O Come, All Ye Faithful

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”  -John 1:14 “O Come, All Ye Faithful” is one of the more well-known songs of Christmas. Most of the time, we are familiar with the first three verses that tell the story of Christ’s birth with triumphant joy. Yet it’s the fourth stanza that draws deeply from Scripture and talks of the great mystery that is described in John 1. In what you might call the prologue to the book of John, those early verses describe Jesus as the “Word of God.” “The Word was with God, and the Word was God.” In those opening fourteen verses of Scripture, we find a summary of the purpose of the coming of Christ. For all who receive Jesus and believe in him as the true light of the world, we are promised the “right to become children of God.” What an amazing, life-altering promise! John 1 also says, “The Word be­came flesh and made his dwell­ing among us.” In other words, God himself came to be one of us. He came to live with us. He came to provide us with the gift of becoming children of God. When we sing, “Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing,” this simple yet profound lyric reminds us that God himself has come to be one of us. That’s what we celebrate at Christmas! We celebrate the mystery that God became one of us so that He could save us from the curse of sin and death, giving us new life as the children of God. That good news leads us and invites us to sing, “O come, let us adore him, Christ the Lord!”