Joy Has Dawned

15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. 22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— 23 if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

“Joy Has Dawned” is another contemporary song about the Christmas story. And, like many other songs, it speaks of the reason Jesus came: “Son of Adam, Son of Heaven, given as a ransom,/ reconciling God and man, Christ our mighty champion.”

Colossians 1 echoes this theme. “The Son is the image of the invisible God. . . . He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”

As the apostle Paul shows in this passage, God’s fullness lives in Jesus. And through Jesus the Son, God the Father was able to reconcile all things to himself. Because of our fall into sin, there was brokenness in our relationship with God. And the only way to restore that was for us to be ransomed. Our debt had to be fully paid for.

Jesus, God’s own Son, came to pay our ransom. Jesus, the Christ, paid the debt for our sin, “making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” As the song sings, “Christ [is] our mighty champion”!

“What a Savior, what a friend, what a glorious mystery.” It is indeed a mystery that Jesus, once a tiny baby in Bethlehem, is “now the Lord of history.” God himself, in Christ, has come to pay our ransom, our debt of sin, so that we may be reconciled with God.

Thank you, Jesus!

The fact that you, Lord and Savior, would come to be like us and save us from our sin so that we may be reconciled is indeed a mystery. Thank you, Jesus. Amen.