Sunday Hymn: Jesus Christ Is Risen Today

Jesus Christ is risen today, Alleluia!
Our triumphant holy day, Alleluia!
Who did once, upon the cross, Alleluia!
Suffer to redeem our loss, Alleluia!

Hymns of praise then let us sing, Alleluia!
Unto Christ, our heavenly King, Alleluia!
Who endured the cross and grave, Alleluia!
Sinners to redeem and save, Alleluia!

But the pains which He endured, Alleluia!
Our salvation hath procured, Alleluia!
Now above the sky He’s king, Alleluia!
Where the angels ever sing, Alleluia!

Sing we to our God above, Alleluia!
Praise eternal as His love, Alleluia!
Praise Him, all you heavenly host, Alleluia!
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Alleluia!

Other hymns, worship songs, sermons etc. posted today:

• See What a Morning at By Grace Alone
• Christ Is Risen at Gospel Grace
• Christ the Lord Is Risen Today (hymn story) at Challies.com
• Were You There? at Theology for Girls
• He Is Risen! at Tried With Fire 
• Lord’s Day 13, 2013 at The Thirsty Theologian
• Sunday Prayer: Resurrection at Lisa Writes
• Resurrection at The Upward Call
• Praying the Scriptures: A Prayer on Resurrection Sunday at Daily on My Way to Heaven
• He Is Risen at The Happy Wonderer

Bonus links:

• Why the Resurrection Changes Everything (Credo Magazine Blog)
• Remember and Worship (Out of the Ordinary)
• Update: Easter Night at Siris 

Have you posted a hymn (or sermon, sermon notes, prayer, etc.) today and I missed it? Let me know by leaving a link in the comments or by contacting me using the contact form linked above, and I’ll add your post to the list.

Purposes of Christ's Death: Hebrews 26:b

This is another edited and reposted piece from an old series of posts examining the purpose statement that scripture gives us regarding the death of Christ. 

… he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

(Hebrews 9:26, ESV)

This statement from Hebrews tells us that Christ’s death (or His sacrifice) was “to put away sin.” It seems like a simple statement, but before I began this post, I could have guessed what it meant, but I wouldn’t have been sure.

One of the main points of the book of Hebrews is that the New Covenant instituted by Christ is much better than the Old Covenant. The writer of Hebrews urged his readers,1 who were  most likely Jewish Christians, to hold fast to Christ and his perfect covenant, and to not be drawn back to the familiar ways of the old imperfect system. He contrasts the old with the new, showing that the old system was not the real deal, but a pointer to and a picture of the true and complete covenant that had now been now instituted. 

For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities … . (Hebrews 10:1a ESV)

The bottom line is that the blood sacrifices of the Old Covenant were unable to take away sins (10:4). They accomplished some kind of outward cleansing, but no inward cleansing (Hebrews 9:13—14). And they had to be repeated over and over again, showing that what they accomplished was only temporary. Consequently, the sacrificial system served as a reminder of the sin problem rather than a solution to it (10:1-3). 

But in Christ, the answer for sin arrived. He  was offered “once to bear the sins of many (9:28).” No more repetitious sacrifices needed; no more constant reminders of sin. It is a finished; sin is finally, truly, forever put away, because Christ “has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.”

Another of the purposes of Christ’s death is to put away sin once for all time.

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1 Or his audience, if the text of was first a sermon.

Praise for the Fountain Opened

There is a fountain fill’d with blood, 
Drawn from Emmanuel’s veins; 
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood, 
Lose all their guilty stains. 

The dying thief rejoiced to see 
That fountain in his day; 
And there have I, as vile as he, 
Wash’d all my sins away. 

Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood 
Shall never lose its power, 
Till all the ransom’d church of God 
Be saved, to sin no more. 

E’er since, by faith, I saw the stream 
Thy flowing wounds supply, 
Redeeming love has been my theme, 
And shall be till I die. 

Then in a nobler, sweeter song, 
I’ll sing Thy power to save; 
When this poor lisping stammering tongue 
Lies silent in the grave. 

Lord, I believe Thou hast prepared 
(Unworthy though I be) 
For me a blood-bought free reward, 
A golden harp for me! 

‘Tis strung and tuned for endless years, 
And form’d by power divine, 
To sound in God the Father’s ears 
No other name but Thine. 

—William Cowper