See The Hidden Glory Of God’s Son

Jesus came from the Father with the fullness of God’s grace. That is God’s undeserved love for us that has completely dealt with our sins. It might make us uncomfortable to talk about it on Christmas Eve but if we are going to see the glory of God’s Son then we must talk about the purpose of Jesus birth. He was born to live a perfectly sinless life in our place. And he was born to die in our place. It’s easy to get distracted by all of the literal and figurative “shiny objects” of Christmas and miss the great message of this night. A Savior has been born for you. And to actually do the saving he came to do it would require all of him. This important thought is expressed in a poem by Joseph Bayly entitled, “From Heaven’s Threshold.” “Praise God for Christmas. Praise Him for the incarnation, for the word made flesh. I will not sing of shepherds watching flocks on frosty nights, or angel choristers. I will not sing of a stable bare in Bethlehem, or lowing oxen, wise men trailing star with gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Tonight I will sing praise to the Father who stood on heaven’s threshold and said farewell to his Son as he stepped across the stars to Bethlehem and Jerusalem. And I will sing praise to the infinite, eternal Son, who became most finite, a baby who would one day be executed for my crime. Praise him in the heavens, Praise him in the stable, Praise him in my heart.”

Yes, when we see the glory of God’s Son it means we know that we are fully forgiven because Jesus brought us the full grace of God. We don’t have to speculate about how to be in a right relationship with God. There is no reason for us to wonder about how God looks at us or if he loves us. Jesus says to us, “24 I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” In Mark’s Gospel he said, “16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.” When we see that kind of grace in the face of Jesus we see the true glory of God’s Son. That is why he was born. As we celebrate his birth tonight may we receive that grace by faith.

C.S. Lewis, the great Christian writer of the mid 1900’s described what Jesus did for us as he came from the Father full of grace and truth, “One may think of a diver first reducing himself to nakedness, then glancing in mid-air, then gone with a splash, vanished, rushing down through green and warm water into black and cold water, down through the increasing pressure into the deathlike region of ooze and slime and old decay, and then back up again, back to color and light, his lungs almost bursting until suddenly he breaks the surface again, holding in his hand the dripping, precious thing he went down to recover. That dripping, precious thing is you and I, and Advent is when we celebrate his coming down to us.” That is a great way to picture what Jesus did when he came from the Father. Into the darkness of this world he dove to recover us and save us. Or as the Lutheran hymnwriter Paul Gerhardt described it, “O Jesus Christ, your manger is my paradise at which I am reclining. For there, O Lord, we find the Word made flesh for us—your grace is brightly shining.” Yes, when we see the glory of God’s Son we see that he comes from the Father full of grace—undeserved love for sinners like us.