Hymns of the Son: The Trinity Project, #2

By Cameron Frank, Preston Norman and Nathan Drake

Experience the hope of the gospel of grace through the hymns that bring us to the cross.

 

In this devotional collection, you'll spend four weeks walking through the sacrifice and hope of the gospel through powerful reminders of Christ. Worship Jesus through a musical journey that leads us through salvation to communion with Christ.

 

Go deeper than the hymnal and learn about the inspiring and encouraging stories behind hymns you know and love. With the daily devotionals, see the words of the hymns come alive in Scripture in a unique and thought-provoking way.

 

Each of the four weeks is structured to walk through a specific element of Jesus' life and saving grace: Salvation, Sacrifice, Sanctification, and Communion with Him.

 

Every day will focus on a different hymn, including the hymn's text, a brief history about the hymn, and a devotion based on the truths found in the hymn, the corresponding Scripture, and the lessons from the story of the hymn.

 

Includes links for music, recordings, and more resources. This devotional makes a great gift for any hymn lover and is a great supplement to your hymnal.

 

Salvation

• Man of Sorrows
• When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
• Nothing but the Blood
• The Old Rugged Cross
• I Stand Amazed in the Presence

Sacrifice

• Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted
• Rock of Ages
• He Died for Me
• O Sacred Head, Now Wounded
• Beneath the Cross of Jesus

Sanctification

• Jesus Paid It All
• Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior
• Come Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy
• There Is a Fountain
• Blessed Assurance

Communion with Christ

• What a Friend We Have In Jesus
• 'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus
• My Hope Is Built
• All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name
• Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus

Order today and begin your unique devotional journey with the Hymns of the Son.

• Language: English
• Publisher: A Frank Voice Publishing
• Release date: Mar 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201152024

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

Bringing together this second part of The Trinity Project was a process filled with mixed emotions. First, excitement. Many of these hymns are among my favorite and it’s hard to deny the significance of them. As we sing the powerful, immovable truths of the gospel, how could any follower of Jesus approach this collection with nonchalance? Along with the exciting hymn selection, there’s the joy of the subject: the gospel of grace.

Few experiences match the privilege of writing devotionals all centered on the gospel. Each day became a reminder to me that the gospel is deep and rich, a many-faceted stone with a message that never gets stale or tired. It became essential to preach the gospel daily to myself as I worked through the message for each day. Indeed, as believers, we should never stop preaching the gospel to ourselves.

Besides excitement, I find this collection of devotions to be quite intimidating. The gospel is not a message to take lightly. The gospel is not a flippant story to fling onto the table and hope for the best. There is a gravity to the proclamation of the gospel that we would do well to remember.

Fortunately, where my weakness stands, grace shines all the more. It’s this grace that lies at the core of the gospel message. What is the gospel? What is this intimidating message of hope?

It’s the story of a God who loved His children so much that He sent His own Son, in the form of sinful man for sin, in order that creation might be redeemed. It took blood—a sacrifice of a spotless lamb—to bring this redemption. For all who call on the name of Christ and trust in Him for salvation will be saved. Not of anything in us, but because of everything He is.

For the next month, we’ll look at 20 incredible hymns of the faith and the stories that inspired them. We will examine the gospel message from many angles and explore what it means to live in the hope and truth of the gospel. My prayer is that you will be touched with potent reminders of the hope that you have in Jesus.

These are the Hymns of the Son.

WEEK I

SALVATION

For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

John 3:17

DAY 1

Man of Sorrows, What a Name

Man of sorrows what a name

for the Son of God, who came

ruined sinners to reclaim:

Hallelujah, what a Savior!

---

Bearing shame and scoffing rude,

in my place condemned he stood,

sealed my pardon with his blood:

Hallelujah, what a Savior!

---

Guilty, helpless, lost were we;

blameless Lamb of God was he,

sacrificed to set us free:

Hallelujah, what a Savior!

---

He was lifted up to die;

It is finished was his cry;

now in heaven exalted high:

Hallelujah, what a Savior!

---

When he comes, our glorious King,

all his ransomed home to bring,

then anew this song we'll sing:

Hallelujah, what a Savior!

History

Philip Bliss grew up in Pennsylvania in the mid-1800s and fell in love with music as a young man. Eventually, he went to school to become a music teacher and traveled to teach music around the country.

He was a contemporary and friend of major players in the mid-1800s evangelical movement, such as Dwight Moody, Ira Sankey, and George Root. When Moody recognized Bliss’s gift of music and songwriting, he encouraged him to join the mission field in America and share the gospel. Bliss recognized that calling in his own heart and entered full-time evangelism, using his music and songwriting to advance the kingdom and the hope of Christ.

At the height of his songwriting career, he was known to have written and published some twenty new songs each year, among them, this very hymn: Man of Sorrows, What a Name. His work often crossed denominational boundaries, celebrating the unity we share in the gospel of grace. In addition to this kingdom-mindset, Bliss was a staunch abolitionist, exercising his belief that all people, regardless of race or any other factor, are the children of God and should be treated with the appropriate dignity as God’s image bearers.

At one point, Bliss sang Man of Sorrows at a prison revival as part of the revival service. The inmates were uniquely and uniformly moved by the potent gospel presentation in this hymn and many repented and gave their lives to the Lord. Ira Sankey, the great song-leader and associate of Dwight Moody, said of the song, It is said that the word ‘Hallelujah’ is the same in all languages. It seems as though God had prepared it for the great jubilee of heaven, when all His children shall have been gathered home to sing ‘Hallelujah to the Lamb!’ ¹

On a bitter December day in 1876, Bliss and his wife were traveling through Ohio on the way to a revival meeting with Dwight Moody when their train crossed a bridge. When the train had made it nearly the entire way across the expanse, the bridge collapsed and, one after one, railcars plummeted into the frozen ravine below. Nearly one hundred passengers on the train, including Bliss and his wife, perished that day in what became known as the Ashtabula River Railroad Disaster.

Devotion

With a hymn like this, it’s difficult to find just one poignant verse or line. It seems every word is more potent than the next in the presentation of the gospel and Christ’s sacrifice for us. We are the ruined sinners that He has reclaimed by His blood. He sealed our pardon and set us free. He brings the ransomed sinner home.

Perhaps it’s no coincidence that the only adequate response is to cry out, Hallelujah, what a Savior! My prayer for you and indeed, for myself, is to never grow cold or tired of the message of the gospel.

Sometimes, with all the distractions and shine of this world, the gospel can seem mundane and stale—something we’ve heard a million times before and will hear a million times again. But there is power in the grace that only God affords. May we always be as moved as those prisoners who heard the liberating truth of the gospel that Bliss penned so eloquently.

Can you imagine their position? How must those words have resonated with the men condemned for their crimes as they sang, "In my place condemned he stood." Condemnation was a concept those prisoners knew all too well. How does it even make sense for Christ to bear our condemnation? Outside of the sacrificial grace of the gospel, it won’t make sense at all. But in Christ, there is no condemnation.

We may not be in prison serving a sentence for our crimes, but we share something in common with each of those prisoners: we are guilty, helpless, and lost. Without Christ, our sentence is far more helpless. Our death sentence is eternal. But when Jesus, the blameless and spotless Son of God, stepped into the world, He bore our sin and shame and took it to the grave. When He proclaimed that It is finished, He put to death our condemnation and made a way to bring the ransomed home