O come, thou Key of David, come
And open vast our heav’nly residence;
Make secure the way in which that leads on excessive,
And shut the trail to distress.Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
Very early within the story of mankind, our door to Paradise was double-locked and bolted. Cool was the day when God walked amongst us; temporary our keep in backyard blessedness. Alas, on the opposite aspect of our truest happiness, our truest life, our truest residence, we now dwell.
Our exile in Adam appeared all however last:
He drove out the person, and on the east of the backyard of Eden he positioned the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned each option to guard the way in which to the tree of life. (Genesis 3:24)
Even when we may cross oceans, climb mountains, reduce by forests, and eventually arrive on the spot the place life (so lengthy denied us) grew guarded, what then? As we neared the doorway to man’s notorious exit, the angel’s unsmiling look would go away no man in peril of braveness.
“Worry not” is the angels’ constant salutation to males within the Scriptures. Even when angels introduced glad tidings with songs of Christ’s delivery, the shepherds have been “crammed with nice worry.” Who dares to method the tree of life when cherubim deal with a blade dipped in flame?
Imaginative and prescient Earlier than the Door
Attempt to think about that interplay.
“Our pals,” we’d have stuttered, “we have now come from the far east to reclaim the inheritance of our father, Adam.”
“We aren’t any pal of sinners,” solutions a mighty angel.
“However absolutely, you should have compassion on these grieving their father’s failure.”
“Your fingers too are stained,” he counters, unmoved. “You’ve lifted your soul to what’s false; how shall you stand earlier than God in his holy place?”
“However we have now acknowledged our guilt and surrender it! Allow us to be however doorkeepers in his home, and we will be content material.”
“Even his angels he fees with folly; the heavens are usually not pure in his sight. Are you able to, a person, be clear earlier than your Maker?”
“However we’ve come all this fashion,” one sputters.
“You shall not yield to him or hearken to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him, nor shall you conceal him.”
Our door to everlasting life, everlasting happiness, everlasting communion with God was locked; none in heaven or on earth may open it.
Key of David
However then the Key we hardly dared to hope for got here from heaven ultimately. At Creation, the Lord Jesus Christ involves reply a query solely smart souls ask: How can we partake of everlasting life?
“He traded fortunes for flesh, splendors for pores and skin, his life for ours.”
The fourth verse of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” solutions that Jesus got here to “open vast our heavenly residence,” taking possession of “the keys of Dying and Hades” by his demise and resurrection (Revelation 1:18). He got here to a world barred from heaven and opened the door in any other case ceaselessly shut. He unlocks goodwill to males; his undoing on the cross unbolts heaven for all who imagine upon him.
Jesus got here to show the knob of salvation and fling vast the door that every one who would might enter and by no means be forged out.
Earlier than the Cherubim
Return to our scene earlier than the cherubim. As we flip away in despair and doom, different angels come singing,
Worry not, for behold, I carry you excellent news of nice pleasure that shall be for all of the folks. For unto you is born today within the metropolis of David a Savior, who’s Christ the Lord. (Luke 2:10–11)
Then one like a son of man comes and stands earlier than us, enthroned between the wings of the cherubim. “My little kids, the place are you going? Go away these rags the place you stand; relinquish doubt and sorrow. Come to me, all who thirst and starvation.”
“However sir,” one amongst us responds. “I’m a sinner. I’ve come all this fashion in useless. I’ve anticipated happiness and have received solely hell. That is the one door, and this door just isn’t made for sinners.”
“I’m the door,” reassures the voice. “If anybody enters by me, he shall be saved and can go out and in and discover pasture” (John 10:9).
“Sir, we understand you’re a prophet and see the criminal in your employees; you’re a Shepherd. However what’s your employees to this flaming sword and military of angels? How will you lead us previous? God should be simply, and this spells our distress. How . . .”
Earlier than lets say extra, the person resounds,
Enter by me, whoever will.
Come, feast, take your fill.
Take my gown, my ring, my title;
Enter by the bloody body.
Throughout Creation, we bear in mind the one who got here to retrieve the important thing of David, the one who opens and nobody will shut, who shuts and nobody opens (Revelation 13:7). He was born at Bethlehem that he would possibly go down into the grave for keys to open a means for sinners. “I died, and behold I’m alive forevermore,” he declares, “and I’ve the keys of Dying and Hades” (Revelation 1:18). He traveled over land and sea, from heaven to earth, from biggest riches to humiliation and poverty — that we’d turn out to be wealthy. He traded fortunes for flesh, splendors for pores and skin, his life for ours.
He has ready a spot for us by the brand new and residing means that he opened by his personal flesh (Hebrews 10:20). He himself is the Method, the Door, the Key. As you go into Paradise by him by religion, go in boldly. Comply with him. Belief him. Persevere in him. His first Creation assured his promise, “To the one who conquers I’ll grant to eat of the tree of life, which is within the paradise of God” (Revelation 2:7). His second Creation will fulfill it.
