In Christ Alone

When I started this blog, I intended to unpack the theology of old hymns to keep them alive for today’s audience. I wanted to show that just because they were old, they were not irrelevant. Then, this past month I realized that “hymns” are not just “old church songs” on the brink of extinction. Rather, hymns are a particular genre of church music. A genre has unique musical characteristics (such as meter) and is therefore not bound to a particular time period. Thus I began looking closely at modern hymns, such as In Christ Alone by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend, which was written in 2001. Yes, hymns are still being written in the twenty-first century! I fully expect that In Christ Alone will be a standard hymn in future hymnals, right next to A Mighty Fortress and Great Is Thy Faithfulness.

I was first introduced to this modern hymn back in Romania when I was a teenager (about 15 years ago – now you know my age-ish, ha!). Our Baptist church had just acquired a new Romanian hymnal with Romanian translations of old and new hymns. One of the songs in that new hymnal was In Christ Alone (RO: Speranța mea e în Isus). Our church absolutely LOVED this hymn. I need to mention that the Romanian translation was faithful to the original and the linguistic / cultural adaptation beautifully mirrored the English poetry.

(To this day, when I hear that tune, my brain first goes: “Speranța mea e în Isus” rather than “In Christ Alone,” that’s how much this modern hymn shaped me)

In this blog post I will unpack the poetry and theology of In Christ Alone. Let us take a look at the first verse:

In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song
This cornerstone, this solid ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm
What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease
My comforter, my all in all
Here in the love of Christ I stand

From the very first line we encounter Christ and ONLY Christ as the source of all that is good – “In Christ alone.” It’s as if we put the spotlight on him. The rest of the verse lists a number of his eternal attributes, as well as the way these attributes shape our earthly life. Who is this Christ? My light, my strength, my song, my cornerstone, a firm and solid ground, my comforter, my all in all. Wow. Read that again. Read it slowly, because when you sing it it passes by so quickly you sometimes miss out on its theological depth. Furthermore, how does Christ in all his majesty manifest himself in our everyday life? We experience “heights of love” and “depths of peace” in the midst of fears and when we’ve reached our human limits. No matter what we go through, Christ is our comforter, our all in all, and we stand firm in him alone.

(Raluca goes on a tangent: This last line reminds me of Martin Luther’s famous statement from the Diet of Worms: “Here I stand. I can do no other.” At that general assembly, Luther was advised to recant his Protestant writings before the representatives of the Holy Roman Empire and of the Roman Catholic Church. But Luther did not recant. Rather, he affirmed that his conscience was captive to the Word of God. To go against conscience was neither right nor safe. He could not recant that which was found in the Word of God. Now, I don’t know if Getty and Townend were inspired by Luther when they wrote these lyrics, but that’s where my mind goes when I sing this line.)

Let’s now explore the following two verses:

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
Till on that cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live

There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious day
Up from the grave He rose again
And as He stands in victory
Sin's curse has lost its grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ

There was no way to separate verse two from verse three in this analysis. Both tell the gospel story from Christ’s birth to his death, resurrection, and eternal reign. I particularly love the contrast between the “fullness” of God and the “helpless” babe. This distinction between the divine nature and the human nature of Jesus Christ has been controversial throughout church history (to what extent is Jesus divine? To what extent is he human? Is he, like, 50% divine and 50% human? Is he just human?). The orthodox answer is, of course, Jesus Christ is FULLY divine and FULLY human. And I love how Getty and Towend use the term “fullness” to depict his divine nature. Moreover, if Christ were merely human, the wrath of God would have NOT been satisfied in his death and our faith would have been in vain. I really have to tip my hat to Getty and Townend on capturing orthodox doctrine so beautifully in these verses. Well done, guys! Well done!!

Another beautiful contrast in the second verse is that between the gift of “love” and “righteousness.” Since God is wholly other (to quote Herr Barth), it’s hard for us humans to understand how he can be both a loving God and a righteous God. Here are the dangers of prioritizing one over the other: if one thinks that God is ONLY a God of love, they will continue to live in sin because God forgives anyway. If one thinks that God is ONLY a God of wrath, they will live their lives in fear of eternal damnation. Neither approach is indicative of God’s true nature. God is both a God of love and a God of righteousness. His love was manifested to us in the sending of Jesus Christ in the form of a “helpless babe.” Then his wrath was satisfied “on that cross as Jesus died.”Furthermore, what is the result of this “gift of love and righteousness?” It means that we no longer face eternal damnation, since God’s wrath had been satisfied in the death of Jesus Christ. Therefore, we now have eternal life, as the authors beautifully summarized in the final line of the second verse: Here in the death of Christ I live (did you notice another contrast here? Death vs. life? Just… wow…)

The chain of poetic contrasts continues in the third verse – Light of the world by darkness slain. Christ is the light of the world, God from God, light from light, through whom all things were made. And in this one instance the darkness of fallen humanity slayed him. But as we know already, death did not keep him in the grave, because on that glorious Easter morning, Christ rose again. He now stands in victory over sin and death. I am no longer under their dominion, for I have been bought with the precious blood of Christ.

No guilt in life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From life's first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny
No power of hell, no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from His hand
Till He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I'll stand

The final verse expresses the ways in which we experience Christ in our everyday life – no guilt in life, no fear in death, because God’s wrath had already been satisfied at the cross. Moreover, Jesus Christ is in full control of our destiny from the moment we are born until the moment we die. And for all the moments in between our birth and death (aka while we live our life day to day), Jesus holds us fast in his hand and protects us from the power of hell or from the evil schemes of man. Until we die, or until Christ returns (whichever comes first) we stand in the power of the risen Christ.

In this piano arrangement I wanted to express the joy and confidence that we experience in Christ. You’ll hear an exciting and driving rhythmic pattern. Also, the left hand ostinato illustrates how Christ is the ONLY source of all that is good in life, our hope, our salvation, our sustainer… only Christ. Only one note. But a hundred times over.