Sunday's Hymn: Propitiation

Since we’re supposed to be teaching one another with hymns, I’ve been chosing hymns that teach us something about a particular Christian doctrine. This week’s featured doctrine taught in a hymn is the doctrine of propitiation.

Christ’s death was a propitiatory sacrifice. That means that his death turned the wrath of God that was due to us away from us, so if a hymn is going to teach propitiation, then it should probably mention God’s wrath, right? If you do a search in The Cyber Hymnal for the word wrath, you’ll find that almost all of them speak of God’s wrath only in the context of the final judgment, and the few that speak of God’s wrath in relation to Christ’s work are probably not going to be found in your church hymnal.

However, I can think of two recent hymns that teach about the propitiatory nature of Christ’s work, so I’ve chosen to feature one of those, just to prove that we don’t have to confine ourselves to 200-year-old hymns in order to teach one another in the songs we sing. This song lays propitiation right out for you: Christ became sin for us, bore the wrath due to us as penalty for our sin, and in that way propitiated God’s wrath and we are forgiven.

The Power of the Cross

Oh, to see the dawn
Of the darkest day:
Christ on the road to Calvary.
Tried by sinful men,
Torn and beaten, then
Nailed to a cross of wood.

CHORUS
This, the pow’r of the cross:
Christ became sin for us;
Took the blame, bore the wrath—
We stand forgiven at the cross.

Oh, to see the pain
Written on Your face,
Bearing the awesome weight of sin.
Ev’ry bitter thought,
Ev’ry evil deed
Crowning Your bloodstained brow.

Now the daylight flees;
Now the ground beneath
Quakes as its Maker bows His head.
Curtain torn in two,
Dead are raised to life;
“Finished!” the vict’ry cry.

Oh, to see my name
Written in the wounds,
For through Your suffering I am free.
Death is crushed to death;
Life is mine to live,
Won through Your selfless love.

FINAL CHORUS
This, the pow’r of the cross:
Son of God—slain for us.
What a love! What a cost!
We stand forgiven at the cross.

Words and Music by Keith Getty & Stuart Townend, Copyright © 2005, Thankyou Music

You’ve got to love a song with so many colons, semi-colons and dashes.

Here are a couple previous posts dealing with propitiation:

• Purposes of Christ’s Death, Romans 3: 24-25
  
• Propitiation: What Does it Mean…?

Any guesses about the other recent hymn that teaches propitiation?

Other hymns, worship songs, etc. posted today:

• Precious Lord at joythruChrist
• For All the Saints at Magic Statistics
• How Good It Is to Thank the Lord at The Happy Wonderer
• Lord’s Day 43, 2007 at The Thirsty Theologian
  
• Out of the Deep I Call at Hiraeth
• Break Thou the Bread of Life at Seasoning of the Heart
• Praise, My Soul, The King of Heaven at Thoughts from the Teahouse
• I Greet Thee, Who My Sure Redeemer Art at Whatever Things…
• Grace Greater Than Our Sin at Fish and Cans
• Update: My Jesus I Love Thee at Writing and Living
  

Have you posted a hymn this Sunday and I missed it? Let me know by leaving a link in the comments or by emailing me at the address in the sidebar and I’ll add your post to the list.

Canadian Artist: Jim Logan

The first Jim Logan painting I saw was in the waiting room of the medical clinic when my oldest two were preschoolers. The painting was on the wall behind several chairs, 3 feet wide or so, and the waiting room was small, so there was no ignoring it.

That painting is not one of Logan’s that can be found on the internet, so I’ll have to describe it as I remember it and, since it’s a twenty-year-old memory, I guarantee I’ll get details wrong. What I won’t get wrong is the impression the painting gave. There are young children in a run down kitchen, with the older making toast for the littler ones. On the kitchen table and around the kitchen are several empty booze bottles, so we know the kids are fending for themselves because the adults can’t fend for them.

It was a powerful painting, but I wouldn’t have wanted it on my living room wall.

Here are a few others of Jim Logan’s work. His paintings, he says, “are snapshots of life in an Aboriginal community,” including, I suppose, Whitehorse’s Kwanlin Dun Village where he was once an Anglican lay missionary, and they “explore feelings of wanting to belong, about feeling abandoned, about living in poverty and of hope for something undefined.” 

 He Remembers His Brother

 

 

 

 The Women Are At Bingo 

 

 

 

 Evening News 

 

 

 

 The Last Time I Saw Him 

 

You’ll find more Jim Logan work here. 

Blood-Bought Blessings

From The Great Exchange, by Jerry Bridges and Bob Bevington: 

The cross is not a mere first step toward spiritual development; is is the all-encompassing foundation for Christian growth. ..[I]t first provides complete forgivenss of past, present, and future sins, and then it becomes a means of the deliverance by which we are freed from bondage to sin….

 
By tying the transformation of the believer to the cross, Paul makes his point aboundantly clear: everything we need for life and eternity is provided by virture of Christ’s great atonement. Furthermore, in everything God is for us; he is for us in Christ wisdom instead of ignorance, justification instead of condemnation, sanctification instead of sinfulnees, and redemption instead of slavery. “[God] is the source of [our] life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and santification and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30). In view of this, it is no wonder Paul is adamant and unwavering regarding the centrality of the cross of Christ. The fulfillment of every hope we have is blood bought by the atoning work of Christ on the Cross. And the work of Christ on the cross must remain our only hope.

Expect a review of this book to be posted here soon.