“O Come”

When the time came to completion, God sent his Son. —Galatians 4:4

“Please, Lord, please come”—the plaintive cry echoes throughout the Hebrew Scriptures.

The Messiah had repeatedly been promised and prayed for. The centuries had presented a roster of fringe candidates who seemed possibilities. But they all came and went.

And yet “when the time came to completion,” Jesus came. And though the world was slow to pick up on His arrival, it soon became abundantly obvious that Someone new was among them. Someone unlike any other. That’s the reason for the shouted hosannas of Jesus’ triumphal entry. For the blood-heavy cross of Good Friday. For the beyond-belief joy and amazement of Easter morning.

So, the gospel of Christ’s incarnation is also the gospel of invitation. In view of His coming in fulfillment of His promise, we stand now in the borrowed light of His appearing, serving as shared communicators of His gospel message. And whenever we don’t know exactly how to express what our salvation means, carolers from generations past provide us help that never seems to grow old.

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Born a Child and Yet a King: The Gospel in the Carols
©2020 Revived Hearts Foundation

Scripture taken from The CSB