King of the Carols - Hark the Herald Angels Sing - Veiled in Flesh

 

 

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 th'incarnate Deity,
pleased with us in flesh to dwell,
Jesus, our Immanuel.

 Glory Veiled

This  second verse of "Hark the herald Angels Sing" reminds us that Jesus Christ is God, the Son of God, by highest heaven adored. And reminds us that no-one looking into the manger would have known, for his glory was veiled in flesh.

This is both a mystery and a stumbling block to some.

It is a mystery to all of us how the divine the Son of God, "the everlasting Lord," who had no beginning or end, could combine that divine nature with a truly human nature, so that there is only one Person, the divine and human Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 

Jesus was not at one moment divine and at the next human. From the moment he took on human flesh in the womb of Mary he was the God-man and to this very day he is the God-man and for all eternity future he will be the eternal God-man.

No-one can get that, absolutely no-one can understand this high truth. But where the mind fails, the heart can still worship.

A stumbling block for others who refuse to believe simply because they don't understand the mystery or because they think that God taking on a human nature would diminish God.

The so-called Jehovah's Witnesses refuse to accept that Jesus was both man and God, robbing him of his glory by assigning him to the status only of a man. 

But everywhere in Scriptrue the true humanity and true divinity of Jesus Christ is attested. Those disputes are long over and settled and those who deny the dual-natures of Jesus Christ, combined in One Person, are rightly regarded as heretics and false teachers.

Why veil his divine nature?

But why did the Son of God veil his divine nature while he was in the world so that anyone passing Jesus in the street would have failed to notice that this was God? 

Except to those whose spiritual eyes were opened to the truth, no-one could "see" that Jesus was God, and perhaps especially so, when he was a tiny babe in Bethlehem.

If the Son of God had not veiled his human nature it would have been impossible for anyone to get near him, so bright would his countenance have been. Moses was forbidden to see God's glory because "no-one can see God and live." (Exodus 33:20)

And if his countenance was too glorious to behold, he could not have lived an ordinary human life.  He would always have been held in high esteeem and never become the "man of sorrows and aquainted with grief."  

No soldier could have got near him to arrest him, and no Roman ruler could have crucified him. 

And if he had not veiled his divinity he could not have become the kind of sacrifice that was necessary to effectually pay for the sins of other human beings. It was necessary that the Saviour be a real man - a  sinless man, true - to  take away the sins of a world of real men.

So, all for love's sake, so he could save us, the Son of God was born as a human babe leaving aside all the trappings of divine majesty.

A SONG FOR THE DAY
How about THIS lovely rendition of "Joy to the World." One bloke, four voices, in beautiful harmony. 

A PRAYER FOR THE DAY

Our loving and holy Father above,

We thank you for the wonderful plan of salvation. We thank you that in the wisdom of God your Son veiled his divinity so that he could experience a normal human life, be a sympathetic high priest and become a suitable sacrifice for sinners.

We will never know the sorrow you went through as you saw your beloved Son suffer and we will never understand the agony of your Son. But we thank you that for love's sake, Jesus became poor.

We worship Father, Son and Holy Spirit for such a great salvation,

Amen