joined himself to human flesh in the person of the eternal son of the Father. This was not a multiplying of God, or of adding extra beings to God. This was what the only God who is one did.

The amazing thing this tells us is that the one God is a fellowship of three persons. Only one God, only one nature, only one being, but three persons. One of whom, who was fully and truly God became human.

That is cause for the glory of God to be praised in the heavens.

There are many wonderful things about the coming of the Christ. I hope this Christmas has set your mind to thinking, your heart to praising, and your will to obeying.

Dale

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