A popular choral piece for Christmas performances (at least in Utah) is John Rutter’s Candlelight Carol. It is a beautiful piece, but one thing that has struck me as interesting is that when it is performed in Latter-day Saint circles, there is a line that tends to be modified.

While the desire to ensure our hymns reflect our doctrine is admirable, I believe the need for this specific modification is debatable. In fact, by redacting the text, we might be missing out on a profound theological truth about the Savior.

The Controversy: Why Do LDS Choirs Change the Lyrics?

The third verse of Rutter’s piece reads as follows:

Find him in Bethlehem laid in a manger

Christ our redeemer, asleep in the hay

Godhead incarnate and hope of salvation

A child with his mother that first Christmas Day

More often than not, copies I have found at wards and stakes around Utah cross out the phrase “Godhead incarnate and hope of salvation” and replace it with alternative text.

The reason for the redaction is likely theological anxiety. To many Latter-day Saints, the phrase “Godhead incarnate” smacks of creedal Trinitarianism—specifically the belief in one God (one “essence” or “substance”) existing in three persons. Because Latter-day Saints are hypervigilant about maintaining the distinctness of the three members of the Godhead, lyrics that sound like they “merge” the three into one are often viewed with suspicion.

However, despite our differences with traditional Christianity regarding the Trinity, I believe that referring to Jesus as the “Godhead incarnate” is not out of line with our theology. Even if we do not affirm that the three members are one substance, the scriptures and our own theologians suggest that Jesus is indeed an embodiment of the Godhead.

“The Fulness of the Godhead Bodily”

We find a powerful precedent for this language in the writings of the Apostle Paul. In his epistle to the Colossians, he warns the saints against being taken captive by human philosophies, pointing them back to the nature of Christ:

“For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have come to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority.” (Col. 2:9-10, NRSVUE)

The King James Version renders this more familiarly for our context: “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.”

Here, Paul offers a passing but critical reference to how he understood Jesus’s nature. In a Restoration perspective—where God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are distinct beings—this verse can be interpreted to mean that Jesus represents the entirety of what it means to be God. He possesses the attributes, power, and authority of the Godhead while possessing a body of flesh and bone.

“He That Hath Seen Me Hath Seen the Father”

We see this same concept in the Gospel of John. During the Last Supper, the apostle Thomas asked Jesus, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”

Jesus replied, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also.”

When Philip interjected, asking Jesus to “show us the Father,” Jesus responded with a statement that unifies the Godhead in purpose and representation, if not in substance:

“Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?” (John 14:9-10)

By stating that “whoever has seen me has seen the Father,” Jesus indicates that He is a complete representation of the Father. To know Jesus is to know the other members of the Godhead.

The “Express Image”: B.H. Roberts on the Incarnation

This scriptural logic was championed by one of the Church’s great intellectuals, Elder B.H. Roberts (1857–1933). At the turn of the twentieth century, Roberts frequently defended the Latter-day Saint conception of God—specifically the belief in a God who is a tangible being.

Roberts argued that because Jesus is the “revelation of God,” then, “Whatever … quality that is ascribed to God, must be in harmony with what Jesus Christ is.” (B. H. Roberts, The Mormon Doctrine of Deity: the Roberts-Van Der Donckt Discussion (The Deseret News, 1903), 119.) In his Defense of the Faith and the Saints, he wrote:

“God is a person in the sense that he is an individual. He is revealed to us through Jesus Christ. We believe in that revelation of God that is to be read in the life and character of the Nazarene—the Lord Jesus Christ. To us he is the very image and likeness of God; nay, as the Christ was and now is, so God is!” (Defense of the Faith and the Saints, 2 vol. (Deseret News: 1907–1912), 2:388.)

For Roberts, Jesus was the “express image and likeness of that Father’s person, and the reflection of that Father’s mind.”  Therefore, he concluded:

“Henceforth, when men shall dispute about the ‘being’ and ‘nature’ of God, it shall be a perfect answer to uphold Jesus Christ as the complete, perfect revelation and manifestation of God.” (The Seventy’s Course in Theology, 5 vol. (The Deseret News, 1907–1912), 2:119.)

Conclusion

Both in the New Testament and in the writings of Latter-day Saint leaders, there is ample precedent for referring to Jesus as the “Godhead incarnate.”

He is the “Godhead incarnate” not because He is literally the Father or the Holy Ghost, but because He is the full representation and embodiment of what the Godhead is like in nature, character, and purpose. His incarnation was the greatest opportunity for humankind to observe the revelation of God up close.

Perhaps this Christmas, instead of rewriting John Rutter’s lyrics, we can sing them with a renewed appreciation for what they truly mean: that in the manger lay the fulness of the Godhead, bodily.