“Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.” Luke 2:10
The first ‘Noel’ the angels did say, was to certain poor shepherds in fields where they lay…
Just as the carol tell us, it was angels who came to visit that small group of lowly shepherds to deliver a message of good news to them.
This message was the ‘gospel’ (the word gospel literally translates as good news) – the declaration that Jesus Christ, the Son of God had come into the world to save His people (Matthew 1:21) – but the angels would make a quite significant statement about the gospel: This was a good news message of great joy.
We will discuss this joy in a moment, but first its also worth noting that this good news message of great joy is for all people. This is not saying that all people will get to partake and experience this joy, but that this message is to be delivered to all people. As J.C. Ryle comments: “The way to pardon and peace with God was about to be thrown open to all mankind.”[1]
In the nativity story alone, we come across various figures who failed to experience this joy, and this because their hearts were set on rejecting Jesus – people like the jealous, scheming King Herod and the self-righteous Jewish teachers of the law whose hatred towards the Lord Jesus would continue to grow and grow.
Thankfully, we also see plenty of people who delighted in the coming of their Saviour – Mary, Joseph, the wise men, and, of course, the shepherds whom we’ve already met.
But, if we take a further glance at J.C. Ryle’s comment, we will see that this ‘good news’ message is about “the way to pardon and peace with God” – or, in other words, salvation in Jesus Christ. In understanding this joy of which the angels speak about here, it is vitally important to recognise its connection to Jesus Christ and His work of salvation.
Good News - An Offer of Joy
To many, Christianity is associated with boring drudgery, and a set of instructions for living that take away all of life’s joy. For Christians, however, their relationship with Jesus Christ (and His work of salvation that make such a love-filled relationship possible) is the cause of a joy far greater than any the world can offer.
The particular ‘great joy’ that the angels speak of concerning this ‘good news’ is to be found within the news itself, particularly in the salvation that this news offers. For our times as God’s children in which we lose sight and touch of this joy, this is where to find it again: in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We see this thoroughly biblical truth represented in both the Old and New Testaments:
“And my soul shall be joyful in the Lord; It shall rejoice in His salvation.” Psalm 35:9
“And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.” Romans 5:11
This joy is the realisation, and wholehearted acceptance, of the fact that God Himself, through the sacrifice of His only begotten Son, should have attained so glorious a salvation for all those upon whom His favour rests!
In Isaac Watts’ triumphant hymn, ‘Come We That Love The Lord’, he writes,
“The sorrows of the mind be banished from this place, religion never was designed to make our pleasures less” – if it does, something has gone seriously wrong, or, at the very least, has been lost.
Good News – A Joy That Transcends This World
There is a powerful scene in Charles Dicken’s ‘A Christmas Carol’, where the protagonist Ebenezer Scrooge peers through a window to look upon the near-destitute Cratchit family enjoying their Christmas lunch together – and enjoy it is exactly what they are doing, despite their lack of money, food, and the illness of their child, Tiny Tim. Ebenezer, who bases all of his worth on money, struggles to understand how the Cratchit family can still find such joy.
As the world looks upon those Christians who are suffering tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, poverty, peril or sword and are yet joyful, they share in Ebenezer’s confusion.
The Christian joy is a joy that transcends this world and all worldly pleasures or sorrows. It is why the Christian can know joy even in the most difficult, painful, or sorrowful of times. The salvation that Jesus Christ has won, and all its glorious benefits, are never lost – and those joys that concern God and His Son, Jesus, are transcendent, eternal, and incorruptible.
Good News – A Joy That Rests in Jesus Christ
The joy of the gospel is such a gracious, transcendent, wonderful joy because it is a joy that rests entirely upon, and in, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the joy of seeing such a kind, loving, glorious work of salvation such as was performed by the Lord Jesus Christ, and delighting in that work by knowing that it was done for such as 'me'.
It is a joy that goes on to delight in all the benefits that so glorious a salvation brings: such as peace with God, pardon from sin, an imputed righteousness, and those blessings that come from an intimate mystic union with God in His Son, Jesus Christ. It is a joy that comes from when simply resting upon Jesus Christ, a believer finds themself immersed in all of the love of God.
Christmas time (but not exclusively!) is a time in which we are enabled to peer into that lowly manger to look upon the babe Jesus Christ, and yet gaze into the very throne-room of heaven to see the risen, exalted, most highly honoured Lord and God – and it is here, that joyful, we also can rise to join the triumph of the skies… and with the angelic host proclaim, ‘Christ is born in Bethlehem’!
[1] J.C. Ryle, Ryle’s Expository Thoughts On The Gospels: Luke, (Herts: Evangelical Press, 1977) p.57.
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