The one who came on Christmas morning was like no other. He was not just another human born to another family, but there in that manger lie a King…and not just any king, a Divine King. Join us for Christmas Eve as Pastor Marty Baker takes a look at O Holy Night and the King who made it so.
What would a Christmas Eve service be without a singing of “O Holy Night”? Who doesn’t sing this carol and not sense the holiness of the moment of Christ’s humble, wonderful birth? Who doesn’t feel it is most appropriate to pause and respectfully reflect on how God’s compassionate and carefully planned redemption plan played out in that dusty, smelly, and, I’m sure, noisy stable?
I, like you, therefore can’t wait until the Christmas Eve service culminates with moving, instructive words like these:
O holy night! the stars are brightly shining;
It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope- the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn!
Fall on your knees! O hear the angel voices!
O night divine, O night when Christ was born!
O night, O holy night, O night divine!
Led by the light of faith serenely beaming,
With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand.
So led by light of a star sweetly gleaming,
Here came the Wise Men from Orient land.
The King of kings lay thus in lowly manger,
In all our trials born to be our Friend.
He knows our need— to our weakness is no stranger.
Behold your King, before Him lowly bend!
Behold your King, before Him lowly bend!
These two stanzas definitively answer the question that naturally arises from this worshipful carol. What is that question?
Why Was Christ’s Birth Called A Holy Night?
The first stanza gives you the first coveted answer.
Answer #1: The Holy Savior Was Born
The Savior, by definition, had to be intrinsically holy to be the perfect, God-ordained sacrifice for our sins. Regarding this, Dr. Erwin Lutzer cogently remarks, “A sacrifice must be equal to the offense committed. Because our sin is against an infinite God, we need a sacrifice of infinite value. It follows that only God can supply the sacrifice that He Himself demands. That is the meaning of the gospel: God met His own requirements for us.” [1] God, who is holy, had to send His, Son, who is holy, to accomplish what unholy men could never do: secure forgiveness and access to the Holy Trinity by means of the perfect sacrifice.
Hence, we must logically conclude that any other Savior would not have sufficed. Any other Savior would not have been able to bear our sin on the cross ultimately. Any other Savior would have been disqualified because a proper sacrifice had to be blameless. No mere man, of course, would have ever qualified because, as the Carol states, all of mankind was contaminated with sin (Rom. 3:23).
Jesus changed all of this because He was the essence of a perfect, holy Savior. The angel educated Joseph when he struggled with the fact that his wife-to-be was with a child that he had no part in creating.
18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows. When His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. (Matt. 1)
This would be no ordinary child. This child would be the Savior Messiah (which is what His two names mean in Greek and Hebrew), and He would be holy because His birth, unlike all other human births, originated with the mysterious creativity of the Holy Spirit.
The mighty, glorious, awe-inspiring angel who appeared to the lowly shepherds drove home this concept that the Babe of Bethlehem was the holy Savior and Messiah with these memorable words:
11 for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 “And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths, and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.” (Lk. 2)
Who was the Savior for sinners? The angel shared His credentials: He is “Christ the Lord.” Ah, there is it. At His birth, Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah, and He was also “the Lord,” or God of God. The title “Lord,” or kurios (κύριος) is how the Greek text reads. The first time this word occurs in the OT is in Genesis 2:8:
NAS Genesis 2:8 And the LORD God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed.
BGT Genesis 2:8 καὶ ἐφύτευσεν κύριος ὁ θεὸς παράδεισον ἐν Εδεμ κατὰ ἀνατολὰς καὶ ἔθετο ἐκεῖ τὸν ἄνθρωπον ὃν ἔπλασεν.
WTT Genesis 2: וַיִּטַּ֞ע יְהוָ֧ה אֱלֹהִ֛ים גַּן־בְעֵ֖דֶן מִקֶּ֑דֶם וַיָּ֣שֶׂם שָׁ֔ם אֶת־הָֽאָדָ֖ם אֲשֶׁ֥ר יָצָֽר׃
The word “Lord” in the Greek text of the OT (viz., the LXX or Septuagint) is “kurios,” and it is matched to the Hebrew word for God as Yahweh. “Kurios” is used by the God of the burning bush that Moses encountered (Ex. 3:4, 7, 15, 16). That Lord also classified Himself as the great “I AM” (Ex. 3:16), which is a title Jesus also assumed (John 8:58). Who, then, was the baby lying quietly in the moonlight on the straw of the crude cradle? It was the holy Lord God who had come to begin His work to become our Savior from sin. Awe-inspiring, isn’t it?
Peter, who knew Him well since he was one of the core disciples, wrote these insightful words later in his life:
21 For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, 22 who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; 23 and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously; 24 and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed. 25 For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls. (1 Pet. 2)
The wise disciple underscores the sinlessness of Christ, and rightly so. Despite all of the horrors He experienced on His way to the cross, even in this, He did not sin when any other man would have without question. No, He who was holy took our sin upon His holy body so that we, at the moment of faith in His redemptive work, would have the opportunity to be healed from the contagion of sin.
All of this is why we rightfully say the birth of Jesus was a holy night, unlike any other night in human history. It was holy because He who is holy was born to become the Savior of sinners who bow before Him in repentant, trusting faith. The question, therefore, of all questions this Christmas Eve is clear: Is Jesus your Savior?
A second reason why Christ’s birth night was holy is tucked away in the second stanza.
Answer #2: The Holy King Was Born
Since the spiritual fall of mankind in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3), Israel waited for the coming of the King of Kings who would take mankind back to the innocence, wonder, and joy of a perfect living environment. God promised that this coming One would eventually deal a death blow to the head of the Devil, but not before the Devil would first strike Him on His heal (Gen. 3:15). A God progressively revealed the identity of this coming One throughout the OT, Israel learned He would come, as a mighty king, from the tribe of Judah (Gen. 49:8-10). Some eight hundred years later, God enlightened the prophet Samuel that the King of Kings would come through the line of David (2 Sam. 7).
Three hundred years later, around 700 B.C., God fine-tuned the revelation about the coming Davidic King of Kings to the prophet Isaiah.
- In Isaiah 2:1-4, Israel learned that one day this divine king would rule and reign over the world from His glorious throne in Jerusalem.
- In Isaiah 4:1-6, Israel learned that one day this divine king would cleanse the nation of their sin and bring peace to the world through His protective presence. Imagine. No need for an Iron Dome when the King of Kings rules from His glorious throne in Jerusalem.
- In Isaiah 7:13-14, Israel learned that this Davidic king would actually be God in the flesh, or “God with us.”
- In Isaiah 9:1-2, Israel learned that this Davidic king would bring spiritual light to the nation by first appearing in the northern part of the country, which is that area located around the Sea of Galilee.
- In Isaiah 9:6-7, Israel learned all they ever wanted to know about the coming King of Kings: “6 For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.7 There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this” (Isa. 9). This child would be like no child ever born in Israel or on the planet, for He would be God in the flesh, and He would be born to the right regal line, the line of David. All of this would, of course, equip Him to establish a worldwide empire known for three things missing in all earthly political empires of all time: peace, justice, and righteousness. Of course, we now know that all of these precise prophesies spoke of and were fulfilled to the letter by Jesus Christ. We also know He offered the kingdom to His people, but they refused to accept Him. As John wrote in his gospel account of Christ’s life, “He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him” (John 1:11). He offered the kingdom to His people, but He was not the kind of king they wanted, so they rejected Him (The Parable of the Wedding Banquet, Matt. 22:1-14). So, He eventually and temporarily turned to offer a spiritual kingdom to Jews and Gentiles. But their sin could not abrogate a divine covenant God had given unconditionally to David. Parables like the Parable of the Nobleman, who represents Jesus, illustrate how nothing would stop the coming of the King. Jesus said, “A certain nobleman went to a distant country (heaven) to receive a kingdom (the Davidic empire) for himself, and then return” (Luke 19:12ff). At His return, the king, then, promised to erect His glorious world-wide empire known for peace, justice, and righteousness. He will be able to do this, for one because He is God, and for another, because He is holy.
In Isaiah 32, Israel learned that when the holy King of Kings arrived, mankind would experience breath-taking, radical changes never seen before:
1Behold, a king will reign righteously, And princes will rule justly. 2 And each will be like a refuge from the wind, and a shelter from the storm, like streams of water in a dry country, like the shade of a huge rock in a parched land. 3 Then the eyes of those who see will not be blinded, And the ears of those who hear will listen. 4 And the mind of the hasty will discern the truth, and the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak clearly. 5 No longer will the fool be called noble, Or the rogue be spoken of as generous” (Isa. 32).
This king will reign righteously, which means his kingdom will be based on sound, unchanging moral principles. We have never had a king like this, have we? They might be moral to a point, but there are always areas of compromise because they are sinners. The coming King will not have that problem because He will be absolutely holy. Again, I ask, we have never had an earthly ruler like this, have we? They all, even David, have clay feet and are stained by sin. But the coming King will be different because He will be the holy God in the flesh. And when He arrives there will be a radical transformation in the lives of people. No longer will physical diseases plague mankind. No longer will people act first and then think. They will be wise, so they will think first and then act. We don’t see many of these folks today, but we will when the King returns. Foolish people and (illogical) thinking will no longer reign supremely. On the contrary, foolish, illogical, and sinful ideologies will be non-existent as wisdom will reign supremely. All of this will be made possible by the arrival of the King of Kings, Jesus, the Christ. Because He is holy, He is coming to establish a kingdom of holiness on the planet like we have never seen. Question: Will you be with the King when He returns?
The carol’s first stanza speaks of His first coming to Bethlehem to become our holy Savior eventually. The second stanza introduces Him as the King, but it looks down the halls of time for that moment when He returns to remove all the inferior governments of the world so He can establish His empire built on holiness. Oh, I can’t wait for His next arrival. But in the meantime, I, like you who know Him personally by faith, love to worship Him by singing this old but timeless carol. I love to sing it because it was a holy night unlike any other night in human history. It was holy because the Savior and the King of Kings was born. Rightly, then, do we adore Him as we remember this sacred, memorable evening and what and who it represents.
And before we sing it out of respect for Him, I’d be remiss in my role as a shepherd if I did not ask you again: Is Jesus Christ your Savior and King? He will not barge into your life but quietly woo you as He challenges you in various ways to come and worship Him. There is no more significant decision you could ever make than this. I pray you make it before this evening is over.
In the meantime, I invite all of us to gather before His throne in this place and worship and honor Him in song as our holy Savior and King.
[1] Erwin Lutzer, Ten Lies About God (Nashville: Word Publishing, 2000), 35.
