He came down from Heaven
1 Once in royal David's city
stood a lowly cattle shed,
where a mother laid her baby
in a manger for his bed:
Mary was that mother mild,
Jesus Christ, her little child.
2 He came down to earth from heaven
who is God and Lord of all,
and his shelter was a stable,
and his cradle was a stall:
with the poor, and mean, and lowly,
lived on earth our Saviour holy.
who is God and Lord of all,
and his shelter was a stable,
and his cradle was a stall:
with the poor, and mean, and lowly,
lived on earth our Saviour holy.
A 'carnivore' is a flesh-eating creature, the word 'carnis' meaning flesh, from the Latin. In the same way the word 'incarnation' also comes from 'carnis' and means 'to be made flesh.'
At Christmas time we use the big word 'incarnation' to refer to the coming of the Son of God into the world in the human form of Jesus. God becoming flesh, the Son of God adding to his divine nature a human nature.
Our carol today reminds us of this great truth, "He came down to earth from heaven who is God and Lord of all."
God and Lord of All
It is second highest mystery of the Godhead, coming after the Holy Trinity, how in One Person a fully Divine and fully Human nature can combine. As one ancient writer put it "He became what he was not (that is a human being) and continued to be what he always was (that is God)."
What an amazing thought and wondrous fact: the baby born in Bethlehem was both man and God.
It had to be!
Because Jesus Christ is divine he could become the perfect sacrifice acceptable to God, not having to bear away his own sins, for he had none.
Because Jesus Christ is divine, he could bear the weight of God's wrath against sin on his shoulders.
Because Jesus Christ is divine, salvation is 'of God' and not of man. Our salvation is secure!
But Jesus was also fully human....
His shelter was a stable
...for his shelter was a stable, and his cradle was a stall. God does not live in stables or rest in cradles. That's the lot of human beings.
Jesus was a real human being, like you and like me, and yet without any of our sin.
Because he was human, the Son of God has walked our walk.
Because he was human, the Son of God has suffered our sorrows.
Because he was a real man, he can understand all the painful experiences we pass through in this short life. And more than understand, by his Spirit, empathise with us, enter into them with us and comfort us.
And listen! No-one can say "Jesus does not understand my plight!".......
Bias to the Poor
...because he 'lived on earth, our Saviour Holy, with the poor and mean and lowly.'
I am so glad the Lord Jesus was not born in a Kensington or Buckingham palace. If he had been 99% of the world would feel unable to relate to him. By being born in a humble stable, no-one can say 'That Jesus is only for upper-class people or educated people or aristocratic people!'
The whole of the Scriptures bear witness to God's bias to the poor, and especially the poor in heart.
Lord of heaven.
Born in a shelter.
Able to connect to all by his humble birth.
What an amazing Saviour!
A SONG FOR THE DAY
This song about Mary ponders whether Mary really understood that the child she bore was fully divine.
A PRAYER FOR THE DAY
Our loving Father in heaven,
We marvel at the wisdom of your great plan of salvation! We worship your Son who was both man and God.
We thank you that he was God, so that we might be forgiven.
We thank you that he was man so that we might have in heaven a sympathetic high priest.
Help us to take all our sorrows to you in prayer, knowing that you will listen, understand and help us by the power of your Holy Spirit.
In Jesus' name we ask these things,
Amen
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