Posted April 25th, 2009
This song seeks to portray the amazing contrast between what Jesus possessed as the divine Son of God and what He gave up to redeem His people from their sins. 1 John 4:10 says "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 suffering that Jesus endured to turn the Father's wrath away from us ("propitiation") demonstrates both His and His Father's amazing love for us. Jesus was willing to trade the glory and majesty that He possessed from eternity past to become a poor peasant who ultimately roamed Israel homeless and was executed for crimes He did not commit. He was willing to be tempted beyond anything we can fully understand by Satan himself, willing to be forsaken by every single person in this world, to be mocked and scorned, beaten, and crucified, all while deserving worship. Philippians 2:6-8 says "though he was in the form of God, [Jesus] did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross."
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Posted April 24th, 2009
One of the things that continues to grip me about my Christian faith is that I am a Christian at all. God's patience toward me continues to leave me awed and amazed at his love. I see the same thing in Paul's testimony in 1 Timothy 1. Even after many years of faithful service to Jesus and a deep understanding of the richness of the gospel, Paul still calls himself a sinner, even the chief of sinners! But in the light of the cross he sees more than his own sinfulness; he also sees God's great mercy: "Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life" (1 Tim 1:16). Using the language of abundance from v 14, this song is a tribute to God's grace to sinners – among whom each of us can say, "I am the foremost of all."
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Posted December 24th, 2008
A Christmas hymn
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Posted September 25th, 2008
This song was written during a time of struggle with besetting sin. Christians are forgiven sinners, and even after becoming born again into God's family and having their debts forgiven with a full pardon struggle with ongoing sin and the proper response to it. God tells us that "if we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9) But we often fail to take our sins to God and truly repent - often out of the feeling that what we've done is inexcusable; we simply feel too dirty and guilty and unworthy of God's love. But that's the very place God wants to show us the magnitude of His grace. Even though we continue to commit acts of treason which (symbolically) nailed Jesus to the cross, He still continues to love us and demonstrated that by giving His Son to be slain on the cross. Because that has been accomplished God has promised to be for us, to never be angry again no matter how low we fall in sin. Praise God for His saving grace! The chorus is based on 2 Peter 1:9 which says that believers who are lacking godliness are "blind or short-sighted, having forgotten [their] purification from [their] former sins."
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Posted August 23rd, 2008
We never move past the need to meditate deeply on the suffering that Jesus endured for our sins. Without reflecting often on the unjust suffering of our glorious friend and king we can easily slide further and further into complacency and be unaffected by the magnitude of what took place at Calvary. The spotless Lamb of God died for us - unworthy, helpless sinners entrenched in our rebellion, intent on slaying Him and usurping His authority over us. The song begins by inviting all to come and behold Jesus dying on the cross that they might find the endless and abiding love of God. The chorus answers this invitation, declaring that we will indeed come and remember that mercy moved God to satisfy the demands of righteousness by sending His own Son to bear the punishment for our sins. In the second verse we cry with hymn-writer John Newton that the cross might continue to pierce our hearts as we remember that it was for our sins that Jesus suffered and died.
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Posted June 26th, 2008
The doctrines of grace are sometimes affectionately referred to as a “family secret.” Many of us who now cherish God’s sovereignty in our salvation were not aware of these precious truths when we came to know the Lord. While they are certainly not to be kept secret, a person does not need a firm grasp of them in order to surrender their life to Jesus and trust in His saving work on the cross to pay for their sins and reconcile them to God. That is what this song is about. The original anonymous 19th century author says “I sought the Lord and afterward I knew He moved my soul to seek him, seeking me.” We hear the gospel invitation that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13) and respond in faith, only to look back with a biblically informed perspective and realize that it was really God who gave us our faith and Him who was really seeking us. The Bible says that before we were saved we were “dead in our trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1) and that we did not seek for God (Romans 3:11) But God stepped into our self-absorbed lives and promised that there would be people who would seek Him. Listen to how Jesus puts it in John 6:37: “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.” Acts 10-11 recounts the story of Cornelius and his household trusting in Jesus and in 11:18 it says “God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life.” Praise God for the gift of repentance and faith that enables us to seek Him! May we now stand in that same grace that irresistibly drew us!
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Posted June 25th, 2008
This hymn for ministers of the Gospel was adapted from a text found in "Primitive Hymns".
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Posted June 12th, 2008
The gospel, the good news of Jesus’ death for our sins and new life in Him, is sometimes regarded as a message that only unbelievers need to hear. When we preach about Jesus’ death for sinners only at “outreach” or “evangelistic” events or when we think to ourselves “I’ve heard this a hundred times… can’t we move on?” we demonstrate this kind of thinking. We tend to act as if Jesus’ death only has relevance in getting us in the doorway of the Christian faith. But scripture paints a much bigger picture than this. The gospel’s relevance stems from its inception in eternity past when God devised a plan to redeem people from the sin they would plunge themselves headlong into. The first verse of this song explores the themes of God’s sovereign plan of salvation and the death and resurrection of Jesus. The second verse remembers how the gospel arrived into our lives at conversion and goes on to remind us that even now we stand forgiven before God and do not need to get on God’s “good side” or get out from being on God’s “bad side.” Lastly, we rejoice in the fact that the gospel affords us our only true hope and comfort in death and will be the subject of our songs of worship for eternity as we sing the praises of the Lamb who was slain for our sin. May God’s glorious gospel of grace be sung and cherished in our lives and in our churches!
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Posted June 10th, 2008
O weary saint is a song written particularly for those facing despair at the prospect of their own death or upon the death of a loved one. We are convinced that death is one topic that Christians don’t sing enough about; not what lies beyond death – the glories of heaven – but death itself. Even though Christians have the assurance that death has been conquered and its sting removed (1 Corinthians 15:54-57), we still face physical death and the fears and sorrows that accompany it. This song allows us to confront our grief but offers the encouragement of how Christ can transform it into hope so that we do “not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.” (1 Thessalonians 4:13) Notice that the song is written in a chiastic structure – the second verse is the crux through which the gloom and despair of the first verse are transformed into faith and hope of future promises. O believer, since you are in Christ you will rise again one day in soul and body to everlasting joy!
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Posted June 9th, 2008
A Christian is one who loves Jesus (John 8:42). Even though the Bible defines love in terms of obedience and character in such places as John 14:23 and 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, love must also contain affection. It is far too easy to make the Christian life about growing in knowledge and performance rather than growing in affection for and adoration and worship of our precious Lord Jesus. Consider Matthew 13:44 “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” When a person finds the kingdom of God manifested in the person of Jesus, he will recognize it as so supremely valuable that he is willing to trade everything in His life of any worth to obtain it. There is a preciousness, an unfathomable worth to Jesus that drives the believer to cherish Him and long to be with Him. Perhaps this was one of the verses that motivated Johann Franck to write this hymn in the 17th century. May this arrangement and the chorus written in response to the original lyrics help us keep our love for Jesus warm as we express to Him how worthy He is of all of our affection!
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