During 2007 the Lutheran Sentinel featured articles about the hymnwriter Paul Gerhardt and his hymns. At the Reformation Lectures this year, the presenters described the themes Gerhardt used to teach about Christ, sin and salvation. Those themes are also evident in four Christmas hymns that are printed in the Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary. These themes reflect the best characteristics of Lutheran hymnody: biblical, Christ-centered, teaching doctrine and devotional.

Christmas hymns are important statements which teach us what gift God gave the world at Christmas. Christians sing and rejoice because of the angel’s song, “Christ is born” (ELH 115:1). Who is this Christ? Gerhardt answers, “God is Man, man to deliver; His dear Son Now is one With our blood forever” (ELH 115:2) and “Christ, from heaven to us descending And in love our race befriending” (ELH 128:4). From Isaiah 9:6 where Christ is called “Immanuel” (God with us) Gerhardt names Him: “Thou Prince of Life and Fount of grace, Thou Flow’r of heav’n and Star of morn, Thou Lord of lords, Thou Virgin born.” (ELH #152:1). These verses are describing Jesus’ two natures—divine and human. For the contrast could not be greater: “Thou Ever-blest! In lowly manger dost Thou rest. Thou, making all things great, art small; So poor art Thou, yet clothest all” (ELH 152:3).

Christmas especially proclaims God’s love to sinners. In two stanzas of ELH 115:4-5, Gerhardt asks whether God’s Son should not love us when He left heaven. Put another way, “If our blessed Lord and Maker Hated men, Would He then Be of flesh partaker?” The expected answer is “no.” Jesus’ birth proclaims God’s love to the whole world, as Jesus said, “God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son” (John 3:16).

We are to “Loudly sing His love amazing” (ELH 128:1) because Jesus came to save sinners. Gerhardt often described sin as “deep within” because the evil serpent gave us a “poisoned wound” (ELH 115:10) that brings eternal death. But Jesus “saved us from the willy foe” (ELH 128:4) because “Thou art come in mortal birth For mortal men to suffer” (ELH 129:4).

Gerhardt describes the Christ-Child as “the Lamb that taketh Sin away And for aye Full atonement maketh” (ELH 115:6). He came to free the world, “From the bondage that oppressed us, From sin’s fetters that possessed us, From the grief that sore distressed us, We, the captives, now are free” (ELH 128:6).

Gerhardt’s hymns are devotional, inviting us to contemplate what Jesus means to us. He asks the Christ-Child to be near us: “Gracious Child, we pray Thee, hear us, From Thy lowly manger cheer us, Gently lead us and be near us” (ELH 128:8). He pictures our heart as a cradle where Jesus may rest: “So let me be Thy cradle blest, Come! Come, within my heart to rest, My precious Joy and Treasure” (ELH 129:5).

At Christmas time, people do not usually think about the end of the world. But Christ born in order to give believers eternal life. Gerhardt has us pray that we may “with Thee abide forever There on high, In that joy Which can vanish never” (ELH 115:15). His other hymns speak about praising God year by year so that “when we reckon years no more, May I in heav’n Thy name adore!” (ELH 152:8) “Till we join th’ angelic choir” (ELH 128:8). Through faith in Jesus “I am pure, in Thee believing, From Thy store Evermore Righteous robes receiving” (ELH 115:15). Gerhardt pictures a great storehouse of robes waiting to be placed on all those who die in faith in Jesus.

Christmas is a special holiday because of the many wonderful songs we have to sing. Paul Gerhardt has made Christmas special through the hymns that glorify Christ and proclaim our salvation by His birth in Bethlehem. Take the time both to read the Christmas story and to meditate on the Christmas hymns in the hymnal so that you may rejoice in Christ who came to die to give us life.