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Welcome back to the Daily Blade. This week we're looking at five Christmas carols in the rich theology and biblical truths they're in. Yesterday we looked at Oh Holy Night, and today we're looking at What Child Is This? So, for the record, my favorite version of this song is from the Country Music Goat, at least my country music goat in Oakie Vince Gill from his Christmas album, Let There Be Peace on Earth from 1993. This carol was written in 1865 by William Chatterton Dix. So Dix would not have been one of your first choices for a man that would write one of the most popular Christmas carols of all time. In the 1860s, Dix had was he was a manager for an insurance company, just working a regular job, but he was struck by a very serious and unexpected illness that left him bedridden. And apparently there was fear that he would never recover from this illness, and it ultimately would take his life. This caused him to sink into a rather severe depression. However, during this dark night of the soul, he read the Bible voraciously. And this led him to a spiritual renewal in his life while he was recovering from his illness. And he wrote the words to what child is this after meditating on the story of the biblical magi that we see in Matthew 2, verses 1 through 12. In Matthew's recounting, we see that King Herod is trying to ascertain the whereabouts of the newborn Christ, not so that he can worship him, as he claims, but so that he can eliminate him. And the Magi found him, worshipped him, brought gifts, and never returned to Herod because they were warned in a dream against doing so. So let's go to the lyrics of what child is this? What child is this who laid to rest on Mary's lap is sleeping, whom angels greet with anthems sweet, while shepherds watch our keeping. This, this is Christ the King, whom shepherds guard and angels sing. Haste, haste to bring him loud, the babe, the son of Mary. So a couple of things here. What child is this? So this is Christological interrogation of sorts, and at his birth, and also during his earthly ministry, there is the lingering question of what child is this? Or who is this? Like who is this guy? And if we look at Matthew 16, beginning in verse 13, we see this as well. Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, Who do people say that the Son of Man is? And they said, Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He said to them, But who do you say that I am? Simon Peter replied, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered him, Blessed are you, Simon Barjonah, for flesh and blood was not or has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And then if we go back to the song, it says, This, this is Christ, the King. So who is the subject here? Like who is the this that's being referred to? It's the child, Jesus. But now we also have to ask, what is he? He is the Christ, the Savior. And who is he? He's the King. In this one line, there is the affirmation of Jesus' full humanity, because he came in the form of a human child, and Jesus' full deity, because he is the Christ, the King of all. But the song also gives us a foreshadowing of what is to come for this babe, the son of Mary. Let's go to the second stanza here. Why lies he in such mean a state where ox and ass are feeding? Good Christian fear, for sinners here, the silent word is pleading. Nails, spear shall pierce him through, the cross be born for me, for you. Hail, hail, the word made flesh, the babe, the son of Mary. Nails, spear shall pierce him through, the cross be born for me, for you. So this harkens back to the writing of the prophet Isaiah. The fifty-third chapter of Isaiah is normally skipped in Jewish schooling. It's because of how it directly attaches to what we see described in the historical accounts of what happened to Jesus. So Isaiah 53, 5, but he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with the wounds, with his wounds, we are healed. This is the atonement, guys. So beyond that, it's the substitutionary atonement. Why? Because sin had to be atoned for. I mean, yeah, got it, but as should be clear to all of us, we simply cannot atone for our sin ourselves. We have a sin nature that we have been born into that makes us incapable of performing in a way that would even allow us to atone for our sins. So what did God do? Did he leave us without a rescue plan? No. In our place, he substituted his one and only Son to pay in full the sin debt for all of humanity. He sent Jesus on a rescue mission that led him to have the nails and the spear driven through his flesh and dying on a cross. For whom? For you. For me, for all of us. He brought us salvation. And if we had been there in his early life, we would have brought him gifts as the Magi did. Gifts to acknowledge the coming work he would do for us all. So let's wrap today with the final stanza of what child is this? So bring him incense, gold, and myrrh, come, peasant king, to own him. The king of kings, salvation brings, let loving hearts enthrone him. Raise, raise the song on high, the virgin sings her lullaby. Joy, joy for Christ is born, the babe, the son of Mary.

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