Christ Is Risen

Each time I post a new song, I write a reminder that the songs we sing have great meaning and purpose. We can’t just shrug off lyrical content because “it’s just a song.” This is an important principle because lyrics teach. After corporate worship, it’s more likely that a song will stick in our heads than an exact quote from the sermon. Naturally, the theological implications and application from the text will still resound in our minds, but the melodies and lyrics of the songs are what we end up singing to ourselves. Songs provide a means for us to recall rich biblical truth in a way that spoken words sometimes cannot.

Colossians 3:16 tells us, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” 

It is important that we analyze the lyrics we sing. Are we faithfully admonishing each other in truth with the words we sing? Do the words we sing evoke in us awe and reverence for the God of the universe? Do they convey the gratitude in our hearts for the grace God has extended to us in the gospel – the person and work of Jesus Christ?

Questions like these are my starting point when considering a song for the King’s Chapel catalog. This week we will be adding another song to our repertoire, “Christ Is Risen” by Phil Wickham. Let’s take a look at it together.

V1: Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
For I once was lost but now I’m found
Was blind but now I see
Hallelujah, Christ is risen from the grave

V2: The prodigal is welcomed home
The sinner now a saint
For the God who died came back to life
And everything is changed
Hallelujah, Christ is risen from the grave

I doubt there is a hymn more recognizable than “Amazing Grace.” It’s a reminder of where we were and where Christ brought us. We were wretches, we were lost, we were blind. But in His grace, we’ve been saved from our misery, found in our wandering, and given sight to see clearly the beauty of our God. That concept continues into verse 2. We were prodigals and sinners, but in Christ we are welcomed home as saints. That is truly good news!

This concept drives me back to Paul’s words in Ephesians 2:1-5, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.”

To that, we can say “Hallelujah,” and rejoice in Christ’s finished work. We can only be made alive because Christ rose from the grave. As Pastor Lou has said many times, the resurrection is the proof of purchase. Christ paid the price for our sin on the cross, and the resurrection demonstrates clearly that payment was accepted and death has been defeated. That is why we sing the words of the bridge with such confidence.