How Deep the Father's Love for Us

A couple of weeks ago, we sang this song at church: "How Deep the Father's Love for Us". As we sang, it just hit me--how many songs do we have like this today? The entire point of this song is the misery Christ endured on the cross for me. The first line explains the rest of the song--God's love is infinitely great, that He sent His Son in the first place. The rest of the song almost entirely deals with the Son enduring the cross. The last stanza remind us of the results Christ's sacrifice: no more debt.

How many songs today focus on that? Don't get me wrong--songs like Matt Maher's "Christ is Risen" or Phillips Craig and Dean's rendition of "Revelation Song" are both beautiful songs of worship--"Christ is Risen" speaking of how the Christian is now free from sin, and "Revelation Song" speaking of God's sheer majesty and glory. Chris Tomlin's songs are also deeply moving. But how many songs do we commonly sing today speak about the utter horror, pain, and agony of Christ on the cross? Shouldn't we have more songs like "How Deep the Father's Love for Us"? After all, isn't the cross the only reason why we can sing to God in the first place?

I realized something else as I sang this song; at the point of the line "It was my sin that held Him there," it sorta clicked--just for a moment. It was my sin that kept Him up there! Below are the lyrics to "How Deep the Father's Love for Us"; I hope they impact you the same way they did me:

"How deep the Father's love for us,
 How vast beyond all measure
 That He should give His only Son
 To make a wretch His treasure.

"How great the pain of searing loss,
 The Father turns His face away
 As wounds which mar the chosen One,
 Bring many sons to glory.

"Behold the Man upon a cross,
 My sin upon His shoulders.
 Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice,
 Call out among the scoffers.

"It was my sin that held Him there
 Until it was accomplished.
 His dying breath has brought me life
 I know that it is finished.

"I will not boast in anything—
 No gifts, no power, no wisdom—
 But I will boast in Jesus Christ—
 His death and resurrection.

"Why should I gain from His reward?
 I cannot give an answer.
 But this I know with all my heart:
 His wounds have paid my ransom."

Hymnsights from the Past - Amazing Love

Yes, I have another "hymnsight" from worship, but bear with me--I'm trying to catch up from the last couple of weeks. Earlier this week, a couple of songs after we had sung "I Will Enter His Gates", we sang "Amazing Love" (aka "You Are My King"). The hymn began with this:

"I'm forgiven, because You were forsaken;
 I'm accepted, You were condemned;
 I'm alive and well, Your Spirit is within me
 Because You died and rose again."

Again, I had a moment of spiritual clarity. As we sang, it just really hit me about the contrast here--I was given a pardon by God, while He Himself was condemned and killed on my behalf. The finite was given infinitely long life, while the infinite was contained within a mere finite body. The guilty were granted righteousness through a divine sacrifce, while the Righteous One was made into that same sacrifice. The ultimate rags to riches story was only made possible by the rich becoming rags. Wow. Can I get an amen for that?

Another Hymnsight from the Past

The other week, while I was at my interning church, we were singing hymns (as usual). While I am still adjusting to singing older songs (and even beginning to enjoy them), already I am being taught by God how He can use anything to help us realize His great truths. This time, we sang this chorus:

"I will enter His gates with thanksgiving in my heart,
 I will enter His courts with praise,
 I will say this is the day that the Lord has made,
 I will rejoice for He has made me glad."

"He has made me glad, He has made me glad,
 I will rejoice for He has made me glad.
 He has made me glad, He has made me glad,
 I will rejoice for He has made me glad."

As we sang this, I realized the importance of the Christian to always be joyful in Christ. How often do I go about my life in a miserable or depressed manner? I understand that it is unreasonable to expect myself to be bursting with euphoria 24/7, but that is not equate with joy. Not only are we to be active in in our gladness by rejoicing, though, but we are also to passively rejoice in being glad. As a redeemed person, I can rejoice knowing that I am now no longer in danger of hell; additionally, I can rejoice that I am no longer separated from God's holiness and goodness.

So how can I apply this to my spiritual walk with God? Well, ultimately, I should pray that God would work within my heart, and change me more and more to be filled with a consistant joy in Him, regardless of my circumstances.

Hymnsight from the Past

At the church where I am interning, we regularly sing hymns. This is something that I'm not really used to; where I'm from, hymns are treated as ancient songs--we have a more "contemporary" service. So, adjusting to hymns has been a bit of an experience for me. However, my opinion of these old songs has been changing now. While I used to wonder if the hymn-writers used to have way too much time on their hands, now I am beginning to appriciate these same hymns. In fact, last week as I was at church, one of the hymns we sang stood out to me in particular:

"My faith has found a resting place
 Not in device nor creed;
 I trust in the Ever-living One."

It hit me there that my faith, and the faith of all us Christians, are to rest only in Jesus' atoning sacrifice--NOT in "device or creed". But how often do we Christians call ourselves "Baptists", "Catholics", "Pentecostals", or something else? How often do we use our creeds to define ourselves instead of our faith? I understand that there are sometimes differences in faith that require us to form different creeds, and thus we need to identify ourselves by our creeds, but how often do we consider our creed to be more important that our faith? That day in the service, I realized the importance of me personally doing what I can to avoid ever having my faith being weakened or misguided to such a degree that I would place my faith in the Apostles' Creed, a statement of beliefs or mere works.

A creed is a statement of beliefs. It is that, and just that: a statement of beliefs. Ultimately, our creeds are an indication of our faith, but they are not greater than our faith. A statement of belief cannot save us--only belief can.