john said:
There were a number of things that concerned me at the church my wife and I attended last Sunday.
2. Another song we sang was written in the first person where the first person was Christ, e.g. (again not exact words),
"I came to die for you, I came to save you"
Is it appropriate for a hymn to be written in the first person where Christ/God is the first person? The more I think about it, the more I disagree with it. It seems songs/hymns like this are becoming more common.
John
John, perhaps not completely in line with your question but I think related to: one thing I noticed around here, is how
easy many people would say "Jesus gave his life for me" or "Jesus died for me" or "Jesus saved me". Of course, such statements are correct and we should also be making such statements. But what worries me is that it seems as if it has become an easy thing to say without realizing what the REAL meaning of such phrases is. Also, if one takes the context in which people sometimes say these words, I just can't do otherwise than wondering whether they really understand the depth of such statements. The impression I get is that these statements are sometimes made almost in the same sense as when someone says that "our soldiers gave their lives for us" in battle. I don't say that when people make these statements that they are not serious. It is just the whole context in which the above statements sometimes are being made that makes me wonder.
In Mark 8:27 we read about Jesus asking his disciples: "Who do the people say I am?". But he also asks them: "But who do you say I am?" Clearly, people can have different views of Jesus and some can be wrong. And that can filter through to songs.
My opinion is that when we say things like "Jesus saved me" or "Jesus died for me" we have to understand and keep in mind what it really means. We have to remember Peter's confession: "
You are the Messiah of God". What a deep statement this is: In it we confess our guilt before God because if we had no guilt there would not have been the need for a Messiah. God's whole salvation plan is contained in this confession.
Back to the songs. With what I have said above, I would feel more at ease if the words you refer to were not in the first person, but were phrased more like a confession or a proclamation of the work of Jesus in God's glorious salvation plan. Let's stick to the examples given to us in Scripture, eg. Rev.7:10 "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb" or Rev.19:6-8:
Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, "Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready."Johan
