"And in the same region there were shepherds out in their field keeping watch, over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you, you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, good pleasure in men.” - LUKE 2: 8-14
Good pleasure! In what? In humanity!!
The word in the Greek is ‘eudokia’ which means ‘delight, favour, a feeling of God being proud of humanity’; a feeling of satisfaction, happiness and delight with the human race.
That puts a different spin on it, doesn’t it?
Let me set it out for you.
From the time of the Fall right throughout the Old Testament, in the time of the Law, people didn’t have a revelation that God was pleased with them. But the angels came to herald the birth of the New Epoch with this statement:
“I am pleased with men. I am well satisfied with my creation, the human race. I have pleasure in the humans I have created. And I have so much pleasure in them that I have decided to become one of them myself. Go to Bethlehem and see.”
The whole issue of the New Covenant is that there is no insecurity anymore about whether God is pleased with us or not. The proclamation of the angelic host at the very beginning of the first Christmas is that God has sweet satisfaction in men and women. God is pleased with humans. His heart has pleasure in those He has created and He has sent a Saviour to come and bring us back into that place of pleasure. That’s a wonderful thing.
I don’t believe those shepherds would have felt condemnation again, because they heard the angelic heavenly host crying out that from now on there is good pleasure in humanity. From now on Heaven has declared its enjoyment in the human race.
It seems scandalous, but it is true. It cannot be read any other way.
(Excerpt from 'You Deserve the Love of God' by Stephen Hill)
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