The Only Son from Heaven
The only Son from heaven
The Only Son from Heaven is a hymn text by Nicolai Decius (1539) in L.M. (8.8.8.8) meter. Translated by composite English translation. Found in CW21 383, CW93 86, ELH 224, elw 326. Sung to SALZBURG.
This hymn presents the incarnation as the supreme expression of God's grace and humility, with Christ's birth as the fulfillment of divine love for fallen humanity. It reflects Luther's emphasis on justification by grace through Christ as the center of Christian faith and worship.
History & Background
Originally written in German as 'O Lamm Gottes unschuldig' by Nicolai Decius around 1539, this hymn appeared in early Lutheran hymnals and became a staple of German Protestant worship. The English text is a composite translation developed over the 19th century, appearing in various forms in Lutheran hymnals.
Hymnal Appearances
- Christian Worship: Hymnal — 383
- Christian Worship — 86
- Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary — 224
- Evangelical Lutheran Worship — 326
- The Hymnal 1982 — 67
- Lutheran Book of Worship — 86
- Lutheran Service Book — 402
- Lutheran Worship — 72
Translation
Bulletin Note
Composed by Nicolai Decius in 1539, this hymn captures the Reformation's joy in Christ as the sole source of salvation, moving from human need to God's grace in the incarnation.
Preaching Connection
This hymn crystallizes the movement from Law to Gospel: humanity's condition of sin and death meets the overwhelming mercy of God's only Son given for our redemption.
Stanza Arc
The narrative or theological arc traced by this tune's stanzas: From personal awakening to joyful praise, through recognition of God's redemptive love despite human ruin and opposition, to confident assurance of justification at the final judgment
In the Church Year
Hymn of the Day (Lutheran Service Book) for: Epiphany 2
Suggested in the one-year series
- Epiphany 2 (6×)
- Trinity 18 (5×)
- Epiphany (3×)
- Baptism of Our Lord (1×)
- Easter 2 (1×)
- Epiphany 1 (1×)
- St. Michael and All Angels (1×)
- Trinity 12 (1×)
Suggested in the three-year series
- Epiphany 2 (8×)
- Christmas 2 (1×)
- Epiphany 6 (1×)
From LCMS Worship's published hymn suggestions, 2014–2026. The count is how many of those yearly lists suggested this hymn for that day.
Overview
The first Lutheran hymn by a woman, and one of the first Lutheran hymns at all: it stood in the Erfurt Enchiridion of 1524 beside Luther's. Elisabeth Cruciger, a former nun married to Luther's colleague Caspar Cruciger, wrote a hymn to Christ that begins with his eternal sonship and his appearing as the Morning Star, and then prays that he would wake faith and love in us. LSB's English version keeps three stanzas in Russell's translation and adds a Trinitarian doxology. It is the historic Lutheran Hymn of the Day for Epiphany's later Sundays because its whole subject is the manifestation of who Jesus is.
Central theme: The eternal Son, made man as the Morning Star, sought in prayer to awaken faith, love and steadfastness
Structure
Four stanzas of 76 76 776. St. 1: the eternal Son appears in human form; st. 2: the appointed time and the purpose of his coming; st. 3: prayer for knowledge, love and faith; st. 4: doxology to the Trinity (not Cruciger's).
Law & Gospel Shape
Gospel in st. 1-2: the Son given by the Father, come 'grim death to vanquish' and open heaven. Law only as the enemies named (death) and the weakness implied by the prayer of st. 3, which asks God to do in us what we cannot.
Confessional Connections
A hymn of the Second Article written six years before the Augsburg Confession. 'The only Son from heaven… by God the Father given' is AC I and III: true God, begotten of the Father, who 'in human form appears'. The German original is still more explicit that he is born from the Father's heart before all time. St. 2 names the work: to vanquish death and open heaven (SC, Second Article; Heb 2:14). St. 3 is the Third Article as prayer. Knowledge of Christ, love and unshaken faith are asked of God, not produced by us (SC III: 'I cannot by my own reason or strength'; AC V). Cruciger's later stanzas, on mortifying the old man, are not in the LSB selection; they show the same order, renewal as God's work in the believer.
Liturgical Use (Study Notes)
Hymn of the Day for the later Sundays after the Epiphany and for the Transfiguration in older orders; Epiphany season generally; Advent 4 and the Annunciation; Christmas season.
Historical Notes
Elisabeth von Meseritz left the convent at Treptow, came to Wittenberg, and in 1524 married Caspar Cruciger, with Luther officiating. Her hymn appeared that year in the Erfurt Enchiridion and Walter's Geystliche gesangk Buchleyn. Bach built Cantata 96 on it. Russell's translation is from his Psalms and Hymns (1851); LSB's form comes by way of Lutheran Book of Worship.
About the Tune
HERR CHRIST, DER EINIG GOTTS SOHN, from the Erfurt Enchiridion (1524), adapted from a secular melody.
Scripture References
John 1:14, 18 John 3:16 Gal 4:4-5 Rev 22:16 2 Pet 1:19 Num 24:17 Heb 2:14-15 Luke 1:31-35 Eph 3:16-19 1 Cor 15:58 Isa 6:3
Stanza by Stanza
The only Son from heaven, foretold by the prophets and given by God the Father, appears in human form. No sphere confines his light and no star shines as brightly as he, our Morning Star.
Every phrase of the first quatrain is a clause of the Creed. He is the 'only Son', John's only-begotten; he is 'from heaven', so his origin is not at Bethlehem; he was 'foretold', so the Old Testament is about him; he is 'given', which makes the incarnation a gift before it is anything else (John 3:16). Then the image that names the hymn. Christ calls himself 'the bright Morning Star', the star that announces day while it is still night, and Balaam saw a star rising out of Jacob. Cruciger says no star compares and no sphere contains him. A star appears; it does not argue. So the stanza fits Epiphany, the season of his appearing, when the Church learns to see in the man Jesus the light of the eternal Son.
- Scripture
- John 1:14, 18, John 3:16, Rev 22:16, Num 24:17, 2 Pet 1:19, Luke 24:27
- Imagery & language
- The Morning Star outshining every star; light no sphere can hold; ancient seers.
- Law / Gospel
- Gospel: the Father gives his only Son, who appears among us.
- Connection to previous
- Opening confession of who Christ is.
O time appointed by God, O bright and holy morning! He comes, the anointed King, the Christ, born of a virgin, to defeat grim death for us, open heaven before us and bring us life again.
The morning the star announced has come, and the stanza greets it. 'Time of God appointed' is Galatians 4:4: the incarnation happened when God had set, not when the world was ready. Three titles follow, King anointed, Christ, virgin-born, and they are one claim, since 'Christ' means the anointed one and Isaiah's sign of the virgin marks who he is. Then come three purpose clauses, each with 'us'. He comes to vanquish death, the grim enemy that held us through fear (Heb 2:14-15); to open heaven, shut since Eden; and to bring life 'again', restoring what Adam lost. The titles say who came. The purposes say that he came for our sake. Lutheran hymnody at its beginning already speaks the pro nobis.
- Scripture
- Gal 4:4-5, Isa 7:14, Luke 1:31-35, Heb 2:14-15, 2 Tim 1:10, John 10:10, Heb 10:19-20
- Imagery & language
- An appointed hour; holy morning; death as a grim enemy; heaven's door opened.
- Law / Gospel
- Law: death as the enemy. Gospel: he comes to vanquish it for us.
- Connection to previous
- From the Son's appearing to the hour and purpose of his coming.
Lord, awaken our hearts to know and love you more, to stand unshaken in faith and to adore you in spirit, so that as we pass through this world, tasting heaven in glimpses, we may receive its fullness there.
Having confessed, the hymn prays, and what it asks for shows a Reformation understanding of the human heart. Hearts need to be 'awakened': the knowledge and love of Christ are not natural possessions. Faith needs to be kept 'unshaken', which means it is under assault. The gifts are requested in an order: knowing him, loving him, standing in faith, adoring. Each is the Spirit's work through the Word, so the stanza is the Third Article sung by people who know they cannot believe by their own strength. The closing lines describe the Christian life as passage through the world with foretastes of heaven, and here a Lutheran thinks of the Word and the Sacrament, the real glimpses given on the way, until the harvest of 'its fullness there'.
- Scripture
- Eph 1:17-18, Eph 3:16-19, Phil 3:8-10, 1 Cor 15:58, John 4:23-24, 1 Cor 13:12, Heb 6:4-5
- Imagery & language
- Sleeping hearts roused; standing firm; pilgrimage with glimpses; reaping.
- Law / Gospel
- Prayer for the Spirit's work: faith, love and perseverance as gifts.
- Connection to previous
- Turns from confessing Christ to asking that he be known and trusted by us.
Father, with the Holy Spirit and Jesus, we adore you here. Before you, O glory of the angel host, lowly mortals cry: Holy, holy, holy, O blessed Trinity.
A doxology added in the twentieth century to close the selection. It places the congregation in Isaiah's vision: mortals take up the seraphim's threefold Holy. That is fitting after a hymn about the Son's appearing, because to know the Son is to know the Father who gave him and the Spirit who awakens hearts to him; Epiphany ends in the confession of the Trinity. 'Mortals lowly' sets the singers honestly beside the angel host, and the Sanctus is the song both share. The stanza is not Cruciger's, and its diction is plainer than hers, but it completes what her prayer asked: 'in spirit to adore'.
- Scripture
- Isa 6:1-3, Rev 4:8, Matt 28:19, Heb 12:22-24
- Imagery & language
- Angel host; mortals before the throne; the threefold Holy.
- Law / Gospel
- Doxology: faith's adoration.
- Connection to previous
- Answers st. 3's prayer 'to adore' with adoration itself.
Themes
Incarnation of Christ God's love and grace Christology Redemption Divine humility