The Glory Of God Revealed To The Nations Series

The Glory of Heaven Revealed to the Nations

December 21, 2025

Dr. Bradford Reaves

Crossway Christian Fellowship

Luke 2:21-32

When we think of Christmas, we picture warmth—lights, family, the glow of a tree, the smell of something good in the oven. My grandfather, who fought in the Pacific, used to tell me that Christmas always felt like a moment when the world paused just long enough to breathe. But the older I get, the more I realize that Christmas doesn’t always arrive in peaceful places. Sometimes it breaks into the darkest nights in the coldest corners of the world.

In December 1944, during the Battle of the Bulge, one of the harshest winters Europe had seen in decades descended on a forest in the Ardennes. American troops—many of them teenagers—were dug into frozen foxholes, hungry, exhausted, and surrounded. On Christmas Eve, a young American soldier named Private John “Jack” Schaffner wrote in his diary from the front lines. He described bitter cold, constant shelling, and the fear that the German offensive might overwhelm them. Yet in that same entry, Schaffner wrote something extraordinary:

“It is Christmas Eve. The sky is clear. The stars are beautiful. We are dug in on a slope and the snow is white all around. The guns have stopped for the moment… and someone down the line is singing Silent Night. It is strange… but for the first time in days, I feel calm. God is here.”

Another true account comes from a small group of American soldiers who took shelter in a German woman’s cabin that same Christmas Eve. When a terrified mother named Elisabeth Vincken opened her door to find three wounded American soldiers on her steps, she took them in. Moments later, four German soldiers also appeared seeking shelter. She told them, “Tonight, there will be no killing.” She made them stack their weapons outside. And in that tiny cabin—Americans and Germans, enemies in war—shared a Christmas meal, a prayer, and a few hours of peace before returning to the battlefield.

Christmas doesn’t pretend the world isn’t broken. It declares that God steps into brokenness with a Light no darkness can overcome.

Luke 2:21–32 pulls our eyes out of our small, warm circles—our traditions, our homes, our world—and lifts them toward the blazing, global glory of God revealed in His Son. The Child Mary carried in her arms is not just the comfort of one nation; He is the salvation “prepared in the presence of all peoples,” the Light of the nations, and the glory of Israel.

I. A Child Under the Law to Redeem Those Under the Law

And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. 22 And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord 23 (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) 24 and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.” (Luke 2:21–24)

Luke begins by grounding Christmas in the real world of Jewish life and biblical promise. “At the end of eight days,” he writes, Jesus was circumcised according to the Law and officially given the name commanded by Gabriel: Jesus—Yahweh saves. In those simple verses, the eternal Son who authored the Law in glory now willingly places Himself under it in humility. The God who thundered at Sinai now lies in a mother’s arms, wrapped in human flesh, submitting to every requirement of the Law so that He might redeem those who could never keep it.

Have you ever asked yourself, why was Jesus circumcised? Was it merely for the fact of tradition or identifying as a Jewish boy? Why did the son of God require the circumcision of his flesh? Let’s walk through the four reasons Scripture gives us.

1. Jesus Was Circumcised to Identify Fully With the Covenant People of God

Circumcision began in Genesis 17 as the sign of God’s covenant with Abraham and his descendants. It marked Israel as God’s chosen people.

• By being circumcised, Jesus:

• enters the covenant community of Israel,

• affirms God’s promises to Abraham,

• identifies Himself with His people at the most vulnerable level — from infancy.

He is not an outsider who swoops in; He is a Son of Abraham (Matt. 1:1). He is the true seed through whom all the nations will be blessed (Gen. 22:18). If Jesus had NOT been circumcised, He would have stood outside the covenant He came to fulfill. This wasn’t merely tradition; it was covenant fidelity.