If you had asked me my favorite Christmas song when I was a kid, it would have been “Silent Night,” even though I didn’t understand the meaning. Now my favorite is “Joy to the World,” because as my wife Nanci pointed out to me years ago, it’s the Christmas song that looks forward to Christ’s return and the New Earth.

How far will God’s blood-bought redemption reach? Isaac Watts, not only a great hymn writer but also an accomplished theologian, nailed it in his lyrics:

Joy to the World, the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing.

Joy to the World, the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy.

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.

He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders, wonders, of His love.

“He rules the world with truth and grace.” That’s what my heart longs for. “No more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground; he comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found.” Christ’s redemptive work will restore the earth to what God originally intended. Everything touched by the curse will be renewed and transformed into something great. “Joy to the World”—by the power of the risen Christ, the old world will be transformed into the new!

Merry Christmas to you, and all glory to Christ, who one day will transform this earth we live on into all He intended it to be. 

"Joy to the World" sheet music credit: The Old Design Shop