The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
The first hymn under consideration for this short Advent season is the hymn “Of the Father’s Love Begotten.” It is among one of the oldest hymns in our hymnal, and possibly the oldest hymn known in wide circulation and use to this day. It originally bore the Latin title “Corde natus ex parentis,” translated just like you might think: “Of the Father’s Love Begotten.” The hymn was written by a prolific and prominent author in early sacred Latin poetry. You know the hymn is old when the name of the author is Aurelius Clemens Prudentius. That’s an old hymn. Prudentius was born in Spain a few years after the Council of Nicaea, which was brought together to try to deal with a heresy. More will be said on that in a moment. Prudentius lived from 348 AD to 413. He was born to an upper-class family. He was a native of Spain and a loyal Roman patriot. Prudentius regarded the Roman Empire as the instrument in the hands of providence for the advancement of Christianity. In other words, he actually believed that the Roman government helped expand the Christian religion, and indeed ultimately it did. He was trained as a lawyer and rose to high office. He held the reins of power over several famous cities in his day, and he served as a judge as well. But despite all of his accomplishments, at the age of 57 he came to believe he had wasted most of the time given to him in his life. But instead of sinking into self-pity and depression, Prudentius retired to a life of poverty so that he could devote those years to writing Christian poetry in thankfulness and praise to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
In this hymn, “Of the Father’s Love Begotten,” Prudentius calls upon all of us to praise Jesus as our God and King. He calls on us to, quote, “Let no tongue on earth be silent, every voice in concert ring, evermore and evermore.” He summarized his own life in this way: “Now at last, at the very end of my life, may I yet, my sinful soul, put off her foolish self. And if by my deeds it cannot, yet at least by words give praise to God. Join day to day by constant hymns, fail not each night in songs to celebrate the Lord. Fight against heresy, maintain the Catholic faith.” That’s what he considered the primary work of his life. And did you notice the place that he gave one particular theme, that is music? His hymns were established to fight heresies, false doctrines, and to maintain the true Christian faith among the churches of the Roman Empire. By the way, that’s what good hymns and good liturgies do, both of which largely are sung and drawn from the scriptures of the Old and the New Testament, to help maintain right belief in the doctrine of the Trinity and in the natures of Christ. Remember, Prudentius grew up at the time of the Nicene Creed, when the Arian heresy dominated, which was a heresy about the two natures of Christ. It was summed up in this one sentence: Arians believed that there was a time when the Son of God was not, that he was a created being, not an eternal one, but one created by God to be a lesser god. And for centuries the church fought over the formulation of what it meant to call Jesus the Son of God.
Now Prudentius’s poetry became a treasure trove for Christian hymns throughout the Middle Ages and beyond. “Of the Father’s Love Begotten” is one of his poems that was translated into English in the 1800s, the 19th century. It quickly became one of Lutheranism’s favorite Christmas hymns and is sung today. With all that said, there’s a Bible verse that’s credited with inspiring this particular hymn. It’s 1 Timothy 3:16: “By common confession, great is the mystery of godliness: He who was revealed in the flesh, was vindicated in the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.”
“Of the Father’s love begotten, ere the worlds began to be.” Before the foundation of the world was made, the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, knew what would need to be done to redeem his creation from its fall into sin. You see, Prudentius knew both the depth of biblical theology and the doctrines threatening the gospel truth in his day, attacking the person and the work of Jesus Christ. The Son of God is the Word made flesh, made clear in John 1:1 and 2: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God, and all things came into being through him.” The Father’s love preceded creation itself. So also was the resolve to send the only-begotten Son of the heavenly Father into the flesh, to suffer and to die, to atone for the sins of the world, a world that had yet to be spoken into existence. In 1 John 4:9 we read: “By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent his only-begotten Son into the world so that we might live through him.” In 1 Peter 1:20 and 21: “He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in these last times for the sake of you.” Ephesians 1:4: “He, meaning God the Creator, chose us in him, meaning Christ, before the foundation of the world was made, that we would be holy and blameless before him.” The Father’s love not only begot all of creation, but the love of God begot you. Just as the Word created all that has been created, the Word is spoken and we, for the second time, become new creations: the natural birth the first time, the glorious birth the second time, begotten of the Father’s love.
“Of the Father’s love begotten, ere the worlds began to be, he is Alpha and Omega, he the source, the ending he.” Here Prudentius makes it clear that he is no Arian, he is no heretic. The Son of God was in the beginning and will be in the end. All Christian theology and Christianity is ultimately about the person and the work of Christ. The modern world has yet to learn such a lesson. Jesus is the beginning and the end. He is the source and the ending. As to the source: John 1:3 and 4, “All things were made through him, and without him there was nothing that was made that was made. In him was life, and life was the light of men.” As to the end: the Son of God declares, “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and was and who is to come, the Almighty.” And again Revelation 22:13, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” It’s not just the New Testament. Isaiah 48: “Listen to me, O Jacob, even Israel whom I called: I am he, I am the first, I am the last.”
Your Christian life began when the Word claimed you to be his own, when you heard the gospel preached and you were baptized, and the Word spoke you into existence, the new you, the new nature. Titus 3:5: “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to his mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit.” John 11:25 and 26. Your Christian life had a beginning. It began in Christ, but it has no ending. It is eternal. For Christ said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” Or Titus 3:7: “Being justified by his grace, we were made heirs according to the hope of everlasting life.” “Of the things that are, that have been, and the future years shall see, evermore and evermore.” The history of this universe, past, present, and future, is always in God’s hands. It may not look like it, but it is. Isaiah 45:7: “I form the light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the Lord, who does all these things.” There is only one who has been born whose birth, life, and death could lead to a forever blessedness, that is, to the resurrection of the dead. That is the one who was conceived by the Holy Ghost. The angel said to her, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great, he’ll be called the Son of the Most High. The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. For that reason the holy child shall be called the Son of God. Matthew 1:21: “You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
When Joseph and Mary and the shepherds looked into the face of that child that had just been born, they were literally looking into the face of God. When Mary, Mary Magdalene, the soldiers, the Sadducees, the Pharisees looked into the face of Jesus as he hung on the cross, they were literally looking at the very face of God. “What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life, and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life. What we have seen and heard we also proclaim to you.” Colossians 1:17 and 18: “And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn of the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.”
Prudentius’s hymn looks not just to the past and what God had done in fulfilling all his promises of the Old Testament concerning the birth of the Christ child, but also concerns itself with the life of the world to come, with our very future. His hymn looks forward to the second coming of Christ, in the new heavens and the new earth, wherein all shall confess his name and see him as Lord of lords and King of kings. Philippians 2:10 and 11: “At the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” For Revelation 7: “And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, ‘Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.'” Prudentius looked to the heavens and echoed what John saw when he was given a glimpse of heaven, where no tongue would be silent and every voice would be ringing in concert, forevermore and evermore. Revelation 5: “Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders, and the number of them was a myriad of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, ‘Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!'” This is he of whom heaven-taught singers sang of old, the angels who came before the shepherds, whom the prophets promised in their faithful word. “Now he shines, the long-expected; let creation praise its Lord, evermore and evermore.” What did the heavenly singers sing? What song of old was it? “Behold, I bring you good news of great joy which shall be for all people. For today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is well pleased.” What the prophets of the Old Testament promised always comes true. It’s a faithful word. Luke 24:47: “These are my words which I have spoken to you while I was with you, that all the things which are written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead on the third day, that repentance for the remission of sins would be proclaimed in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” “Now he shines, the long-expected.” For thousands and thousands of years the faithful in the Old Testament clung to the promise of the seed that would come and crush the serpent’s head. Then on one dark night outside the city of Bethlehem, a heavenly light appeared. First one angel, then suddenly there appeared a whole multitude of heavenly hosts praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest.” The promises were coming true. The people who were sitting in darkness were now seeing a great light, and those who were sitting in the land of the shadow of death, that light dawned upon them. Matthew 4:16. Jesus is the light that came into the darkness. He was the light of men, and the light shined in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. “But he shines, the long-expected; let creation praise its Lord, evermore and evermore.” Psalm 148: “Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens, praise him in the heights! Praise him, all his angels, praise him, all his hosts! Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you stars of light! Praise him, you highest heavens! Let them praise the name of the Lord, for he commanded and they were created.” Simeon sang the song, and so do we: “For my eyes have seen your salvation which you have prepared before the presence of all people, a light of revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.”
The last stanza is a doxology. “Doxa” is the Greek word for glory that you find everywhere. When you see the word “glory” in the New Testament, it’s “doxa.” A doxology then itself is a short hymn, a self-contained hymn within a hymn. Prudentius heaps praise and thanksgiving upon all three persons of the Holy Trinity: the Father who had begotten the Son, the Son, and the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father and the Son, for their victory over sin, death, and the power of the devil. “Of the Father’s love begotten.” The biblical definition, by the way, of “begotten” is to bring forth into existence. And that’s what the Father’s love brought into existence: his beloved Son, our Savior Jesus Christ. First, the Father’s love begot his begotten Son from eternity, and then into the flesh. Second, the Father’s begotten love begot you in the very image of Jesus Christ, so that you too will have victory over sin, death, and the power of the devil, and will live forevermore and evermore. Amen.
May the peace that surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.