“And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, Glory to God In the highest, and on earth peace, God will towards men.” Luke 2:13, 1413And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, 14Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. (Luke 2:13‑14).
THE passage in Timothy (1 Tim., 3:16) tells us who it was that was “Seen of Angels,” when heaven made known its joy to earth that wondrous night.’ It etas “God manifest in the flesh” they saw in the child it:1St born in Bethlehem; and far-reaching were to be the consequences of that amazing fact. Earth was asleep, and men dreamed nothing of this infinite job which was come to them. Heaven was awake, bright with expectation and delight. The “Son of God,” who had welcomed with shouts of joy the laying of the foundations of the earth, were here with notes of lowlier praise in presence of a little babe, who should lay deeper the foundations of a new creation — nay, who Himself should be the “beginning of the creation of God,”―of what alone God could own as fully His.
Holy, unjealous praise it was, that could celebrate the visitation of this lower and fallen world in such a mariner by the Son of God. Not that they reaped nothing by it. Indeed they could not but be infinite gainers by the mere sight of Jesus. The heart of God, their God, told out in Him in whom, “full of grace and truth,” Divine glory shone, could not but be full of richest blessing, even for the blessed and unfallen inhabitants of heaven. This one expression of the Apostle’s “seen of Angels” may suggest to us surely, how much lay for them in their seeing Him. Did they not know God much better? Were they not in very deed brought nearer to Him? Did not the everlasting arms that were now wrapped round men, in that very act enclose them also!
But we are going to learn what tilled angels’ hearts; from their own lips. It may be— God grant it may — to you also, dear reader, “good tidings of great joy” that they shall bring to you just now. Yes, and whoever, you are, I am sure it may be so. No sorrow so great but that God’s story of grace may remove it. No burden so great but it may lift it off. No prisoner so deep in the lowest dungeon of Satan, tied and bound with the chain of his sins, but it may be to him the welcome voice of forgiveness and release. It is the “chief of sinners,” chief of Apostles, who says, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation” — read that word in the simplest and apply it in the widest possible way: it means “DELIVERANCE,” — for it is the power of God unto salvation to EVERY ONE that believeth.” (Rom. 1:1616For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. (Romans 1:16).)
There are three things in what the angels see and-celebrate in the birth of Jesus. Let us look at the first thing first. It is a great thing to get not merely truth, but truth in divine order. Whenever you get that, God has the first place necessarily, — “Glory to God in the highest.”
It is a sad proof of where we are, that this is not the natural order with us. We naturally begin with ourselves first, and it is even well if God is not left out altogether. But there is no blessing for us so. God must have His place and His glory, and all good for us depends upon His having it.
The law claimed this from man. To “love God with all one’s heart and soul and mind and strength” was declared by it to be his first duty. But none from the highest to the lowest, responded to that claim No, none. “There is none righteous, no, not one.” Abram or David could no more stand upon that ground than you or I. “There is none that doeth good, no, not one.” “How solemn and emphatic that repetition, “no, not one!” There was nothing but Adam over, again in all his children. There was no difference among men as to this, no “second man.”
But the angels were rejoicing now, because a “second man” bad come. “The second man is the Lord from heaven.” (1 Cor. 15:4747The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. (1 Corinthians 15:47).) God was to get now from man the glory due Him. Tried in every possible way, — exposed and exposing Himself to every form of sorrow and evil, — on the cross bearing the wrath due to our sins, He did only and always the thing that pleased God. His meat and His drink was to do His will; it was the one thing for which He had come, and in a wilderness, with power to furnish for Himself from the stones themselves the food He needed, that bodily need was with Him no sufficient motive to supply it, where God’s will was not expressed. That obedience of Christ was a wonderful thing very different from what we often mean by obedience, which is only not transgressing certain limits in doing our own will. He had no motive for doing anything, but that it was His Father’s will. That will He had come into the world to do, and nothing else. “Lo, I come — in the volume of the hook it is written of me — I delight to do thy will, O my God.”
Thus He could say, at the close of that will-less life down here, in the simple consciousness of the perfection of that obedience, “I have glorified Thee on the earth.” On the other hand the Father’s voice from heaven gave its own testimony of delight in Him as openly. At Jordan, where linking Himself with the sinners of Israel in the Baptism of John, that voice singled Him out from all the rest: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” On the Mount of Transfiguration, in company with a Moses and Elias, linking himself thus with saints in glory as before with sinners, — still and no less that voice once more separates Him from all others: “This is my Beloved Son; hear Him.” But more than all, far more, in the quiet of a morn before it dawned, when the keepers of the closed and guarded tomb scattered from it, broken without hand, and the “keys of death” were at the girdle of Him they could not hold; —when again, in simple majesty, without chariot or horse of fire, or the ministry of angels’ hands, a man ascended from Olivet to God; — finally; when at Pentecost with the shaking of the house and tongues of fire, soon to kindle among men, the Holy Ghost came down to bear witness of One sitting at the right haul of God: (Acts 2:32, 34,32This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. (Acts 2:32)
34For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, (Acts 2:34)) — then and thus was He declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by resurrection from the dead.” (Rom. 1:44And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead: (Romans 1:4).)
Triumphant witness this of what angels already celebrate over the Manger of Bethlehem: “Glory to God in the highest.” But what glory to God, who shall tell? The wonder of that life whose earthly limits were the manger and the grave, deepens immeasurable as we look at it. Was it alone, that here was One, man amongst men, to whom His God was, not simply supreme, but all? That was not half the truth. Nay, but this “Second Man” was “the Lord from Heaven.”
“Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient to death, even the death of the Cross.” These were the steps of that wondrous humiliation, in which surely every ray of glory given up by the Son of God was glory gained by the Father. He, among men meekest and lowliest, the patient sufferer of sorrow that had no equal, shielding Himself from nothing which could come on man as man, yet pouring freely forth for man all the wealth of the Divine treasury; taking out infirmities, bearing our sicknesses; spite of suffering, spite of return of hate for His good will, One whose “delights were with the sans of men”―O reader, this was God Manifest; this was the glory of the Only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father; and what is faith in this Jesus, but that which gives to your soul a GOD you cannot else know, before whom you stand in adoration with the angels here, crying, “Glory to God in the highest.”
It was not for them He came, yet angels saw and worshipped. By and bye it will fill heaven and earth for eternity with rejoicing worshippers. God glorified! yes, and how? By the simple display of what He is. There is no other God, back of this One who “has spoken” to me “in His Son.” I know Him. I have a picture of the “Invisible God.” His glory shines for me in the face of Jesus. How different from my fears! How different from my unbelief! Yes, beloved reader, and He it is who says, and has title to say to every weary heart under the sun, whatever has made it so, “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
That brings in the second thing in the angels’ words: “and on earth, peace.” Perhaps some weary one may say, “I thought you were forgetting that.” Not so, but we have taken the only possible way to arrive at it. He has “made peace by the blood of His cross.” Don’t you need to know whose shoulders could sustain so great a burden? Now, beloved, look at Jesus. What think ye of Him? Was He not the fitting Person to undertake for you? and would not work done by Him be well done? Even so has He proclaimed it; upon the cross itself, that you might know where and when and how it was wrought, the Son of God proclaimed His work as “finished.” “It is finished.” if you ask what was finished, —I answer, without controversy a work upon the ground of which peace could be preached (Eph. 2:1818For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. (Ephesians 2:18)) as MADE (Col. 1:2020And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. (Colossians 1:20)), and not to make. You and I have not to make it, not to add to it, but only to hear, to believe it and to be at peace. “Being justified by faith we have peace with God” — how? — “through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Rom. 5:11Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: (Romans 5:1).)
Did I not say, it was a very short way now to peace? God glorified is more than God satisfied, but God is satisfied is peace. Thus there is much more than “peace” through the blood of Jesus; but peace there is. “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace.”
Little as yet indeed do we see of it “on earth.” But it is sweet to know what is in God’s thought for man. It will find its full accomplishment when the “Prince of peace” shall come again. But meanwhile God would have every ear hear, every heart attend to the preaching of this peace. The first words of the risen Lord in the assembly of His own were “Peace he unto you.” And when He had so said, He showed them His hinds and His side. And then again once more He said, “Peace be to you.” And immediately He added, “As my Father hath sent Me, even so send I you.”
They were to be His messengers to publish that peace to others which He had preached to them. And with what tender assurance to the heart of every one would He have the word proclaimed: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the good news to every creature.” There could be no mistake, there can be none, in saying to every soul on earth, “It is for you.” And mark, how simple, how sure the consequence. “He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved.” Christ has said it. Will His word fail, more than His work? Trust it, beloved reader. Trust it without a doubt, and though “heaven and earth may pass away,” His “word shall not pass away.”
Thus it is “peace on earth.” Man refusing and rejecting, the Lord might foresee as the result of the preaching even of His “gospel of peace,” “not peace, but a sword.” That was not what the angels were looking at in the face of the babe in Bethlehem on the night of the birth of Jesus. And that was not in the heart of Him who, risen from the dead, bade them carry His gospel into all the world. With both, what linked itself with “Glory to God in the highest,” was “on earth, peace.”
But there is yet more than this the angels say. For upon the foundation of “God glorified,” there can be built as I have said, much more than “peace on earth,” blessed as indeed that is. But here the language of our English version fails to convey the full truth of this third thing in the angels’ words. “Good will toward men,” would be a very feeble conclusion, to say the least, to what began with “Glory to God in the highest,” and that wrought out in the “obedience unto death” of the incarnate Son of God. Surely they who looked with unjealous wonder on Him before whom they veiled their faces, veiling Himself in human flesh, — saw more in it than simply “good will.” Yea, it was “good pleasure,” — “delight in men,” they saw and proclaimed. The self-same word is used as where the Father gars that testimony once before noted, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased;” or as some have put it, “in whom I have found my delight.” (Mat. 4:17.) The strongest expression is the best, we all feel, to convey to us the fullness of the Divine approbation there, And with “the man, Christ Jesus,” before us as the proof and justification of it, what language can be too strong to express what was in the heart of Him, who had “sent Him into the world” for man, and now found in Him, as man, its worthy object?
Nay, of old it had been said by Him who was Eternal Wisdom, “My delights were with the sons of men.” (Prov. 8:3131Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men. (Proverbs 8:31).) Now it was fully manifest and for us, who can look up and see the Son of God sitting upon the Father’s throne, what depths of wonder and of joy are in the knowledge that He is still, and for evermore, a man, who sits there!
Yes, in the nearest and most intimate relationship to the Divine, that can be, is our human nature. The Son of the Father is also man. And in manhood taken, not before man fell, but long, long after — bridging over thus the awful gap and distance of the fall, not indeed by incarnation merely, but by that “offering of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all,” which was in the forefront of the will of God, which he had come to do. (Heb. 10)
The “corn of wheat” must “fall into the ground and die,” or it would “abide alone.” (John 12:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. (John 12:24).) This side of His atoning death there could be no union between the second man, the Lord from Heaven, and the children of the fallen “first man.” But that point of lowest suffering reached, it is a righteous thing with God to give a place “in Christ,” linked forever with Him, to those for whom He underwent the suffering of the Cross. “We,” who believe, are thus “made the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Cor. 5:2121For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:21).) God is righteous in putting Him in highest glory, who gloried Him in the endurance of the penalty of sin, that you and I might he saved. But then He is righteous too, in giving the saved one; for whom He bore that penalty, a place in Him who bore it for them.
He has linked Himself with them, and they are indissolubly henceforth so linked by God. They are “in Christ,” and “here is no condemnation for them which are in Christ Jesus.” (Rom. 8:11There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (Romans 8:1).) Divine love is perfected with them, casting out fear that they may have boldness, in the day of judgment, because AS HE is, so are they in this world. (1 John 4:17,1817Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. 18There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. (1 John 4:17‑18).) Yea, they are “accepted in the Beloved” (Eph. 1:66To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. (Ephesians 1:6)), and therefore loved as He is loved, as the glory in which they will appear with Him, will one day bear witness to the world. (John 17:2323I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. (John 17:23).) These are God’s thoughts towards us, and God’s sayings to us, beloved reader; what do they witness of, but indeed what the angels speak of, the Divine “delight in men?”
To come closer home, what a thing to realize, resting on us, on you and me, beloved, that favor, that delight which rested and rests upon God’s Holy One, God’s dear Son! We must get our thoughts on Him entirely, and away from our own doings or thinking’s altogether, in order to apprehend that. We must be simple in the faith that He who stood for us, there were none other could, bearing our burden of sin upon the Cross, stands for.us still, our Representative, in glory, God’s eye is upon Aim whom the angels saw, when they spoke of His “delight in men.” Let our eye be fully and fairly upon Him, and all will be plain. Then, — oh then, reader — what a song of praise from heart, in life, should be ours, to whom it is given to enter, more than angels can, into their own theme that day of the lord’s birth — “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good pleasure in men.”
IF we were perfectly humble we should not need humbling; but we do, all of us, even Paul, who had a thorn in the flesh to keep it down.