In Christ Alone
This is the first "modern classic" in this series! I always thought this song was from back in 1800s, but then I learned that it was in the early 2000s that Keith Getty and Stuart Townend wrote it. This is surely one of the most in depth and thoughtful songs about the supremacy of Christ.
Welcome back to Friday Classic Hymns. For the first time in this series, I'm going to do quite a new song. I always thought this was an old song. The first time I heard it, I thought it was ancient. I remember as a teenager thinking, "Why are we singing all these old songs?" It turned out that this one had just been written. The truth is, just because something is old doesn't mean it's good. There are lots of very bad hymns, and there are lots of very good new songs as well. Of course, the point of the series was to take the old great hymns and revive them, but once in a while I want to do a modern classic—and this is as good as it gets.
A lot of modern music in the church is very shallow, but there are a few people who write very deep, meaningful, powerful, and theologically rich modern music. Here is a song that does exactly that. Do you know "In Christ Alone"? Do you know that it was only written a few years ago? Did you also think, like me, that it was an old song?
I love the song, and I'd love for you to share your memories of this song down below in the comments. If something in the lyrics really catches you today, why don't you also share that below? It would be great to celebrate with you. If you haven't subscribed to the channel, I'd love for you to do that. I'm almost up at 25,000 subscribers—can't believe it! If you enjoy this type of music, I'd love for you to subscribe and be part of what I do here online.
The Story Behind "In Christ Alone"
The two men responsible for this great song are Keith Getty and Stuart Townend. These are great modern songwriters, and if you do a YouTube search, you can find tonnes of great music that these guys have written.
They met in 2000 at a worship event. I guess they were both a bit disillusioned with the state of church music—it was starting to get a little bit shallow. They decided to try to write some songs together. Keith Getty came up with a melody—a very Celtic melody—which he sent off to Stuart Townend, and Stuart began to work on some lyrics about the fullness of Christ and what He brought to the world.
Now, Keith Getty is a Northern Irishman, born in 1974. He's a highly trained musician, having studied music at a very high level, and his father was a Presbyterian minister in Belfast. He writes and performs a lot of music with his wife, Kristen. If you look up Getty Music, you'll see a whole bunch of songs that they have written and performed together. We sing a few of them in our church—looking for modern music that is deep and very significant, we have really enjoyed some of their songs.
Stuart Townend is an Englishman whose father was also a minister, and whose songwriting has really taken him places. He's written some of the most beautiful songs. Some of you will know "How Deep the Father's Love for Us"—also a beautiful song that I think I should feature maybe on Friday Classic Hymns as one of these modern classics I want to do.
These two men started to collaborate, with Stuart working on the words and Keith sending the music. This is what Stuart had to say about the song, as I found it on the UMC website:
"Keith and I met in the autumn of 2000 at a worship event, and we resolved to try to work together on some songs. A few weeks later, Keith sent some melody ideas, and the first one on the CD was a magnificent, haunting melody that I loved and immediately started writing down some lyrical ideas on what I felt should be a timeless theme commensurate with the melody. The theme of the life, death, resurrection of Christ, the implications of that for us, just began to tumble out. When we got together later on to fine-tune it, we felt we had encapsulated what we wanted to say."
It really is a beautiful song, as we shall see when we get into the lyrics.
Here's how the Gettys have written about this song in a recent book:
"In Christ Alone grew out of, first, an excitement to write hymns that would help 21st-century Christians sing, know, and embrace the incredible truths of the Lord in fresh language; and second, out of frustration with the lack of depth in the songs that were being sung in many churches. In that sense, it was kind of protest music. We envisaged a hymn that told the incredible story of the Gospel and settled on the title 'In Christ Alone.' Keith wrote most of the music, and Stuart wrote most of the genius lyrics."
This really is a fantastic song. As I said, I encourage you to go and look into these two songwriters, because they do write very good modern music that should be sung, I think, in our modern churches.
What Do the Lyrics of "In Christ Alone" Mean?
The song is so theologically rich that pretty much every line is a sermon in itself. I could go on for long, but I'm going to try to keep this nice and brief as I go through each line.
Verse 1
In Christ alone my hope is found
That phrase "In Christ alone" repeats throughout the song—nobody else, but only Christ. It reminds me of a verse that says there's no other name under heaven by which man can be saved. It is Christ and Christ alone who brings us all these wonderful things. My hope is found in Him and Him alone. Of course, we have hope for many things in Christ, most of all the hope of His saving grace being effective in our lives.
Here's a bunch of titles for Him: He is my light in a dark world. Jesus said He's the light of the world. My strength when I'm weak, He is strong and my song—He is the expression of my heart's delight. This Cornerstone—Jesus is the cornerstone. The Bible paints a picture of the people of God being living stones like a living building, with Him as the cornerstone that holds it all together. This solid ground, firm through the fiercest drought and storm—whether we're going through a fierce drought or a fierce storm, He is like solid ground. We're not going to be knocked over. We're going to be firm if He is our foundation.
What heights of love, what depths of peace
I love that "heights"—as high as you can go, there is love; as deep as you can go, there is peace. Christ encompasses it all.
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease
When we meet Christ, our fears are stilled, and we don't need to be afraid of anything any more because He's with us. Our strivings cease—very powerful line, this. We don't need to strive to earn God's love. When we realise that it's found in Christ alone, that salvation, it's not by striving—it's by grace. We don't need to strive to earn God's love. Of course, we do still live zealous and passionate Christian lives, but not in order to earn His love, but rather because we've experienced His free grace.
My Comforter—which is another great title for Jesus. He's the one who brings comfort to us so that we can comfort others. The Bible's clear on that, and I'm sure you've received the comfort of Christ in your life as you've gone through difficulties.
My Comforter, My All in All—that says everything it needs to, doesn't it?
Here in the love of Christ I stand
My life is rooted in His love. Everything flows out of that. Man, that is powerful stuff.
Verse 2
Verse 2 starts to talk about His birth.
In Christ alone, who took on flesh, fullness of God in helpless babe
The Incarnation—Jesus came as a child, but He was fully God even when He was a child. Amazing that God would condescend, to use that word, and become a baby, a helpless babe, and humble Himself in that way.
This gift of love and righteousness, scorned by the ones He came to save
Now he's moving on to Jesus' life. He was scorned, rejected by the people who He came to save, even though He was a gift of love and a picture of perfect righteousness. The people scorned Him, the very people He came to save. That implies, obviously, the Jewish people who He came to—they rejected Him—and also the Gentiles. His salvation was opened up to everybody, but many Gentiles still reject Him and say they don't need Jesus. He is scorned even today by the ones He came to save.
Till on that cross as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied
This is the controversial line, because the Presbyterian Church in the USA, when they wanted to publish this in their new hymnal in the 2000s, wanted to change this line. They were uncomfortable with the words "the wrath of God was satisfied," and so they tried to change it to "the love of God was magnified," I think. But Getty rejected that and said, "No, if you want to publish it, you need to publish it with those words."
They were afraid, I believe, that this was too harsh for people to sing and that it would confuse people—"the wrath of God placed on Jesus, what does that mean?" But of course, that is the beauty of the Gospel—that we, by nature, are deserving of God's wrath, but Jesus took our place. Not that God was angry with Jesus and took out His anger on Jesus, but that Jesus gave Himself up in love as our substitute. He on that cross hung there in our place.
Every sin on Him was laid
Every sin on Him was laid. The Bible talks about how, as He died, He became a curse for us, because a holy God, of course, needs to punish sin. Jesus took on the punishment of sin that should have been ours. Everybody who now places their faith in Christ doesn't face the wrath of God because it was placed on our substitute. This is the Gospel. This is the good news—that you and I can be saved, delivered from that punishment, because of what He did.
I'm glad that he didn't change that line. I think it's a powerful line, and for me, it makes me so grateful for what Jesus did on that cross.
Here in the death of Christ I live
The last line says, "Because He died, I live." Because He gave Himself up for me, I live. "I'm crucified with Christ," Paul said. "It's no longer I that live, but Christ lives within me." Because He died, I can live on. You remember John 3:16? "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son." He gave Him over to death. Now, whoever believes in Him will not perish but will live, will have eternal life.
This is deep stuff. As I said, I'm glad we sing it. I hope that you sing this song in your church. I'm just thinking that we must maybe sing it this Sunday.
Verse 3
Verse 3 carries on the story of Jesus.
There in the ground His body lay, Light of the World by darkness slain
Again, he brings back that picture of Jesus as light from verse 1—Light of the World. A picture of what seemed to be defeat when Jesus was lying in the grave. All His followers must have thought it's over—He wasn't who He said He was.
Then bursting forth in glorious day, up from the grave He rose again
Awesome! This is the great hope of our faith—that Jesus was not only killed on the cross as a martyr, no, but that He conquered death, rose from the grave. We can now live because He rose from the grave. Amazing!
And as He stands in victory, sin's curse has lost its grip on me
Great line to sing! Because Jesus conquered death, we now have victory not only over death but over sin. The power that raised Jesus from the dead is available for you and I, the Bible says, and this gives us power over sin.
What does it mean for sin's curse to have lost its grip on you? Well, instead of being entangled and enslaved by sin, we are now freed from the penalty of sin. Instead of God punishing us for sin, Christ has taken that punishment, and so those who place their faith in Him are released from the penalty of sin.
Of course, we are also released from the power of sin, and that's why I love singing this line—"sin's curse, sin's power, has lost its grip on me." With a regenerate heart, a new heart that God gives those who are saved, we can now find victory over sin. Wonderful! God sanctifies us by His grace that we may live holy lives. Beautiful!
Then, of course, the third way that sin's curse loses its grip on us is that one day we will be finally delivered from the presence of sin and enjoy a sinless existence with God in the new heavens and the new earth. Amazing!
For I am His and He is mine, bought with the precious blood of Christ
Beautiful! "I am His, He is mine. I am His child, He is my God." Bought with the precious blood of Christ—that blood that He shed bought me, ransomed me, got me out of captivity and back into His arms. Ah, lovely!
Verse 4
The final verse says:
No guilt in life, no fear in death
There's that salvation that God offered through Christ's death and resurrection. We don't need to feel any guilt any more because He's taken our sins if we've placed our faith in Him, and we don't need to have any fear of death because we know that He's waiting for us.
This is the power of Christ in me
This really is a living power for this life and the life to come.
From life's first cry to final breath, Jesus commands my destiny
My whole life is held in His hands.
No power of hell, no scheme of man can ever pluck me from His hand
Nothing that rages against me can pluck me from His hand. Jesus Himself spoke about how "My sheep can never get plucked out of My hand."
This last line is powerful again:
Till He returns or calls me home, here in the power of Christ I'll stand
In other words, maybe I die and get called home, maybe He'll return before that happens, but I'll stand in the power of Christ and live my life in Him, in His power, while I wait.
Conclusion
What lyrics have touched you today? I mean, every line—every line is just so rich. As I said, we could go into each one and do a whole sermon on each one, couldn't we? But this proves that there are good modern hymns for us to sing. I mean, this song was written in the early 2000s, and yet it has got such depth to it. It is marvelous to sing because it tells the whole story of what Jesus did, and we need to know that, and we need to sing that, and we need to celebrate that.
If you enjoy my channel, I'd very much love for you to go and check out my Patreon, where all my music is available for those who subscribe there. Just go over to my website, lukepowellministries.com, and all the links are there. Thank you for your support, and I hope you'll now sing this with me. I love this song, and I hope that as you sing it with me, your heart will soar!
