If I Could Change the Lyrics
In Christ Alone is a great worship song. It tells the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection in a particularly clear and powerfully succinct way. When it is song in a corporate worship service, it helps us to say thanks to God for the gracious love God has extended to us.
But, I wish I could change a lyric. The second verse begins:
In Christ alone, Who took on flesh,
Fullness of God in helpless babe!
This gift of love and righteousness,
Scorned by the ones He came to save.
Good, good, good. I love all of that language. Then we sing:
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied;
For ev’ry sin on Him was laid—
Here in the death of Christ I live.
If I could summarize what that lyric is trying to say it would be this:
the atonement takes place at the cross; the cross is the place where God vented his wrath against sin; the cross is the place where God in Christ assumed the punishment for sin; the cross is the place where Christ substituted for my sins; the cross is the place where Christ was punished for the sins of the world.
These words fit within a way that the church has made sense of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross called penal substitution. It has become the dominant image for Christ’s redeeming work on the cross. In fact, I think it has become so ingrained in our understanding that it would be difficult for us to describe Jesus’ work on the cross using a different set of language.
But, the church, and scripture, has always used a variety of ways to describe what happened on the cross.
- Early Christian writers (the ancient church fathers) described what happened on the cross using language different than penal substitution. They believed that Jesus became what we are so that we could become what He is.
- Others have argued that Jesus is the demonstration of God’s love that evokes in humans repentance and surrender to Jesus Christ
While it is a great song, In Christ Alone presents an incomplete view of what happened through Jesus on the cross. How we worship informs what we believe about God and how we live our lives.
If I could change the Lyrics I would say this:
And on the cross as Jesus died,
The love of God, exemplified
excellent, and good morning : )
Troy,
I like it. I’m more impressed that you still made it rhyme. Really though, I’ve never been comfortable with language like that, “wrath of God was satisfied.” You’re right, though, that this is really the only way the North American church speaks of the atonement, and thus shapes how we believe and live. Is it any wonder then that the American church has little to do with the suffering of the world? If such suffering is just part of God’s plan that what can we do about it? Or why should we?
I am pretty proud that i made it rhyme.
It’s true that constantly hearing that Jesus is our substitute makes us think we’re exempt from the way of the cross
Husband, Father, Pastor, and now Songwriter? ………….How do you do it?! ……Oh, and I like your version better than the original too.
what the early church mothers/fathers wrote about God’s work in Christ and how what happened in Jesus was for “us and for our salvation” really helps us out just like you say.
I think it helps so much because they seem to hold together the incarnation and the atonment, the who Jesus is w/ the why and the how of the cross. It helps us to reach a bit deeper into endless depths of God’s love
And Troy, nice work w/ the rhyming! I bet you watch a good bit of sesame street these days, don’t you? Me too.
Wouldn’t Christ becoming what we are and us becoming what he is and him suffering for us be substitution for our penalty? Hence “penal”ty substitution?