A favourite Christmas song of mine is one that is very seldom sung in our circles, yet it has both ancient roots and expresses with poetic beauty a profound truth about God that the church has confessed since its very beginning.

Originally penned in the 4th Century AD by a Roman Christian poet Aurelius Prudentius Clemens, Of the Father’s Love Begotten is a stunning meditation on the mystery of the Christian gospel, drawing heavily from the first three chapters of John. Prudentius was alive during the two most major Christian councils in history: the council of Nicaea in 325 AD and the council of Constantinople in 381 AD. The reason these councils were so crucial is that they clarified with a careful robustness the true gospel in all its mystery and wonder, especially as it related to the Trinity. These councils gave rise to a creed which have equipped Christians in centuries since with a grammar to express the hope to which they held.

The Nicene Creed confesses boldly that the Son is “eternally begotten of the Father”, a truth that this hymn also resoundingly proclaims. But what does it mean to be “eternally begotten”, or as Charles Wesley put it, “begotten not created”? Well, the very reason the Son is named as such is because of his relationship to the Father. Just as an earthly son receives their being from their father biologically and in time, so too does the eternal Son draw his life from the Father spiritually and in eternity before time. There was never a time where the Son was not, and there was never a time where the Son was not drawing his name, perfections, and glory from the Father. This idea that the Son was eternally generated from the Father is essential to the gospel itself, as if the Son was not so by nature from all eternity, we could have no assurance we can be born again through the Son and receive by grace what he has by nature.

One of the reasons I love this piece so much is because it takes this heady truth and grounds it in a cry of wonder and amazement. It doesn’t seek to exhaust the mystery, merely give voice to it. It also gives an insight into how our ancient brothers and sisters in the faith approached the subject of the incarnation, and of the Trinity itself. One of my favourite authors on this topic, Craig Carter, expresses it like this:

“They approach the subject with reverence and a determination to be biblical in all that they say about the Triune God. At the outset, they could not use language that unambiguously meant what the Bible means because that language had not yet been invented. They were taking concepts and breaking them apart by hammering them on the anvil of Scripture and then reforging them in the flame of truth until they were bent into a usable shape for proclaiming the gospel.”

And to my mind, that’s a perfect encapsulation of what Of the Father’s Love Begotten does. It reforges the ancient confession of the Christian church in music, poetry and the flame of truth, bending it into a useful shape for proclaiming the gospel. It takes us to stand on the shores of an eternal mystery and feel the waves lapping at our feet as we view the vast expanse before us. The melody of the hymn itself is haunting and reflective, yet sweeps and soars as it explores the subject wondered at by John himself, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God….And the Word became flesh and dwelled among us.”

So, may I encourage you to find time to listen to and meditate on this hymn as you celebrate advent in the coming weeks? At a time when we can feel weary at the close of another year, I pray that the words of this hymn would renew your strength and allow you to give to our triune God the “unwearied praise” he so richly deserves. Because the assurance is for those of us who are in Christ and joined to his body, the church, that we will be doing so, “evermore and evermore”, world without end. Amen.