After reading The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited by Scot McKnight, who makes the claim that the gospel is the saving story of Jesus as Messiah, King, and Lord as the completion to the story of Israel, I started to notice some profound gospel messages in the Christmas carols we often sing during this season.
I have found that several of these carols go much deeper (much more biblical) than the personal salvation “gospel” of sin-management that we often preach and sing about. What’s tragic is that, even though these carols are quite possibly the best-known Christian songs, their familiarity (and the fact that we only break them out for 1/12th of the year), makes it quite easy to ignore their substance.
Christians, my brothers and sisters,
instead of allowing Fox News to persuade us that the “War on Christmas” is being fought in the stores when people say “Happy Holidays,”
instead of thinking that our Messiah’s main “sorrow” in December is that more people are not saying “Merry Christmas” more often…
…let us examine ourselves. How guilty are we of reducing our “King,” “everlasting Lord,” “Prince of Peace,” “Sun of Righteousness,” and our Messiah into an individual savior whose birth, life, death, and resurrection accomplishes nothing more than getting us into heaven when we die and helping us to manage our personal sins in the meantime?
Perhaps we should be more concerned with our emaciated versions of the gospel than with how we are greeted when entering and exiting our society’s temples to consumerism and greed.
Please join me in attempting to look through the unfortunately and undeservedly trite familiarity of this song to see its portrayal of the gospel:
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!”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.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.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.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.
May your hearts and minds be set upon Jesus the Messiah, King, Lord, Savior, and Prince of Peace.
And may you all, in doing so, have a very Merry Christmas.
~Josh