Christmas - uniting God's glory with men's peace

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Saturday, 24 December 2011 07:15

Have you ever stopped to consider the angelic response to the birth of Christ? “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” (Luke 2:14)

It is an amazing declaration which they make. “Glory to God” united with “peace among [men]”. Two things are joined through the incarnation of Christ which no ingenuity or effort of man could ever have brought together.

We could imagine various ways in which God could have been glorified without bringing peace to men. He could have glorified Himself solely by punishing the sins of men. In that way He would have manifested the glory of His justice, power, and wrath without ever bringing peace to men (cf. Rom. 9:22; 2:5). Having disposed of men, He could have glorified Himself before the angels simply by maintaining the earth He created and the creatures within it, for through His creative works the glory of His power, and wisdom, and divine nature are seen (Ps. 19:1; Rom. 1:20; Isa. 6:3). And in innumerable other ways beyond our imagination He could have glorified Himself without ever benefiting us.

But that is not the declaration of Christmas. The declaration of Christmas is that God in His mercy brought His glory together with the peace of men. By sending His Son, He reconciled men to Himself. Through the life and death of His Son He accomplished for men what men could not accomplish for themselves.

Christ took on “flesh and blood” – a true human nature – “that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.” (Heb. 2:14-15) Apart from taking on a human nature, Christ could not die. And apart from His dying as a substitutionary sacrifice for us, we could not be delivered from the wrath of God to live in peace with God (Rom. 5:9-11).

That is the declaration of Christmas which we hear through the angelic response – God has brought peace to us men and glory to His name through the incarnation of His Son.

All who trust in Jesus this Christmas can rejoice with the angelic host, for “having been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1).

Praise God for the God-glorifying peace He has brought us through His Son!

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

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