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“Christ by highest heaven adored; Christ, the everlasting Lord!
Late in time behold Him come, Offspring of the virgin’s womb:
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see, Hail, the incarnate deity.
Pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus our Emmanuel.
Hark! The herald angels sing, Glory to the newborn King.”
This carol teaches Christ’s deity – divinity
“Christ by highest heaven adored” is the divine Son of God, God the Son. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1).
He is Everlasting Lord, the second member of the Trinity. God showed His love (He didn’t just talk about it) by coming to earth to live as we do, to experience rejection and shame beyond anything we have ever known, but He didn’t relinquish His divine nature, He remained fully God–among–men.
This carol teaches Christ’s virgin birth
This carol proclaims He is “Offspring of the virgin’s womb.” The Bible is not vague about this: “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14).
If we reject this claim of the Bible, then everything else is up for grabs too
This carol teaches Christ’s incarnation (He came in the flesh)
“Veiled in flesh the Godhead see; Hail, the incarnate deity.” “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
This was a real, true–to–life human birth of a true–to–life, flesh–and–blood human baby. Mary was exhausted, wracked by pain (It was her first child, remember), disheveled, probably bleeding, when the birth was over. Don’t romanticize the real earthly birth of Christ—He came in the flesh, with everything that means. Human birth is neither easy nor pretty . . . and all the pain and struggle and physical punishment applied to Mary, just like it did to pretty much every other human mother!
This carol teaches Christ’s humanity
“Pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus our Emmanuel.” “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15).
He lived here for 33–years, as much a man as any of us. He suffered what we suffer, He struggled with the things that plague us. He knows exactly what we go through, with one exception; He has no guilt, no remorse, no regrets. The Bible tells us He remained sinless.
Next Time: from “How Jesus came” and “Who Jesus is” to “What Jesus offers”