I have sung the words of “Before the Throne of God Above” thousands of times. But I have never paid close attention to the meaning of the final verse. Last night at worship team practice, we were rehearsing the songs for Sunday. In discussing how to enhance the words with the way we were presenting the song musically, we took a closer look at the text of the verses. We decided to begin the song with slow reverence and rise to a bold and confident declaration by the third verse.
Our worship leader pointed out that in the third verse we are declaring the truth that in Christ we cannot die. Not that we can’t die a physical death here on earth, because every human will die in that sense. But this song helps those who have trusted in Jesus for salvation to proclaim that it is impossible for us to die an eternal death because Christ has conquered death. What an amazing truth to be reminded of!
Behold Him there, the Risen Lamb
My perfect, spotless righteousness,
The great unchangeable I Am,
The King of glory and of grace!
One with Himself I cannot die
My soul is purchased by His blood
My life is hid with Christ on high,
With Christ, my Savior and my God
With Christ, my Savior and my God
“Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death He died He died to sin, once for all, but the life He lives He lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:8-11)