Hark the Herald Angels - Part 5

Consider today these lines from “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing”.

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;
Hail th’incarnate Deity,
Pleased with us in flesh to dwell,
Jesus our Emmanuel.

The man Jesus Christ was also God. That is the straightforward assertion of the Christian faith. Jesus Himself said, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” (John 14:9). He also said, “I and My Father are one.” (John 10:30) After the resurrection of Christ, He appeared to a group of disciples. Thomas was missing from that group and when he was informed by the others that they had seen Jesus alive, he said that he wouldn’t believe it unless he could actually stick his fingers into the wounds in Jesus’ body. At a later time Jesus showed up again and told Thomas to feel his wounds. Thomas response was, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:27)

While here on this earth, Jesus looked like any other man, but He was God “veiled in flesh.” Paul writing to the Colossian Christians says, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.” (Colossians 1:10ff)

Later he writes “In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” (Colossians 2:9) And then the author of Hebrews writes, “In these last days [God has] spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” (Hebrews 1:3)

These are the descriptions of the one about whom those angels sang. This is the one whom the shepherds and wise men came to see. He is the incarnate Deity.

Paul told his hearers that God “has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained.” We have one life to live and after that comes the judgment, the evaluation of our lives. As you think of the Christ of Christmas, remember that He is the one who is going to evaluate you. Have you committed yourself to this one who left heaven to become a man so that you could be rescued?