I’ve been exploring some of the very modern worship songs as an old guy 😀. But now, I’ve decided to alternate between very modern hymns, old hymns, and in-between hymns, namely the worship songs from the 60s to the 90s that feature in hymnbooks such as Mission Praise. Today it’s the turn of the very modern hymns.
Today’s song is Jesus Messiah. It’s from 2008.
The song was inspired by the following verse:
2 Corinthians 5:21
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
You can see that in the first verse of the hymn. The Messiah was anticipated throughout the Old Testament, but I don’t imagine that many discerned how his arrival would take shape. Perhaps some saw him purely as the one who would rescue Israel from oppression.
He became sin, who knew no sin
That we might become His righteousness
He humbled himself and carried the cross
Love so amazing, love so amazing
Maybe some more spiritually-minded people might have thought in terms of the renewal of all creation, something that we’ll see at His second coming.
But the main goal of his first coming was to die on the cross to bring salvation to all those who would believe. And that full salvation will be manifested when he comes again.
Hebrews 9:28
28 so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
After Jesus rose from the dead, he brought his disciples through the Old Testament and explained all that it said about him.
Luke 24:27 and 44-45
27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
44 He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.” 45 Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.
So, when you read the gospels and the remainder of the New Testament, frequent references are made to messianic prophecies in the Old Testament. Some say that the Old Testament has over 300 prophecies about Jesus. People sometimes differ on whether they all refer to Christ. But it’s clear that Jesus himself believed the Old Testament and came to fulfil Old Testament prophecies about himself as Messiah.
At one stage, in a dispute with the Jewish leaders, Jesus spoke about what the Scriptures said about Him:
John 5:39
39 You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
As it happened, a good number of Jewish leaders came to believe in Him after the resurrection. An exception was Paul, who went on to persecute the church, but he himself eventually came to believe too.
Even today, you get plenty of Messianic Jews. The one that was the biggest influence of me was Bob Dylan, with his Christian albums back around 1980.
The actual word “Messiah” appears in the New Testament mainly in the Gospel of John, but the word “Christ” has the same meaning – it’s the Greek translation of the word. So when we say Jesus Christ, we shouldn’t think of Christ as a surname. We’re really saying the equivalent to today’s hymn – Jesus Messiah.
Here are some other versions of the song:
Hibernia Gospel 
My General Overseer (Pastor) always encourages the choir to sing old hymns. I prefer modern Hillsong worship though.
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