Hark! the herald angels sing

God created the heavens and the earth and then He created Adam. Then four thousand years later, God became flesh. Today most Christians rarely hear the truth concerning God's incarnation. Mostly they just sing some Christmas carols or announce the good news on Christmas Eve. Although they have a very good hymn (Hymns, #84) written by Charles Wesley concerning the birth of Christ, there is not one place in that hymn that definitely and solemnly tells people that, through His birth, the Lord Jesus brought God into man that God and man may be joined as one. It mainly tells us that an angel announced the good news, saying, "Today a Savior has been born to you in David's city, who is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:11).

First, we must ask why Paul prayed to the Father. Since the Father, Son, and Spirit are just one, why could he not pray directly to the Son asking Him to make His home in our hearts? Charles Wesley wrote the hymn that begins, "Hark! the herald angels sing" (Hymns, #84), and in its fourth stanza he said, "Come, Desire of nations, come!/Fix in us Thy humble home." The second line was written according to Ephesians 3:17. However, Paul did not pray directly to the Son; he prayed to the Father that we would be strengthened through the Spirit that Christ might make His home in our hearts. If we understand the scriptural principle, we will see that whatever goes from us to God begins with Christ, and whatever comes from God to us begins with the Father. In several passages, when referring to the Divine Trinity, the Bible does not speak of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, but instead it speaks of the Son, the Spirit, and the Father, or the Father, the Spirit, and the Son. The three parables in Luke 15 speak of the Son, the Spirit, and the Father; God comes in the Son as the Shepherd, then the Spirit comes as the woman to illuminate and to seek, and eventually the Father receives. Ephesians 2:18 also refers to the Son, the Spirit, and the Father—having access through the Son, in the Spirit, unto the Father. Luke 15 and Ephesians 2 both speak of our going to God. Ephesians 3:16-17, however, speaks of God coming to us to make His home in our hearts. Therefore, the direction is reversed; it begins with the Father, it is through the Spirit, and finally the Son comes to make His home.

Inwardly in our image we are like God, having love, light, holiness, and righteousness. Outwardly, God is a speaking God, and like Him, we also are able to speak. Among God's creatures, there are only two kinds that can speak. One kind consists of the angels in heaven. Angels do speak. Before the Lord Jesus was born, an angel came to reveal His name to Joseph (Matt. 1:20-21). Charles Wesley wrote a hymn: "Hark! the herald angels sing, / 'Glory to the new-born King'" (Hymns, #84). Therefore, it was an angel who spoke first, and it was an angel who announced the good news first; thereafter, we must preach the gospel.

I want to bring your attention to hymn #84 in our hymnal. This was written by the master hymn writer Charles Wesley. At that time, two hundred years ago, the light of the truth was not as clear as it is today. In verse 4 he refers to the "second Adam." Most people would not sense anything wrong when they read this. However, in 1 Corinthians 15 Paul speaks of "the second Man" (v. 47) and the "the last Adam" (v. 45). The first Adam became a living soul; the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit. The last Adam is not the second Adam, but the second Man. The first man came out of the dust; the second Man came from heaven. To say that the Lord is the second Adam is a great error. There can only be the second Man, not the second Adam. Therefore, we changed it to "final Adam."

One day I was surprised to see the last stanza of "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing," a hymn written by Charles Wesley over two hundred years ago. In this stanza we see a clear reference to the conquering seed of the woman:

Come, Desire of nations, come!
Fix in us Thy humble home:
Rise, the woman's conqu'ring seed,
Bruise in us the serpent's head;
Adam's likeness now efface,
Stamp Thine image in its place:
Final Adam from above,
Reinstate us in Thy love.

This stanza opens with an appeal for the "Desire of nations" to come, an allusion to Haggai 2:7. Christ is the desire of all nations. The writer does not ask Christ, the Desire of nations, to come to die on the cross for us, but to "Fix in us Thy humble home." The next line does not say, "Rise Emmanuel, rise Jesus Christ, the Son of God." It says, "Rise, the woman's conqu'ring seed." I like this line. The writer then beseeches this "conqu'ring seed" to "bruise in us the serpent's head." Although He bruised the serpent on the cross, He must now bruise the serpent's head within us. Furthermore, Adam's likeness must be effaced because it has been filled with the serpentine nature. Then Wesley says, "Stamp Thine image in its place," which means to transform us into the image of the Lord. The hymn ends with a prayer that the "Final Adam" would reinstate us in His love. We all must praise the Lord that He has fixed His humble home in us and that He is now bruising the head of the serpent within us. He is "the woman's conqu'ring seed."

Although many Christians see that Satan damages man, few realize that through Adam's fall Satan injected himself into man and has been installed in man's fallen body as the law of sin and of death. First John 3:8 says, "The Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil." In this verse the works of the devil refer not only to his outward, objective works to tempt and damage man but also to his inward, subjective works, that is, his evil works within man as the law of sin and of death. Christ as the Son of God destroyed the works of the devil not only by condemning sin in the flesh but also by imparting Himself into the believers as the law of the Spirit of life. On the cross Christ destroyed Satan (Heb. 2:14). In resurrection Christ became the life-giving Spirit in order to be installed in us as the law of the Spirit of life so that He as this law may conquer the law of sin and of death. This thought is expressed by the last stanza of Hymns, #84, a hymn written by Charles Wesley:

Come, Desire of nations, come!
Fix in us Thy humble home:
Rise, the woman's conquering seed,
Bruise in us the serpent's head;
Adam's likeness now efface,
Stamp Thine image in its place:
Final Adam from above,
Reinstate us in Thy love.

In Genesis 3:15 Jehovah prophesied that Christ as the seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent on the cross. On the one hand, Christ's bruising the serpent's head took place on the cross objectively; on the other hand, it is being accomplished in us subjectively. The bruising of the serpent's head is an objective fact accomplished by Christ, yet we need a subjective experience of this fact. The work of Christ as the law of the Spirit of life in our spirit overcomes the serpent as the law of sin and of death in our flesh. As the law of life within us, Christ makes His home in us and reconstitutes us with Himself, thereby transforming us from Adam's likeness into His image (Eph. 3:17; 2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 8:29).

...Stanza 2 of Hymns, #84 says, "Christ, by highest heav'n adored, / Christ, the everlasting Lord: / Late in time behold Him come, / Offspring of a virgin's womb. / Veiled in flesh the Godhead see, / Hail th' incarnate Deity! / Pleased as man with man to dwell, / Jesus our Immanuel." Immanuel in Hebrew means "God with us." God became a man to live with man. Stanza 3 says, "Hail the heav'n-born Prince of Peace! / Hail the Sun of righteousness! / Light and life to all He brings, / Ris'n with healing in His wings: / Mild He lays His glory by, / Born that man no more may die; / Born to raise the sons of earth; / Born to give them second birth." This shows that God became a man in order to bring salvation to man.

God speaks and communicates to man through the Bible, but He also wants to be with man. Because He has given us the Bible, God does not need to speak directly to every believer, and if we pay attention to the words in the Bible, we can hear God's speaking. Nevertheless, even though God communicates through the words in the Bible, He personally came to be among man. However, He did not come in the greatness and glory of His position as the God who dwells in unapproachable light (1 Tim. 6:16). If He came in this way, no one would dare come near to Him. There is no way for us to approach the glorious light of God's holiness, because we are defiled and evil. As filthy sinners, we cannot see God, much less approach Him. Therefore, God became a man like us in order to come to us.

Today the Lord Jesus is in our spirit as the seed of the woman to bruise the head of the serpent. He bruised the head of the serpent on the cross, and today He is bruising the serpent's head in us. "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing" is a famous hymn written by Charles Wesley. The last verse of this hymn says, "Come, Desire of nations, come! / Fix in us Thy humble home: / Rise, the woman's conqu'ring seed, / Bruise in us the serpent's head; / Adam's likeness now efface, / Stamp Thine image in its place: / Final Adam from above, / Reinstate us in Thy love" (Hymns, #84). Christ's bruising of the serpent's head not only took place on the cross objectively but also is being accomplished in us subjectively. Without Satan's subtle activities in the garden, Christ could not have been revealed as the woman's conquering seed to bruise the head of the serpent in us.

Charles Wesley's hymn "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" (Hymns, #84) is of a very high standard. I would like to point out stanza 3 of this hymn, which says, "Born to raise the sons of earth;/Born to give them second birth." God's economy needs man to go through two births. He receives a human life in his first birth. Then he has to go through another birth, the second birth. This birth is for him to receive the divine life. God intended that man would have two lives—the human life and the divine life. In order to do this, God must have a prototype, a model. So He Himself became incarnated to be the prototype.

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Titus 3:5 speaks of the washing of regeneration. Regeneration is a washing. It washes away the filthiness of the old nature of our old man. This washing away is to put off our old man and put on the new man. It is also a kind of reconditioning. We all have been regenerated, reconditioned, with the divine life. Regeneration is very deep. I like this word recondition. Charles Wesley used the word reinstate in stanza 4 of hymn #84 —"Reinstate us in Thy love." We lost our state, our position, so we needed to be reinstated. But we also needed to be reconditioned. Our nature, our essence, and our entire being needed to be reconditioned. Nothing can do this except regeneration. To be regenerated is to be reborn, reconditioned, with the divine life.