The song 'To God be the Glory' as seen here (minus verse two) is probably well known, but because I grew up in the Church of Christ we learned a different version. This is the line I heard yesterday for the first time:
O perfect redemption, the purchase of blood,
To every believer the promise of God;
The vilest offender who truly believes
That moment from Jesus a pardon receives.
To every believer the promise of God;
The vilest offender who truly believes
That moment from Jesus a pardon receives.
Perhaps it's not shocking to you to hear the confession of justification in this hymn, nor it is surprising to hear that a decree of God cannot be undone, which means a pardon is good for all time. But because some guy changed it I learned it this way:
O perfect redemption, the purchase of blood,
To every believer the promise of God;
The vilest offender who truly obeys
That moment may enter the heavenly way.
To every believer the promise of God;
The vilest offender who truly obeys
That moment may enter the heavenly way.
No pardon, no belief, just obedience (that means baptism and good works). No mention of Jesus, no respect to Him as sovereign, fit to dispense grace as He sees fit. You do what God, not Jesus, tells you, you work hard and you may just make it to heaven. Because you see, you don't enter heaven, you enter the heavenly road, the narrow way, which begins your work. In light of this last line the first stops making sense, for how can redemption be perfect unless it's complete? But no matter. Work hard and be a good person, and one day you will go to heaven. And my wife wonders why I get mad at them occasionally.
3 comments:
Wow, shocking! It is as if Jehoiachin's pen knife has gotten into the hands of a revisionist "church." There are those who depend on human works and try to read that back into the Bible (and hymnody), and those who depend solely on the grace of God as taught plainly in the pages of Scripture. By grace, may their eyes and ears be opened, and their hands loosed from the horrid pen knife! Whate'er depends on man is sure to fail; but the gracious gift of God shall sure prevail.
Merry Christmas, brother!
Works based salvation is not the CofC’s concept and Sola Gratia theology is not scriptural, brothers. The theology of I Peter 3:20-21 and Acts 2:38 is clear that contrite and obedient submission to Christ’s ordinance of baptism is an integral and essential part of salvation. That’s all the CofC is correctly observing. There are questionable CofC teachings and distinctives to disagree with, but please don’t simply mischaracterize their theology re baptism as works based salvation.
Excellent and true comment.
Post a Comment