The Songs of Protestantism Say It All – Christians Are Still Sinners in Need of Daily Re-Salvation
This Sunday while you’re sitting in your local institutional protestant church, take out the hymnbook in front of you and open to any hymn. Read the lyrics carefully and ask yourself why the words talk about saved people as if they are still unsaved.
Nothing but the Blood – Robert Lowry, 1876
What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Refrain:
Oh! precious is the flow
That makes me white as snow;
No other fount I know,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
For my pardon, this I see, Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
For my cleansing this my plea, Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Nothing can for sin atone, Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
Naught of good that I have done, Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
This is all my hope and peace, Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
This is all my righteousness, Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
His Robes for Mine – Lyrics by Chris Anderson, Music by Greg Habegger; 2008
His robes for mine: O wonderful exchange!
Clothed in my sin, Christ suffered ‘neath God’s rage.
Draped in His righteousness, I’m justified.
In Christ I live, for in my place He died.
Refrain:
I cling to Christ, and marvel at the cost:
Jesus forsaken, God estranged from God.
Bought by such love, my life is not my own.
My praise-my all-shall be for Christ alone.
His robes for mine: what cause have I for dread?
God’s daunting Law Christ mastered in my stead.
Faultless I stand with righteous works not mine,
Saved by my Lord’s vicarious death and life.
His robes for mine: God’s justice is appeased.
Jesus is crushed, and thus the Father’s pleased.
Christ drank God’s wrath on sin, then cried “’Tis done!”
Sin’s wage is paid; propitiation won.
His robes for mine: such anguish none can know.
Christ, God’s beloved, condemned as though His foe.
He, as though I, accursed and left alone;
I, as though He, embraced and welcomed home!
If you look up the above hymn on Anderson’s Church Works Media web page, you will find the following under the heading “Doctrinal Notes.” I don’t think any commentary is needed from me. The words speak for themselves. But notice the authentic protestant orthodoxy of Law being the standard of righteousness in direct contradiction to Romans 3:21, 28!
“Because God delights in worship that is biblical, thoughtful and passionate—what we often call intentional—please consider the following overview of the biblical texts and doctrinal themes behind the hymn ‘His Robes for Mine’:
“The 4 verses focus on 4 major themes included in the doctrine of justification. Verse 1 addresses the hymn’s overriding theme of “The Great Exchange.” Jesus Christ was made sin for us in order that we might be declared righteous in Him. The great doctrine of imputed righteousness and unrighteousness grows out of a number of wondrous texts (2 Corinthians 5:21; Romans 3:19-4:8; Philippians 3:9) and is often pictured in Scripture by the exchange of garments (Isaiah 61:10; Zechariah 3; Matthew 22:1-14; Revelation 7:9-14). Hence, the theme of the song.
“Verse 2 focuses on Christ’s active obedience—the fact that He mastered God’s Law in the place of sinners who could not, thus earning righteousness on our behalf. It was added essentially at the recommendation of my teacher and friend Michael Barrett, who has done a great deal to assist me in my understanding of justification. The key lesson here is that the righteousness imputed to me was Christ’s earned righteousness which He acquired by perfect obedience to God’s Law, not the inherent righteousness which He has eternally possessed by virtue of His deity. The great truth of Christ’s perfect obedience to the Father’s will and the imputation of that righteousness to repentant sinners is taught in Matthew 3:15; John 8:29; 1 John 2:1; Romans 1:17; 2:13; 3:22; 4:4-6, 11b and 5:17-19; 1 Corinthians 1:30, et al.
“Verse 3 focuses on the grand doctrine of propitiation, the fact that God’s wrath was not merely deflected from us by Christ, but was rather absorbed by Him in our place. Jesus Christ bore the infinite wrath of God against sin, satisfying God’s wrath and enabling sinners to be forgiven—and justly so. Isaiah 53:10-11 describes it this way: God looks on the travail of Christ’s soul and is satisfied by it. His wrath has been exhausted on Christ. The doctrine of propitiation is taught Isaiah 53, Romans 3:25; 1 John 2:2 and 4:10, et al.
“Verse 4 summarizes the hymn by describing the results of the Great Exchange—Christ forsaken and the sinner embraced by God. The role change of the sinner and Christ is amazing: the beloved Son of God was forsaken (Matthew 27:46) in order that the cursed enemy of God might be beloved (Romans 5:1-2; Hebrews 10:19-22; 1 John 4:9-14). Though I understand this doctrine biblically, I certainly cannot fathom it. It is astounding. It is wonderful.
“Finally, we added a refrain which expresses our wonder at the cost of our salvation, then responds to Christ’s love with worship and consecration (Romans 6:19-20; Romans 12:1-2; Acts 20:28b). Thus, the song doesn’t really progress from verse 1 to verse 4, but instead moves toward and peaks at the refrain after each of the four meditations. Greg expresses the heartbeat of the refrain wonderfully with a gorgeous melodic line, and I trust that your congregation will delight to lift your voices and proclaim: ‘I cling to Christ and marvel at the cost!’
“As with other projects, our greatest delight would be for the Lord to use this song to point people toward Christ. I pray that it will help you mine the infinite riches of the salvation won for us when Christ donned our filthy garments of sin and provided for us the robes of His own righteousness! What a Savior the Lord Jesus is! To Him be all glory, honor, and praise!”
Isn’t it telling that a man who graduated from seminary and is leading his own church as a senior pastor needs assistance in understanding justification? So not only are the laity clueless but the leadership is as well, and here is one who comes right out and admits it!
~ Andy
Paul's Passing Thoughts 
Have you ever heard The Getty’s Reformed rubbish yet? I came across it for a research thing and nearly vomited.
Sigh, Andy, by simply reading through these awful, awful condemning and deceptive lyrics in your article, you’ve single-handedly spoiled my weekend. As punishment (sacrifice) you will (no choice) visit the nearest and dearest MICE church and put a double tithe into the “offering” bag this Sunday; you will stay for tea afterward to experience how MICE “men” treat their wives, and you will take the Paul Washer DVD they’ll give you in the parking area just as you’re about to leave . . .
LikeLike
Oh, yes the Getty’s. Don’t get me started. Their music, along with Stuart Townend, took over the church I was in for 17 years. Much is made over the issue of CCM in the church, but that’s really a non-issue for me any more. To me it’s all about the theology. In fact, as I was putting this article together I actually had selected Getty’s “In Christ Alone”, but in looking at the lyrics I felt it way too nuanced to use as an example. (If you think about it, the nuance of the lyrics is what makes it all the more insidious!) These examples above are blatant heresy!
LikeLike
The thing is the Getty’s and Townend’s “theology.” I, too, was in a church where their songs were introduced slowly but surely as “hymns” and the sheep bought into it and sang along heartily, clueless as to what they were singing. Ugh! Eek! Gross!
But you’re dodging the real issue, Andy . . . going to the nearest and dearest MICE church this Sunday (no choice) as penance (self-sacrifice) . . .
LikeLike
“But you’re dodging the real issue, Andy . . . going to the nearest and dearest MICE church this Sunday (no choice) as penance (self-sacrifice) . . .”
Um….only if they drag my cold dead corpse! LOL
LikeLike
“The thing is the Getty’s and Townend’s “theology.” I, too, was in a church where their songs were introduced slowly but surely as “hymns” and the sheep bought into it and sang along heartily, clueless as to what they were singing. Ugh! Eek! Gross!”
Yes, that is their modus operandi. Infiltrate a church (specifically churches with traditional worship) and convert them over to contemporary worship with the use of what they call “bridge music”. They are on record as stating as much. Here’s a quote:
“CCM movers and shakers know that their music is transformative. Don Moen, formerly the leader of Integrity Music, one of the biggest distributors of contemporary worship music, says: ‘I’ve discovered that worship music is transdenominational, transcultural. IT BRIDGES ANY DENOMINATION. Twenty years ago there were many huge divisions between denominations. Today the walls are coming down.’
In fact, they are actively targeting ‘old-fashioned’ churches to move them into the ‘broader church.’
There are TRANSITION SONGS and BRIDGE SONGS designed to move ‘traditional’ churches along the contemporary path toward Christian rock. From the perspective of the CCM artists involved in this, they aren’t doing anything sinister. They are simply trying to ‘feed’ the ‘broader church.’ But from a fundamentalist Bible-believing position, the effect is to draw ‘old-fashioned’ Bible churches into the contemporary orb, and that is most sinister.
Bridge songs include ‘How Deep the Father’s Love for Us’ by Stuart Townend and ‘In Christ Alone’ by Townend and Keith Getty. These songs tend to be doctrinally sound and hymn-like (soft rock ballad style as opposed to out-and-out rock & roll), so they are considered ‘safe’ by undiscerning churches. But by using this music a church is brought into association with the contemporary world that Townend represents and this has the great potential to carry Independent Baptist church members into treacherous waters.”
https://www.wayoflife.org/reports/transformational_power_of_cwm.html
Of course Cloud’s idea of “doctrinally sound” is obviously rooted in protestant orthodoxy, and his point is regarding the use of CCM in church. I’m not going to get into the matter of whether CCM is appropriate or not, considering my views on the institutional church to begin with. The matter of CCM has more to do with the theologically empty lyrics than anything else. But music such as Getty’s and Townends is dangerous because it is considered “acceptable” by unsuspecting churches that adopt them; churches that are confused just enough about protestantism for the evil of full-blown authentic reformed protestantism to gain a foothold. The lyrics aren’t empty, they are theologically WRONG!
But then, that isn’t any different from traditional hymns of centuries past that are filled with the egregious errors of protestant orthodoxy!
LikeLike
Sly. Yip, that’s MICE “churches” for you. Playing on emotions with songs that cross “bridges” in order to further their sick agenda. Oh, did you also have those special evening sing-along services, usually initiated by a MICE church, when the whole darn city’s (from each and every imaginable denomination) churches got “together” to praise “god”? I avoided those fake things like the Ebola virus disease, but I would have preferred Ebola (less dangerous) had I been forced to choose.
CCM? Three words: Rubbish with agenda. (RWA).
LikeLike
CCM = whatever does it mean?
You raise a critical point about THE MUSIC used in worship. It matters — greatly. I had not paid all that much attention to it, but you are correct. The music must reflect sound doctrine, and many of these songs do not, not just the new contemporary music, but the old traditional hymns as well. I would walk out with the light and fog machine and the rock bands. I would not get to the actual lyrics. (Seriously.) Mindless. Insidious. Devious.
So what happens when all of these (formerly independent) churches are “taken over”? These scheming and cunning and conniving “change agents” might be careful what they wish for …. because I believe the next step after a few years of take-over will be collapse. Watch the people flee. Especially the 50+ crowd.
My neighbor attends a Lutheran church. Their contemporary, relevant and hip rock band, service is screaming for parishioners while the traditional liturgy service is growing. (There are serious issues with the liberal agenda and the gay activist push in the Lutheran Church, however.) But basically, the contemporary service, relevant sermon + rock band, is not working as a “draw” anymore. I say “let it all burn to the ground.”
LikeLike
I opened my post by suggesting people open the hymnal at their church, but I realize that was probably being too optimistic since many churches, contemporary and traditional/liturgical alike (and all calvinistic) have done away with their hymnbooks in favor of projecting the words on the giant screen behind the pulpit. It’s one more tool used by the leadership to dumb-down the laity.
LikeLike
So true, the CCM buzz has run its course. Not just with over 50s, but with younger folks who are hungering for something real.
Remember that Lucifer was a master of music, and knows just what he’s doing with it.
The music behind three lyrics add context. Amazing Grace reverently sung has a different context than the same lyrics sung to thrash metal.
Music is a vehicle that will become a universal way to spread the message of the Antichrist.
Anyone notice how CCM lately goes on and on about the “beautiful” one? That’s not how the Bible describes Jesus, but I know Satan thinks he’s good looking. Also, the “breathe” themed songs sound very strange. I can see how this foundation is being laid to lead people astray.
LikeLike
Yes, Andy, you were being much too optimistic. The churches have removed hymnals and replaced the books with a computer, projectors and screens. The laity are walking zombies. So very, very, shallow and superficial. What you describe in your post about the use of “bridge music” reeks of manipulation. Bait and switch. Sooner or later, people figure it out. And Then It Becomes The Revolving Door Church.
LikeLike
RM and Susan:; there’s a “mystical” push too in the music up on the screen; a Kumbaya effect, and yes in MICE churches too (saw it). Yes, the breathed songs are weird, as though you are breathing in “god” who is everywhere or something. But, seriously, the Calvinist/Lutheran crowds are using music as theology. . . and it is despicable, evil. It is sickening. This is indoctrination, and RM, you’re right: Satan is in on it. I mean, we’re talking MICE churches; his home base.
Blessings to you both: I love your comments, every time.
LikeLike