GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
LUKE 2:13-14
13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly army was with the angel, praising God and saying:
A stratia (στρατιά) is an army, and this army of angels must have seemed bigger than any armed company these shepherds had ever seen. Luke tells us by divine guidance that this was a “great company,” a plethos (πλῆθος), and yet only a portion of God’s angels, who number many hundreds of millions at the very least (two hundred million appear at one point in Revelation, when John “heard their number,” Rev. 9:16). Their numbers are truly vast; enough to carry out God’s will and to protect his people from harm.
Besides being God’s messengers and protecting us from the world of the unseen, the angels sing God’s praises. This is what they did at this moment, and their praise had three parts:
14 “To God in the highest, glory!
On earth, peace!
To men, good will!”
The first part of the angels’ song is about God, and about God alone. To him be glory, for he is God in the highest. There is no one who compares to him. There is no one who is his equal. He is God, and there is no other. His mystery is the Trinity, and the praise of the angels acknowledges that the child born in Bethlehem is God himself: the very Son of the Father. The angels adore the mystery of the redemption of mankind, and this was a moment for great praise and worship.
The second part of the song is about God’s relationship with the earth. This is not strictly about mankind, but about the world in which man lives. The earth fell under the curse of Adam when sin entered into it, “not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it” (Romans 8:20). The creation will also be liberated from sin on judgment day, and this is the blessing sung by the angels here. “The creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God” (Rom. 8:21). The Christ child born this day was the son of Mary, “the firstborn over all creation” (Colossians 1:15), and “the ruler of God’s creation” (Revelation 3:14). The birth of Jesus marked the beginning of the liberation of God’s creation from the curse and from the power of the devil. He will bring peace to the earth once again.
The phrase “peace on earth” is often quoted today as the desire or hope for peace between people, for the end of war and hatred. This is a noble goal; a natural desire. Yet to seek peace in the world without seeking peace from God is like trying to blood-type ketchup. You’ve got the wrong recipe; you’re running the wrong experiment. The peace the angels sang about is the peace given to the earth by God. It’s the end of wrath and the end of the curse—the curse which included the earth itself. “Cursed is the ground because of you” (Genesis 3:17). Here at the first coming of Jesus into the world, this promise was given. At the second coming, the promise will be fulfilled forever: “No longer will there be any curse” (Revelation 22:3).
The third part of the song is about God’s relationship with mankind. God’s eudokia (εὐδοκία) is his pleasure, his favor. Mankind is the object of God’s good will. We often use the term “grace” from many other passages, because grace is the love of God which we sinners do not deserve, but which he so freely gives to us because of his compassion. This is “the grace of God that brings salvation” which at this moment “has appeared to all men” (Titus 2:11).
There are certain Christians who would interpret this last phrase differently. They want God to show his pleasure only to “men of good will.” But why would God need to show his grace to those who do not need it? Jesus himself said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick” (Luke 5:31). To say that this verse shows that God only came to rescue the righteous is to rob all creation of the gospel. It robs Christ of his office. It robs God of his divinity, and make God the lapdog of theologians who don’t want to be called sinners. No, God’s saving good will is given to all men, it rests on all mankind, it is offered to all of humanity. Did God only love a few? No. “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). The sinner cries out to God: “I have sinned, O Lord. I have sinned, and I know my transgressions. I plead with you, forgive me, Lord, forgive me! Do not destroy me with my transgressions! Do not be angry with me forever, or lay up evil for me. Do not condemn me to the depths of the earth. For you, O Lord, are the God of those who repent.” And God showed his love by sending his Son to rescue us from our sins, to remove our guilt and our terror, and to give us a place with him forever. This is his grace—and there it lies in the manger in Bethlehem.
To men—good will!
On earth—peace!
To God in the highest—glory!
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota