In Christ Alone

In Christ Alone!! by Redeemed by His (Christ) Grace is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0

I've mentioned In Christ Alone in a previous post, but as one of the British nation's favourite hymns in recent years, as well as one of my own favourites, I think it deserves it's own post.

Stuart Townend explains that this song came about after a mutual friend said that he and Keith Getty should meet up when they were both at the same conference.  That mutual friend has done a huge service to modern hymnody: Townend and Getty have continued to collaborate, and so far have written about 40 songs which are attributed to the two of them and (in some cases) to Getty's wife Kristyn, plus others where they've joined forces with other song-writers.  Our churches' sung worship would be much poorer without songs like In Christ Alone, See What a Morning, Hear the Call of the Kingdom or Holy Spirit, Living Breath of God, to name but a few.  Music and words are so deep and rich that, I believe, many of these songs will remain in the repertoire of English-speaking churches for a very long time.

Keith Getty wrote the melody for In Christ Alone, and Stuart Townend added the words, although Getty did suggest some changes, which included making 'In Christ alone' the first half of the first line.  Townend (in the article linked above) says, "I actually think it was a stroke of genius because now the song is known as In Christ Alone, it's where the song begins, it's the statement you make and it's the first thing you sing."

There is much controversy about one line of this song, in verse 2: "till on that cross as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied."  If you're interested in reading the theological reasons as to why some would prefer to amend that line, there's an article here.  You can read the reasons why Getty and Townend have refused to allow hymnals to amend the line here.

In the end, as Townend observes (at the end of this video), ". . . this song is about the life, death, resurrection of Christ, and what difference that makes to every single person on the planet."

You can watch the official lyric video here.