Incarnation

Little child, look on me—
What can Thy newborn eyes see?
Dost Thou recognize a man
Fashioned by Thine ancient plan?
Infant that Thou hast become
Canst Thou yet behold me from
The aspect of eternity?

Little child, think of me—
No slave was ever less free.
I have sold myself to sin,
Vainly now I try to win
My freedom.  Can Thy tiny hands
Bear the nails, and break my bands,
And set my soul at liberty?

Child, wilt Thou die for me?
Thy Law hast judged me guilty!
Righteous statues they, but I
Scorned Thy precepts, and must die.
Can Thy frame bear my disgrace?
Will Thy holy blood erase
My guilt, through Thy mortality?

Little child, save Thou me—
Vouchsafe to me Thy mercy!
Rescue me from hell and pride,
Credit me as justified.
From Thy birth commence this task,
Sanctify me, for I ask
Deliverance from sin’s tyranny.

Little Child, I love Thee—
Second of the One-in-Three
Ever-living God art Thou,
Bearing human nature now.
I exalt and magnify
Thee, my Lord, astonished by
Impenetrable mystery.

This essay is by Kevin T. Bauder, Research Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology at Central Baptist Theological Seminary. Not every one of the professors, students, or alumni of Central Seminary necessarily agrees with every opinion that it expresses.

from The First Christmas Carol (Sermon 168)
Charles Spurgeon (1834–1892)

What is the instructive lesson to be learned from this first syllable of the angels’ song?
Why this, that salvation is God’s highest glory.

He is glorified
in every dew drop that twinkles to the morning sun.
He is magnified
in every wood flower that blossoms in the copse,
although it live to blush unseen,
and waste its sweetness in the forest air.
God is glorified
in every bird that warbles on the spray;
in every lamb that skips the mead.
Do not the fishes in the sea praise him?
From the tiny minnow
to the huge Leviathan,
do not all creatures that swim the water bless and praise his name?
Do not all created things extol him?
Is there aught beneath the sky,
save man,
that doth not glorify God?
Do not the stars exalt him,
when they write his name upon the azure of heaven in their golden letters?
Do not the lightnings adore him
when they flash his brightness in arrows of light piercing the midnight darkness?
Do not thunders extol him
when they roll like drums in the march of the God of armies?
Do not all things exalt him,
from the least even to the greatest?

But sing, sing, oh universe, till thou hast exhausted thyself,
thou canst not afford a song so sweet as the song of Incarnation.

Though creation may be a majestic organ of praise,
it cannot reach the compass of the golden canticle—Incarnation!
There is more in that than in creation,
more melody in Jesus in the manger,
than there is in worlds on worlds
rolling their grandeur round the throne of the Most High.

Pause Christian,
and consider this a minute.
See how every attribute is here magnified.

Lo! what wisdom is here.
God becomes man that God may be just, and the justifier of the ungodly.
Lo! what power,
for where is power so great as when it concealeth power?
What power, that Godhead should unrobe itself and become man!
Behold, what love is thus revealed to us
when Jesus becomes a man.
Behold ye, what faithfulness!
How many promises are this day kept?
How many solemn obligations are this hour discharged?

Tell me one attribute of God that is not manifest in Jesus;
and your ignorance shall be the reason why you have not seen it so.
The whole of God is glorified in Christ;
and though some part of the name of God is written in the universe,
it is here best read—in Him who was the Son of Man, and, yet, the Son of God.