I Have a Dad

In his classic book Knowing God, theologian J.I. Packer makes the following assertion about the fatherhood of God.

If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all. For everything that Christ taught, everything that makes the New Testament new, and better than the Old, everything that is distinctively Christian as opposed to merely Jewish, is summed up in the knowledge of the Fatherhood of God. “Father” is the Christian name for God… Our understanding of Christianity cannot be better than our grasp of adoption.

In one of the Jesus' most moving parables, the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32; this could also be called the Parable of the Lost Sons), we see salvation portrayed as the restoration of a family, the reuniting of a wayward son with his loving Father. This song draws its inspiration from this parable and attempts to help us remember what kind of father we have in the Lord - a Father who patiently endured our waywardness, even though it cost Him the life of His own precious Son. The word "Dad" is used instead of Father intentionally. When Jesus prayed, He used the Aramaic word "Abba" which translated literally would mean either Papa or Daddy, and His use of this term to address God would have been controversial at the time. The word is meant to show us the intimacy that we can have with our creator - He need no longer be simply the God of the universe, He can become our Daddy through the redeeming work of His Son.

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See the Lord of Glory Dying

This passion hymn invites us to behold Jesus on the cross, both to remember how deeply our sins have stung him, and to remember that freedom from death and sin - true life - is found by looking to Him. The song not only tells the story of Jesus' suffering and death, but also of His triumphant resurrection and the eternal proclamation that peace and pardon were won through His death and resurrection. This text represented somewhat of a musical challenge in that the first two stanzas focused on Jesus' suffering and the last two stanzas on His resurrection, making it difficult to write a tune or find a mood that would do justice to the feeling of both halves of the song. The solution was to write one melody (so that congregations could easily learn the song) and set it to minor chords for the first two stanzas and major chords for the second two stanzas. The result provides a sharp musical contrast between the suffering of Jesus and the triumph of His resurrection which helps us to feel the contrast of the lyrics.

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Though I Was Born an Orphan

One of the central applications of the Gospel is to imitate it. Israel was to love the sojourner because they were sojourners in the land of Egypt (Deuteronomy 10:16). If they, when fatherless, widowed and homeless, were fed, clothed and sheltered by the Lord, they should display his glory in their treatment of others.

Likewise, James says to Christians (James 1:27), “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction.” James is not content to refer merely to God. Rather, he writes of “God, the Father,” reminding his readers of the privileged relationship they have with God—namely, He has become their “Father.”

As believers, we may call God “Father” because of our adoption as “sons” in Jesus Christ. We were born “sons of disobedience” and “children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:1-3). But the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, chose us and predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1:3-6).

He sent his Son to live a life of full obedience, to die on the cross for our sins, and to be raised from the dead. Through faith in Jesus Christ, we are adopted as sons of God and become heirs (Galatians 3-4). Because we are sons, the Father sends the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying “Abba! Father!” To keep us from falling back into fear, the Spirit of adoption bears witness to us that we are children of God, fellow heirs with Christ, with whom we will be glorified (Romans 8:15-17). God the Father graciously makes his home with us until he calls us to his house (John 14).

If God the Father has blessed us with this great and altogether undeserved adoption, we will show like care to “orphans and widows in their affliction.” In application of the Gospel, Christians become people who display the greatness of their Father through their care for those in need.

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Majestic Sweetness

This is a song about the exceeding beauty of Jesus. Though we cannot see Jesus, we know Him to be beautiful both by our knowledge of His character and works in Scripture, and by our experiential knowledge of Him. As we say today, He is a “beautiful person.” Why is He beautiful? Stennett reminds us in this hymn text that Jesus’ beauty was most clearly demonstrated to us at the cross. By referring to His brow Stennett juxtaposes both the images of a majestic coronation and the picture of the crown of thorns being placed upon Jesus’ head in jest. While on the cross Jesus’ lips overflowed with grace as He prayed for the very ones who crucified Him. Jesus demonstrated grace and love far beyond anything we can know or experience “among the sons of men.” And Philippians 2 shows us that Jesus’ humiliation and suffering serve to further glorify His great beauty: “although [Jesus] existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name.” As the last verse encourages us, let us not only enjoy “regarding the wonders of His grace” but tell others of His beauty that they might love Him and join our songs of praise.

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I Once Was Ignorant of Grace

In the tradition of songs like “And Can It Be,” this song articulates a Christian’s journey from one who is “ignorant of grace” to one comes to know God’s grace shown at the cross, then to one who will forever weep and sing because of God’s mercy. In verse one we remember our spiritual condition before God called us - we did not understand the grace of God (Colossian 1:6) even while enjoying the benefits of God’s goodness to humanity in general (Matthew 5:45). We were dead in sin (Ephesians 2:1) and needed new hearts (Ezekiel 36:26). But God began his work when he opened our eyes to see our true condition before him and the wonder of grace that he would still give His Son for rebels like us. Because of the cross we need not shrink back before a holy God but may admire, love, and approach Him, thanking Him for giving us our savior, Jesus. And that thanksgiving will overflow into song as we forever remember the Lamb of God who was slain for us (Revelation 5:9).

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Praise God Who Gave this Day to Me

This is a hymn intended to be sung in private or family worship at the start of each day. It reminds us of the great truths of Romans 5:1 "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" and Romans 8:1 "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" which we are so prone to forget. It is easy to begin our day living as if the gospel were not true; as if we needed to earn favor or acceptance from God by our performance. We demonstrate this attitude when we feel dejected by God, far from God, or are oblivious to God's presence with us. We must start our day preaching the truth to ourselves that we are accepted and free before God only because of what Jesus has done for us.

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When Sorrow Comes

All of us will experience some degree of sorrow as we navigate through this fallen world, a world filled with sickness and death and the repercussions of relational sin when those most close to us hurt us by their words and deeds. How should Christians think about sorrow and the trials that are often its delivery mechanism? This song attempts to bring Biblical truth to bear on our bouts with pain and depression. If God had left us to what feel or think - to figure out His purpose in our trials by ourselves - we would surely be hopeless. But He has not left us alone; we can rest on what He has told us in His word. God tells us in Isaiah 45:6-8 that He is "the LORD, and there is no other, the One forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being and creating calamity." God is the wise author of all of our circumstances, even our pain. That is a very difficult truth to accept, but through the gospel of God's grace we have these additional promises: "God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28) and "neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39) This song is a cry for the Lord to help us believe this truth for when trials and sorrows come we would be hopeless without it.

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My Precious Savior Gave His All

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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Beyond Measure

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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The Gospel of Grace

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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