DEVO 03
Savior of the Nations Come
01. A promise fulfilled
Savior of the nations come
Virgin's Son make here Thy home
Something that God makes abundantly clear to us through scripture is His involvement in human history. He has not revealed himself to us merely through distant mysterious knowledge, but through active intentional participation. In doing so, he has not left us to ourselves but has established himself as the true owner and operator of the world and out of His kindness has continuously inspired our hope and directed our expectations through the promises He makes. Once such promise was given to the prophet Isaiah around 2700 years ago.
“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14 ESV).
Although the clarity and specificity of this promise was new, the substance and foretold event were the same as has been told about from as early as Genesis 3:15. This child to come is to be the culmination of God’s plan to make right and make new what sin had broken and poisoned. This savior was going to come from the Jewish people, a descendant of Abraham, and directly from the line of King David but he was to be a blessing to all nations, as God had promised Abraham from the very beginning and John later affirmed in his gospel (John 3:16). The people of God were no longer going to be determined by birthplace or ethnicity, but by belief, and thus salvation was and is available for all nations and all people.
02. God Became Man
By the Spirit of our God
Was the Word of God made flesh
God didn’t send another prophet or even an angel as a proxy for this task of salvation. With the consequences too crucial, the requirements too demanding, and His compassion too overwhelming, the God of all creation took this burden upon himself. No one else could accomplish what was needed, since what was needed was a perfect spotless lamb to die for sins, a perfection and spotlessness only found in God himself. But the atonement for humanity also required the nature of humanity and thus:
“…the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
The only possible mediator between us and God is the one who now partakes in the nature of both. By coming in our nature, Jesus was coming in our interest. God was no longer “God above us” or “God apart from us” or even “God against us” but was now known as “Immanuel, God with us.”
How Jesus came to be conceived in the womb of the virgin Mary cannot be fully understood by us, but one thing is sure; it was a miraculous work of God in conjunction with, but far beyond, natural biological means. The words of Psalm 139 take on an even greater relevance and significance when read in light of the conception of Jesus.
For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well (Psalm 139:13-14).
And although we aren’t able to understand how this could happen, that’s okay, for the call is not to understand but to behold.
03. Savior From Sin
Thou the Father's only Son
Hast o'er sin the victory won
Although many expected Jesus to initially come with a forceful rule and political dominance, his primary mission was salvation from sin, both from the death sin produced and the contamination of it in the hearts of people. However powerful and corrupt the current ruling party of the world was, God asserted that sin was a bigger threat and the most urgent matter. Therefore, any true salvation, freedom, and victory must all be over sin, otherwise it will not be true. This is what the angel proclaimed to Joseph in Matthew chapter 1.
“She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).
04. The Light of the World
Brightly doth Thy manger shine
Glorious is its light divine
In a moment of divine conception, the glory of God entered the world as it never had before. This glory didn’t come in the form of armies or strength but as the mere presence of light in the form of a baby. And this small vulnerable baby was to oppose and overcome all the darkness in the world. In such a surprising approach, God showed us something of ultimate importance; it is not strength that overcomes darkness, but light.
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).
It is the presence of Jesus in the darkness of this fallen world, as well as in the hearts of sinful humans, that overcomes that darkness. It is his bright presence that heals, transforms, makes new, and saves. The Savior of the nations has already come, for which we celebrate, but he is also coming again, for which we pray and wait with eager expectation.
His name in this, as in all else, is Wonderful, and we call him Jesus, our Savior.