Advent Devotional - December 22, 2014

“Truly He taught us to love one another / His law is love and His gospel is peace”

-O Holy Night

A favorite for Christians around the world, “O Holy Night,” derived from the French poem “Cantique De Noël,” places the hearer in the setting of Christ's birth as described in the gospel of Luke. The first two stanzas illustrate not only the physical scene, but also the unprecedented significance of the coming of Christ as the Redeemer to a world “pining in sin and error,” yet now “thrilled with hope” at its long-awaited deliverance.

The third stanza, beginning with the lines written above, speak directly to the Church summarizing the effect of the work which would be accomplished by Christ in His life and, ultimately, in His death. The sacrifice Jesus was born to make, that which would place Him forsaken and cursed by God the Father, bearing the weight of all our sin in our stead upon a Roman cross, is the truest and most pronounced incarnation of love. On the cross the personification of Love (1 John 4:7-8) performs the greatest act of love (John 15:12-13).

And how are we called to respond? When we consider our sin, and when we “survey the wondrous cross,” to quote another great hymn, the natural response of the believing soul is a reproduction of Christ's sacrificial love to each other and to the world. This is Jesus' instruction to his disciples in John 13:34-35, immediately after the last supper. Love is commanded–His law is love. And bonded together in love, unified by our redemption in Christ, we as His followers identify ourselves to the world by our love for each other. This love finds its root in a gospel which grants us peace with God, completing our reconciliation with Him that began with His promises to His people in the Old Testament.

Truly He taught us—and showed us—to love one another.