Advent: The Hope of All The Nations

What follows bellow are some brief thoughts on a passage my family and I read one evening during family worship this Advent season. I pray it is helpful and encouraging.

“I will rejoice greatly in the LORD, my soul will exult in my God; For He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness…For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes the things sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.” — Isaiah 61:10a,11

Matthew Henry rightly notes that those who rejoice in God have great cause to rejoice ​greatly,​ with no fear of going overboard; and what a great cause for us to rejoice! Our Lord wrought about our redemption, and has clothed His church with the garments of salvation. By the blood of our Lord we have been clothed with the righteousness of justification and sanctification, being adorned in priestly wedding garments to be brought into the house of God (v.6, Rev. 19:8). Rather than imputing our sins to us, God in Christ clothes us with His own righteousness. We of all people have great cause to rejoice this season despite all that would seek to cause us to despair. In the latter verse we are turned towards the fruit of Christ’s work of redemption. In Christ, God is reconciling the world to Himself. Christ was not crucified and sown into the ground to remain under the power of death but sprung forth in His resurrection giving new life to all who believe upon Him. This good news will go throughout the entire world producing new life where the ruin of sin once left the ground barren. All nations will rejoice in the salvation of Christ, and for that we have great cause to rejoice greatly as we meditate upon the reality and purpose of our Lord’s incarnation.