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 old hymns.
Today’s song is Up from the Grave He Arose from 1874, written by Robert Lowry, a Baptist pastor.
1 Low in the grave he lay, Jesus my Savior,
waiting the coming day, Jesus my Lord!
Refrain:
Up from the grave he arose;
with a mighty triumph o'er his foes;
he arose a victor from the dark domain,
and he lives forever, with his saints to reign.
He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose!
2 Vainly they watch his bed, Jesus my Savior,
vainly they seal the dead, Jesus my Lord! [Refrain]
3 Death cannot keep its prey, Jesus my Savior;
he tore the bars away, Jesus my Lord! [Refrain]
I remember singing this one in church back in the 1980s. The chorus almost sounds a little comical because it contrasts so much musically and rhythmically with the verses, and it makes you feel like you’re coming up from the grave yourself 😀. But it isn’t a comical song. It’s more about joy, but people are often amused when they first hear it.
So, who were the foes of Jesus, who he triumphed over? First and foremost, it was those who put Him to death and who hope that they were also putting and end to His influence. But in the background you have Satan and all his angelical and human followers.
Colossians 2:15Â
1And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
1 John 3:8
The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.
And some might wonder if God’s enemies are yet defeated. Well, from a human perspective, you see this tiny demoralized group of followers winning thousands of Jews, including pharisees and priests, to Christ over the following years. Many of these very foes came to faith after the heard about the resurrection and witnessed the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Soon, the chief persecutor of the Christians was the Roman Empire, but then after a few hundred years, that became Christian. Not all Christians are happy about Constantine’s conversion, because that was the beginning of nominal/political Christianity, which was often responsible for wars and persecution. Nonetheless, through the centuries, millions came to a personal true and living faith in Christ. Such people realized that you weren’t a true believer by virtue of being born in a Christian country or being baptized as an infant.
Most Christian growth nowadays is through people coming to personal faith in Jesus. Nothing in the New Testament suggests that Christianity should be spread by any other means. When we remember great Christian people from the past, we’re don’t think in terms of warriors. We remember people who did spiritual good through their love for God and others.
I was a Roman Catholic in my early life. So, we’d be inspired by people like Francis of Assisi, Augustine, Mother Theresa and so on. And as an evangelical, I might be inspired by Luther, Calvin, Wesley, Spurgeon, William Wilberforce and so on. You don’t hear people speaking well of the crusades – apart from Billy Graham crusades 😀.
And you don’t spread Christianity by war, but you can think of fighting evil, be it from within, the culture of sinfulness, and the devil, as spiritual warfare. And the war isn’t over yet, but the death and resurrection of Jesus is often compared to D-Day. After D-Day occurred, it was only a matter of time before the Nazis were defeated. And it’s only a matter of time before all evil will be defeated. There won’t be any evil in the New Heaven and New Earth.
Revelation 21:27
Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
I’ve haven’t heard today’s hymn sung in church for years. But it’s nice to find so many instances on YouTube.
Hibernia Gospel 