The title of the Christmas cantata is “Love Came Down at Christmas.” Some of the words from the cantata are based on a poem that Christina Rossetti published in 1885. Here is part of that poem:

1. Love came down at Christmas,
   Love all lovely, Love divine;
   Love was born at Christmas,
   Star and angels gave the sign.
2. Love shall be our token,
   Love be yours and love be mine,
   Love to God and all men,
   Love for plea and gift and sign.

Rossetti’s sentiments in this poem are certainly biblical. They accurately convey the sense of many Bible verses that tell us that God sent his son into the world because of his great love for us.

1 John 4:9–10  In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

The verse specifically states twice that God sent his son into the world, and then it gives us reasons why God did this.

Briefly, I want to look at the fact that God sent his son into the world and then examine the reasons God did it.