THE SONG SPEAKS FOR ITSELF

We sang this hymn this morning at our meeting, and while we sang it I began to realize how much truth is embedded in it. I wonder if people really ponder on what they say when they sing songs full of so much revelation on the Grace of God, of course not all of songs are; many hymns also perpetuate unbelief and religion but this one doesn’t. I feel like giving an exposition on this hymn, but I will resist the temptation, I believe the song speaks for itself.

Let me just say that this was written in the form of the Contemporary sound of the day. I have nothing against Hymns. I think they are lovely; they have really nice melodies and many speak great truths, but I don’t think it should hold the high spiritual sense that some of my peers give it, as though these are the melodies that the Angels sing and we need to sing in Hymn form alone. That is rubbish!! I get as much truth from Hymns as the youngsters (and the eternally young like me) get from listening to Bands like Hillsong United, Delirious? or Kirk Franklin. Hymns were not composed by Angels in the music style of Angels or the Heavenly Style. All songs are inspired by God given to his children who interpret it in the medium they understand.

With that being said here’s the wonderful hymn that got me so happy and inspired, I was ecstatic while reciting it:

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus' name.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.


When darkness veils His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale
My anchor holds within the veil.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.


His oath, His covenant, and blood
Support me in the whelming flood;
When every earthly prop gives way,
He then is all my Hope and Stay.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.


When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh, may I then in Him be found,
Clothed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne!
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.


Hymn #370 
The Lutheran Hymnal
Text: 1 Timothy 1:1
Author: Edward Mote, c. 1834, cento
Composer: John Stainer, 1873, arr.
Tune: "Magdalen"

Now please, indulge me and read that hymn once again. Now ask yourself, do I really stand on the Solid Rock alone or am I trying to hold this rock up with some sinking sand? You can’t mix the two you know?  Secondly, always reflect on the songs you sing, if the melodies of Hymns do not appeal to you, I can assure you there’s good Christian Music in the style YOU like, go find it and listen to it and let your mind be renewed to the realities of the New Creation.

May the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you forever.

p.s next week we will be looking at the Poverty Theology

Grace is not a spare Tyre

“………when we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.  And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation…” Romans 5: 6-9(New Living Translation)

In Nigeria, people see the Grace of God as this force with which we get by. When you are broke and manage to get a scrap for lunch, people make statements like “it’s just by the grace of God that I found something to eat” or “it’s just by the grace of God that I’m surviving” or “if not for the Grace of God, I would have died”.

Please do not misunderstand; it is by his grace and mercy that we are not consumed. We LIVE by faith in the Grace of God. Christ is our life; so we are what we are by grace. However, like Pastor Biodun Fatoyinbo would say, grace is not a spare Tyre we pick up only we are down. It is not the thing that just holds us up at our point of despair to our breakthrough and then leaves us. The Grace of God towards us is radical; it is the proof of the extent to which the Godhead will go to reconcile us back to himself. It is the barometer by which we weigh how much God loves us.

When Adam fell, he dragged all his descendants into a cesspool of Sin, resulting in a life of defeat and despair through death. We were doomed to sow in sweat and reap thorns and thistles. To cap it all up, we were separated from our relationship with God; our perspective of God had been obscured. We could no longer call him father.

However, God never loses, he wanted a family (Ephesians 1:5; 2:19), a bride (Ephesians 5: 25-27) and a dwelling place (1 Peter 2:4-5); and he would have it. And so he sent his only begotten son, that while we were under this curse and unable to save ourselves; he would absorb all of our Sin and sins (these are two different things) into himself and die a most horrendous death on a tree thereby serving our punishment. In that one moment, he rescued us from the power of Sin and Death. In the words of Brett Roberts, “Adam has been undone”. When the Son, Jesus the Christ died, his body was laid in a tomb for three days, his Spirit caged in hell and tormented. But on the third day, the Holy Spirit rose him up from the dead and gave him a resurrected body. This proves that his sacrifice was much more than adequate for Sin (1 Corinthians 15: 17). He arose and ascended into heaven to assume his role as the Second Person of the Trinity and he was given a name that is above every other name (Philippians 2:5-11). Since he did what he did for us, we died with him and having died with him; we resurrected with him on the third day, ascended with him and are seated at God’s right hand forever. This is the grace of God towards us!!

It is from this premise that we live and walk in constant victory, it is based on this premise that we do not look at our surroundings to discover whether or not God loves us, we look at that cross and see what he has done.

Grace is not a topic or a doctrine; it is not one of the things we teach in the Church amongst many other things and it definitely is NOT a spare Tyre for when we are in lack. Grace is the personality of Jesus Christ, it is the whole point of Christianity, and it is the source of our Faith. It is the violent expression of God’s love for us through the Crucifixion and death of his only begotten Son.

Grace and peace be multiplied to you,

Mayowa