Song reflections
Today I had to share some thoughts on a couple of songs that we sang in chapel. I thought I’d post my notes of what I said. Enjoy.
Here are the lyrics for the songs as well:
Before The Throne Jesus With Thy Church Abide
Hi and welcome to this day of song. [as Elizabeth mentioned] one of the things which we would like to take time to do today is explain some of the songs that we will sing. Perhaps, though, my reasoning for wanting to do this may be different than your understanding of it. For me, the reason that I explain songs is not to be able to better sing the song, but rather, to give the song something to point to. The message of the song is what’s key, not the song itself. The message would still exist without the song and it would be just as beautiful and glorious. So as you learn more about the songs we sing today reflect on the fact that those explanations are more important than the song. Learn something new about God and his word. With that in mind, we would like to begin today, not by singing a new song, per se, but instead by giving perhaps new meaning to a song which we have sung before in chapel. That song is
Before the Throne
This is a really powerful song, which is just rich with Biblical allusions. If I had to give you one word to explain this song it would be: intercession. Perhaps, intercession is not a word that we use very often when speaking about Christ as Savior. Yet the ministry of intercession is integral to who Christ is, what he did and how we are saved. It is for this reason that I would like to provide some comments on it and offer some passages from Scripture in support of those statements. These are profound truths and deserve much more time and thought than we will give them here today, but engage with me as we think about what it means for Christ to intercede for us.
First of all, intercession is necessary because humanity, by virtue of being united with Adam in the fall, are all dead in sin, alienated from God and live in rebellion to Him. We could put this in the form of a question, as Psalm 130:3 does: “If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand?” The obvious answer is none of us. Therefore, we see our need for one to go before the Father and intercede on our behalf for the salvation of our souls. This is one of the roles of Christ. Yet, God the Father is a just and righteous God and so he cannot simply disregard our sin. Our sin must be atoned for and we must also obtain some more positive active righteousness whereby we can then be seen as worthy to be in God’s presence. Scripture teaches that Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God came to this earth and lived the perfect life which met the righteous demands of God. Not only this but he suffered, died and rose to life in order to make atonement for our sin. It is then these two things, Christ’s life of righteousness and his substitutionary death which become the basis for his intercession before the Father on our behalf. So we see then how Christ’s life, death and resurrection are intimately connected with his role as intercessor. Those for whom Christ lived and died are those for whom he intercedes before the Father. Let me share with you two passages from Hebrews which clearly bring out this point.
HEB 7:22-28 22This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant. 23The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, 24but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. 25Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. 26For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. 27He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.
If we continue to read in Hebrews, we see that Christ lives to make intercession for us on the basis of his perfect life of righteousness and his substitionary death in our place. Chapter 9:12-28 reads,
HEB 9:12-28 12he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. 13For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a heifer sanctifies for the purification of the flesh, 14how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
24For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. 25Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, 26for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, 28so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
Our school thinks that this message is extremely important, it is one of the beliefs which defines us as an institution. Listen to how the statement of faith words these precious words: To effect salvation He lived a sinless life and died on the cross as the sinner’s substitute, shedding His blood for the remission of sins. On the third day He rose again in the body which had been laid in the tomb. He ascended to the right hand of the Father, where He performs the ministry of intercession. He will come once again, personally and visibly, to complete His saving work and to consummate the eternal plan of God.
Turning more specifically to the song, we see the emphasis upon Christ as intercessor from the very first line, “before the throne of God above, I have a strong and perfect plea, a great high priest whose name is love, who ever lives and pleads for me.” The second and third verses beautifully fill out the understanding of Christ bearing on his body the penalty for our sin and also achieving for us a righteousness which we then obtain only by faith.
One final thing about this song is the line, “my name is graven on His hands, my name is written on His heart”. This line comes from Isaiah 49:16, where God says of Israel, “Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.” This is a profound statement in light of the Ancient Near East culture. The pagan religions of that day would carve the names of their gods into their flesh. This is similar to what we find with the prophets of Baal when they confront Elijah in the contest they had. The ironic thing is that this grotesque picture of utter devotion for the pagan religions is exactly the thing which our God says he has done with those whom he loves. He has quite literally, engraven our names upon the palms of his hands. This is the message of the Gospel and the reason why we sing. So as we now sing, may the words of this song point to back to Scripture and cause you to praise our God who lived, died and was raised from the dead that we would be his people. Please stand and join us in singing Before the Throne of God Above.
Jesus With Thy Church Abide
This semester in chapel, we have been studying the church. We have heard from many people on it and maybe it has caused you to think more about her than you had previously done. Although, at times, I have been kind of saddened by the apparent low view of the church which has sometimes come across. There has been a lot of pointing out the Church’s faults and at times that has felt like it has come at the expense of loving the Church and holding her in high regard. The church is mighty and powerful; She is the glorious bride of Christ. She is the way that God works in the world. She is his chosen people. I am one who deeply cares for and loves the Church. She is very precious to me. Does that mean that I naively disregard her short comings? No, instead I am moved by that deep love which causes me to go before the Lord in prayer for her.
This song, I think, beautifully upholds the uniqueness of the Church and also pleads with God to continue his work in and through her, as he has promised to do. It upholds the place of the Church as God’s ordained means of reaching the world with His love and of building up those whom He has called out of this world and redeemed for Himself. It is a deep heartfelt prayer that all who call themselves Christian’s should pray. I find that it beautifully recognizes the need for doctrinal unity based on God’s Word. It does not settle for a false and trite unity which is based on a tolerance of all things but a strong binding of believers in Spirit and Truth. It is only because Christ is the head of the church and maintains her by His Word that she then can have hope as she goes out to minister to a lost and broken world. It is to these ends that we pray and may the words of this song truly be your prayer for the Church.
Well I’m back from Spring Break. It was great to be up in NH visiting the family of one of my roommates. When I got back I got a special suprise from Best Buy. They told me that they were going to replace my monitor (which has been broken) with a new one. Wahoo!! I ended up getting the one pictured on the right. Which brings me to the second thing, I figured out how to get pictures working with this whole blog thing. So look for some pictures in the gallery in the coming days.