In Christ Alone

Preached at Christ Church, Billericay, 4 November 2024.  this talk is about the song "In Christ Alone"

Reading Colossians 1:24-28

Origins

The song “In Christ Alone” was written by Stuart Townend and Keith Getty in 2002. That must make it one of the most up-to-date songs that we regularly sing. Stuart and Keith met at a worship event in late 2000 and decided to work together on some songs. A few weeks later Keith sent Stuart a CD containing some melody ideas. Stuart described the first one as a “magnificent, haunting melody that I loved, and I immediately started writing down some lyrical ideas on what I felt should be a timeless theme commensurate with the melody. So the theme of the life, death, resurrection of Christ, and the implications of that for us just began to tumble out, and when we got together later on to fine tune it, we felt we had encapsulated what we wanted to say.”

They had both wanted to capture biblical truth in songs and hymns that would not only cause people to express their worship in church, but will build them up in their Christian lives. Stuart says that songs are more memorable than sermons.

Recordings

“In Christ Alone” has been recorded many times, but Stuart’s favourite is a recording made at Stoneleigh Bible Week in England in 2019. He says of the experience “When we finish the third verse, about the resurrection of Christ, there’s an extraordinary burst of praise from the congregation that at the time was overwhelming, and listening back still sends a shiver down my spine.”

Stuart Townend

Stuart was born in 1963 and grew up in West Yorkshire, England, the youngest son of an Anglican vicar. He started learning piano at a young age, and began writing music at 22. He has produced albums for Keith Routledge and Vinesong, among many others, and has also released eight solo albums to date. Some of his better-known songs include “How Deep the Father’s Love,” “The King of Love,” and “The Power of the Cross.” He continues to work closely with friends Keith and Kristyn Getty, and is currently a worship leader in Church of Christ the King in Brighton, where he lives with wife Caroline, and children Joseph, Emma and Eden.

Keith Getty

Julian Keith Getty OBE was born on 16 December 1974 in Lisburn, Northern Ireland. He is the eldest of four children and a Northern Irish businessman, Christian singer and songwriter. Getty now mainly works with his wife, Kristyn; they release music under the name Keith & Kristyn Getty.

Getty began making music at age 11, learning to play the classical guitar and then the flute. During school, Getty was influenced by classical music, Irish music, and church music of all kinds. As a young adult, he studied music at St Chad's College, Durham University, graduating with his Bachelor of Arts in 1995. As a student, Getty completed special conducting opportunities at the Canford Summer School of Music and the Tanglewood Music Center in Massachusetts. He participated in a summer master class under Irish flautist Sir James Galway.

Kristyn met Keith Getty in 2002. Kristyn was attending a nearby university and asked Getty for some musical advice. The couple married on 16 June 2004 and they have four children.

Getty and his wife live between Portstewart, Northern Ireland and Nashville, Tennessee with their four daughters.

Song Popularity

“In Christ Alone” soon gained popularity, and by 2005 it was named by a BBC Songs of Praise survey as the ninth best loved hymn of all time, and in their 2010 survey was named second best hymn of all time. In 2006 it was in the No 1 position on the United Kingdom CCLI (Christian Copyright Licensing International) chart. It has made the top 25 in the American list and is popular in other English speaking countries. There are also many translations. It is currently no. 18 in CCLI’s “Top 100” list.

Controversy

The song is not without it’s controversies, perhaps more politely called theological debate. In 2013 the Presbyterian Church in the USA voted not to include the song in its new hymnal. They had been refused permission by the authors to make a small but significant change. The wanted to use the line "Till on that cross as Jesus died, the love of God was magnified." in place of "Till on that cross as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied". They were faced with a choice – include the song in its original form or leave it out. One of their ministers - Chris Joiner - said "that lyric comes close to saying that God killed Jesus. The cross is not an instrument of God's wrath."

Satisfaction Theory Of Atonement

The discussion is long and complicated and involves the Early Church Fathers, particularly Anselm. It deals with the satisfaction theory of atonement, where Anselm describes human sin as defrauding God of the honour he is due. Christ's death, the ultimate act of obedience, brings God great honour. As it was beyond the call of duty for Christ, it is more honour than he was obliged to give. Christ's surplus can therefore repay our deficit. That’s a short description from Wikipedia, so you could start there if you want to research it more later.

My view of the argument

I followed their argument as far as I could and although I can see where they are going (I think), I cannot agree. The problem is that their argument departs from one of the central parts of Christian Theology – that Christ died on the cross to save us from our sins. One of the 16 scripture references that the song is based on is Romans 5:9, which says “Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!”.

There is no sense in any of the Gospels that God killed Jesus, each of them tells us quite clearly that Jesus went to the cross intentionally as part of His plan.

I made a decision a long time ago now, that when I couldn’t work something out for myself, I would trust the Bible, so that’s where I’ll start with this controversy.

 Creedal Song

“In Christ Alone” is a creedal song – it helps us with our statements of belief. That is certainly what the authors were trying to do. It is not a complete creed, like the Apostles Creed, or the Nicene Creed, both of which talk about the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

The simplest or shortest creed I could find in our liturgy only mentions Christ and the scriptures:

Christ died for our sins
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he was buried;
he was raised to life on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures;
afterwards he appeared to his followers,
and to all the apostles:
this we have received,
and this we believe.
Amen.

The song concentrates on Jesus and especially how we relate to Him and benefit from what He has done for us.

I have tried to summarise what it is saying (but the song says it best, of course):

Verse 1 – Christ’s love is our strength and security.

Verse 2 – Christ, in human form, as Jesus, dies for our salvation and is our life.

Verse 3 – His resurrection, His victory over death frees us from our sin.

Verse 4 – We live in the power of Christ and cannot be taken from Him.

Hope

We need to go back to the first line to understand that all of this is our hope. None of us have yet been resurrected, as Romans 8:24 says

²⁴ But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? ²⁵ But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

All these things are our hope, our belief, our faith. As we sing this wonderful modern hymn, let’s try to take in the meaning and understanding that it provides, so that our faith may be strengthened.

Amen.