Yet Not I But Through Christ in Me
Let’s look at another modern classic hymn – a favourite of many since it was released in 2018 by Australian music ministry “City Alight”. These words resonate deeply with those who follow Christ, and the singable melody has made this a standard in churches worldwide.
It's time to do another Friday Classic Hymn. Normally I focus on the old ones - songs from the 1700s, 1800s, and 1900s. This is one of the few modern hymns that I've featured so far in the series, but it's a song that I love deeply and it has a real classic feel to it. I think this one will be sung for a very long time.
My story with the song is that it was the day of my grandmother's funeral during COVID, and I was feeling a little bit lost. I remember just not being sure what to do with myself, so I put on some random worship mix on YouTube, which is not something I usually do - I'm usually very specific about what I listen to. This song came on. I'd never heard it, but it touched me so deeply on that day that I couldn't stop listening to it. I started to sing it at church - it's one of our favourites now - and I just can't get enough of this song.
Yet not I but through Christ in me. Do you know it? Do you sing it at your church? I hope that if you don't, you'll be singing it soon. Maybe take it to your worship leader because it's such a great song. It feels modern and yet it feels old at the same time - it's got something for everybody.
Let me tell you the story behind it, but first please subscribe to the channel if you haven't already. I'd really appreciate that. Share your stories behind this song and your thoughts and your comments - I'd love to hear what it means to you or how it's impacted your life.
The Story Behind "Yet Not I But Through Christ In Me"
CityAlight is a music ministry based in an Anglican church in Sydney, Australia - St Paul's Castle Hill. They were formed in 2014, and as a small worship team at their church, they began writing some modern hymns for their congregation to sing. They weren't looking to publish their songs or go big or anything like that - they just wanted to write theologically strong songs that their congregation could sing. Well, members of their team started to do this and they ended up picking up a great following online.
Their name, CityAlight, I think says it all - they want to be a light in their cities and beyond. I believe that they've achieved this. They've become a real light in the Christian music world. As I read interviews with them and articles about them, it struck me how these folks have got a desire to write hymns and not worship songs. Worship songs, in their mind at least, sometimes become a little bit us-focused - a little bit about what Jesus makes me feel rather than how great He is. So they write these compositions that are simple and memorable with easy melodies for people to be able to sing, but songs that are rooted in the Bible and songs that exalt God and teach us who God is as we sing.
Churches all around the world are now using their music. Their songs are so profound and yet simple that I think everybody who starts to use them starts to really enjoy these songs. We sing four or five of their songs regularly at our church. In fact, this year we've started to do one of their new ones, "The Battle and the Blessing", and we love it because again it's easy to sing and yet it's so rich in theology. That's what grabbed me about this song when I started to hear it that day - it wasn't just another emotional worship song, but it was deep theology. It explains so much about Jesus that it just made my heart soar.
It was three songwriters who put this one together: Jonny Robinson and Rich Thompson of CityAlight, along with them an American songwriter named Michael Farren. They wrestled with this one for a long time because it was an important song and they wanted to get the words just right. They pieced it together bit by bit, all based around Galatians 2:20 where Paul said, "I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I but Christ who lives in me."
Rich Thompson says this about the song in an interview with Salt and Light: "We wanted to write a song that captured the full arc of the Christian life, from our salvation to our future glory, all centred around the theme of 'not I but Christ.'" Lovely. You'll see that in these lyrics - it's a wide-encompassing song that takes you on this journey. It's just beautiful.
Every line the songwriters ensured had biblical grounding, especially drawn from the New Testament. Each verse progresses and tells the story of the fullness of salvation. In fact, one of the articles I read spoke about how this song became very meaningful to people during the COVID years when there was lots of death around. One of the lines that said no fate I dread, I know I am forgiven, the future sure, the price it has been paid - that was very helpful to people who were facing an uncertain future on earth but who knew where their future with God was.
The song has become very popular - millions of views on YouTube. They've got a few different versions up there and they've all got so many views. Many churches sing these songs and this one in particular is a favourite. CityAlight is continuing to release new music. I encourage you - go and listen to all of their stuff and take in the words. Let the words of these songs just wash over you. They are so biblically based, so true. As they continue to do what they're called to do, I'm just so grateful that today we have the technology that they can release something over there and it comes all around the world to me here in South Africa and wherever you might be, and we can all sing songs like this together wherever we are. Very special.
What Do the Lyrics of "Yet Not I But Through Christ In Me" Mean?
Let's go through the words of the song together and see what makes it such a powerful and popular song in the church today.
Verse 1
What gift of grace is Jesus, my Redeemer. Love that line - that line hooked me from the beginning. Jesus is a gift. I mentioned this on my daily devotions just the other day - how I was listening to a talk on the Theology Project podcast (that's a great YouTube channel, by the way - Dr Matt O’Reilly from the Global Methodist Church has got a great channel going there). He was talking to Ben Witherington III, another Wesleyan scholar, and they were talking about how grace is not something God can sort of dip over you - it's not like something in a bucket - but grace is Himself. Jesus Himself is grace. When we say that we have God's grace, what we mean is that we have God Himself. I just loved that - it really made me think differently about grace.
What gift of grace is Jesus, my Redeemer. He redeems us from sin.
There is no more for Heaven now to give. That's a special line. With Christ in our lives, we have all we need. There's no more for Heaven to try and give us so that we can do any better - we've got Jesus and His Spirit.
He is my joy, my righteousness, and freedom. Oh, love that. He's the one who fills my heart. He's the one who enables me to become righteous. He's the one who frees me.
My steadfast love, my deep and boundless peace. "Steadfast" means reliable, trustworthy. In that one verse you have wonderful truths to reflect on. Is He your deep and boundless peace? You need peace in this life - you can only find it in Christ.
First Chorus
Every chorus is different in the song, by the way, except for the last line.
To this I hold, my hope is only Jesus. There's that exclusivity that Jesus demands - only Jesus is my hope.
For my life is wholly bound to His. We are connected to Him completely. Is that true of you? Or are you sort of in Jesus' camp but sort of not - taking the bits of Him you like, rejecting the bits you don't? That's not going to get you anywhere. Be wholly bound to Him.
Oh, how strange and divine, I can sing, "All is mine." I love that - strange and divine. It's strange that God would love us the way that He does, but it's a divine and wonderful thing. So we can sing all is mine - all is mine. I have all the gifts of God, God's grace in my heart. It all belongs to me because He belongs to me.
Yet not I but through Christ in me. There's that line that repeats at the end of every chorus. I have all these blessings from Him, and my hope and my peace and my joy is in Him, but it's Him inside of me that is what makes all the difference. It's not me that makes it happen - He is the one who initiates. Of course, I have the responsibility to respond in faith and to take His hand, but once I've invited Him in - or said yes, rather, to His knock and let Him in - He takes residence inside me. Then it is His grace that enables me to live this life.
Verse 2
The night is dark, but I am not forsaken, for by my side, the Saviour, He will stay. It is a dark world - there is pain, there's hardship, there's difficulty - but He doesn't forsake us. He stays by our side. That's a precious line.
I labour on in weakness and rejoicing. I keep on doing the work He's called me to do. I'm not going to give it up. I may be weak, but I'll keep rejoicing as I labour on.
For in my need, His power is displayed. The fact that I'm weak doesn't stop me because the weaker I am, the more power is shown in me through Him.
Second Chorus
All the choruses also start with that "to this I hold."
My Shepherd will defend me through the deepest valley, He will lead. As you go through your dark moments in life, your deep valleys, you've got the Shepherd defending you and leading you on. Are you following Him? Or have you lost your way? Look for the Shepherd - follow the Shepherd.
Oh, the night has been won, and I shall overcome, yet not I but through Christ in me. Though it's dark, the night is not the end. The darkness is not the end. The night has been won and victory is ours. We'll overcome through Christ. If we hold to Christ in us, we will overcome whatever darkness comes our way.
Verse 3
No fate I dread, I know I am forgiven. The future's sure, the price, it has been paid. That's the one that the people in COVID were hanging on to. No fate I dread - in other words, even if death comes, I don't dread it because I know that I'm forgiven and that the price for my sin has been paid by Jesus. My future is sure.
This is called Christian assurance. Assurance is such a great privilege of the Christian - to know, because the Spirit has witnessed to you (to use Paul's words), that your future is sure. You don't have to hope that you'll make it to Heaven, but you can know that you've made it to Heaven because your faith is in Christ and the fruit of your life proves it.
For Jesus bled and suffered for my pardon, and He was raised to overthrow the grave. How has my sin been paid for? Well, through Jesus' death on the cross and His being raised from the grave to overthrow death. What He did paid my price, and now I can know that my future is sure. What a verse.
Third Chorus
To this I hold, my sin has been defeated. Amen. It no longer has a hold over me.
Jesus, now and ever, is my plea. My plea is not "look at what I've done, Lord - accept me on the basis of what I've done," but my plea is "look at what Jesus did." He is the one who saved me.
Oh, the chains are released, I can sing, "I am free." That's what He does - when He has forgiven us, the chains of our sins are broken. So we can sing, "I am free." I actually released a song just last week, a song of mine called "Free at Last" - you can go and listen to it if you like - because I had also known this truth: that He not only forgives me but He frees me from the power of sin. Instead of walking around chained by sin, I can live a free life by His grace. Wonderful.
Yet not I but through Christ in me. It's not my own willpower - it's His grace in me that enables me to resist temptation and live free. Love it. This song touches on almost everything.
Verse 4
Then the last verse, which, as the songwriter said, takes us through to our future glory.
With every breath, I long to follow Jesus, for He has said that He will bring me home. We're on a journey with Jesus.
And day by day, I know He will renew me until I stand with joy before the throne. He's renewing us day by day. One day we'll stand with joy before His throne because He sustained us through it all.
Final Chorus
To this I hold, my hope is only Jesus. That's a repeated line from the first chorus, and it bookends it beautifully. My hope is only Jesus.
All the glory evermore to Him. All of this, all of this blessing that comes our way according to these words - we give Him glory. All the glory belongs to Him for these things.
When the race is complete, still my lips shall repeat, "Yet not I but through Christ in me." Love singing that. We normally repeat that line a few times. When the race is complete, still my lips shall repeat - not I. One day when I'm done and I'm meeting God up there, I'm going to say it wasn't me. I didn't have it in me, but through Christ in me, I was sustained to the end.
Conclusion
What a song. What words mean something to you? What line jumps out at you? Was there something there that really spoke to you? I'd love to hear what you think of the song. Please share it in the comments below.
Just a big thank you to those who donate to my ministry. I am a pastor at a small church here in South Africa, and one day a week I spend here in the studio. I record all my daily devotions, which I'd love for you to hear on my other channel. I record this Friday Classic, and I record "An Encounter", which is a time of worship, singing, and praying. It's your donations that enable me to spend the day doing this once a week. I'm so grateful. Thank you to all those who support me on Patreon or on PayPal.
