1. Let Earth and Heaven combine,
Angels and Men agree
To praise in Songs divine
Th' Incarnate Deity,
Our GOD contracted to a Span,
Incomprehensibly made Man.
2. He laid his Glory by,
He wrap'd Him in our Clay,
Unmark'd by Human Eye
The latent Godhead lay;
Infant of Days He here became
And bore the lov'd IMMANUEL'S Name.
3. See in that Infant's Face
The Depths of Deity,
And labour while ye gaze
To sound the Mystery:
In vain: ye Angels gaze no more,
But fall, and silently adore.
4. Unsearchable the Love
That hath the Saviour brought,
The Grace is far above
Or Men or Angels Though;
Suffice for Us, that GOD, we know,
Our GOD is manifest below.
5. He deigns in Flesh t' appear,
Widest Extremes to join,
To bring our Vileness near,
And make us All divine;
And we the Life of GOD shall know,
For GOD is manifest below.
6. Made perfect first in Love,
And sanctified by Grace,
We shall from Earth remove,
And see his glorious Face;
His Love shall then be fully shew'd,
And Man shall all be lost in GOD.
Two things primarily strike me in this hymn: 1. the continued appeal to paradox and mystery; and 2. the connection between the first and second comings of Jesus.
Before I get to these, though, I love the language of the first two lines: "Let Heaven and Earth combine, Angels and Men agree." In this age filled with discord and disagreement, sounding a chorus of agreement and harmony sure would go a long way in proclaiming the good news of the gospel of the kingdom of heaven. Isn't that what is meant by "Heaven and Earth combine"? Both John's and Jesus' preaching ministry contain the same content: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." And even stronger, they "combine" in the God-man Jesus.
We return to the mystery of the Incarnation and this is potently seen in stanza 2: "He wrap'd Him in our Clay, Unmark'd by Human Eye The latent Godhead lay." He arrived "under the radar," as it were. "He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him." Jesus is "wrap'd in our clay"...that also agrees with the assessment of the judgment in Matthew 25: "Whatever you have done to the least of these, that you have also done to me."
This brings me to the 2nd point: the connection between the first and second comings of Jesus. And in reality this brings us back to the point made on the combination of Heaven and Earth in stanza 1. This hymn really has striking resonance with the Orthodox emphasis of theosis, especially seen in stanza 5: "To bring our vileness near, and make us all divine." It echoes, in a sense, the affirmation of the early Fathers like St. Irenaeus and St. Athanasius who said, "God became man so that man might become God." Now I won't go on here and say that the Wesleys' concept of sanctification/perfection is the same as theosis. While this was once a popular opinion, it's been pretty well debunked now. However, there may be a closer affinity between the Wesleyan concept of glorification and that of theosis. 'Sanctification' gets so much attention in Wesleyan theology that we almost tend to ignore the fact that sanctification is not the ultimate end. Stanza 6 in this hymn sheds light on this by bringing glorification into view in appealing to the life after the general resurrection in the new heaven and new earth. Wesley further refers to the language of 1 John 3, which says "we shall become like him for we shall see him as he is." And, of course, the final line resonates with all this: We shall "all be lost in God."
So the last stanza is all about sanctification and glorification. What has this to do with the Nativity? The Incarnation is what has made it all possible. The Ancient and "Infant" of Days.
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