Sunday's Hymn: The Work of Christ

In anticipation of Easter, I’m changing the subject of the Sunday’s hymns. I was posting hymns that taught us about the nature of God, but now I’m moving on to hymns that feature the work of Christ on the cross. It shouldn’t be a difficult segue, since last Sunday’s hymn showed us God as judge and it’s because God is judge that we need Christ’s cross work.

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 

Here’s the Kristyn Getty version, notable for her lilting reading from Isaiah 53 before she sings.

More on Christ becoming sin for us:

• I touched on this subject a little bit in Purposes of Christ’s Death, Nos. 14 and 15, but what I really recommend is Phil Johnson’s  indepth treatment of 2 Corinthians 5:21:
• The Key to the Gospel
  
• The heart of the gospel?
  
• The Justice of Calvary
  
• Back again
  
• About that series of posts I keep promising …
  
• The Great Exchange (Part 1)
  
• The Great Exchange (Part 2)
  
• Back to bidniss
• Back to 2 Corinthians 5:21
• End of a long series
  

 Other hymns, worship songs, etc. posted today:

• Dearest of All the Names Above at joythruChrist
  
• The Second Sunday in Lent at Magic Statistics
• Come, O Creator Spirit Blest at The Happy Wonderer
• Lord’s Day 7, 2008 at The Thirsty Theologian
  
• Give Thanks unto the Lord, Jehovah at Hiraeth
  
• Before Thy Mercy Seat, O Lord at Seasoning of the Heart
• Unto the Hills around Do I Lift Up at Whatever Things…

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.

Saturday's Old Photo

 
The other blonde girl in this photo is my friend Suzanne. When we were in high school we sang duets occasionally in our little country church. Back in those days, I sang alto to Suzanne’s soprano. Our specialty was an obscure song called Dear Jesus, which, like all obscure songs, has lyrics posted on the web.

We weren’t all that good, but we were told we sounded like sisters, which must mean our voices blended well.

This photo was taken after a wedding in the big Lutheran church in town in 1973. Yes, someone was crazy enough to ask us to sing at their wedding. We were used to singing in front of a small congregation of people we knew, so this gig was a little frightening. We had to sing a couple of song from Fiddler on the Roof that neither of us liked with the guitar guy in the photo. He was the bride’s friend from university and we didn’t meet him until the rehearsal, so I don’t remember much about him, but the back of the photo says his name is Fred. The pianist’s name, it says, is Vicki.

We made our matching dresses for the occasion; or at least, I made mine. Suzanne’s mother was a wonderful seamstress so she never had to learn to sew. 

I always wanted Suzanne’s hair. Hers was nice and straight and silky, and those were the days when very long and very flat was the only acceptable way to wear hair. I had to brush my hair dry—there were no blow dryers or straighteners in the olden days!—to get it as straight as it is in this photo and it still took only a little bit of humidity to make it go—poof!—into something more like my photo in the sidebar, or worse. Some people without naturally straight hair ironed theirs with a clothes iron, but I was too afraid of split ends to go that route.

I still remember the cup of coffee I had at the reception in the church basement after the wedding. It might have been the best cup of my whole life. It was—wouldn’t you know it!—Swedish egg coffee, also known (appropriately, in this case) as Lutheran church basement egg coffee. 

To this day, I love a good cup of black coffee and hate the song Sunrise, Sunset from Fiddler on the Roof. And I’ve made peace with my hair.

I've Changed

my side bar photo once again, but this one I promise to keep for a while. In this one you can really see the t-shirt from Reflections Apparel and Gifts, where Carla says she has “the LARGEST selection of reformed/ Calvinistic/ sovereign grace themed t-shirts and gifts of any online (or offline) retailer (that we know of, anyway).”

So if you are looking for a t-shirt, a mug, a tote bag, a poster, a Bible verse calendar, some greeting/note cards, a framed print, a button or something for baby, check Carla’s store first, where you’ll find all that and much more.

Carla, by the way, blogs here.