Happy new year to everyone reading this!! :)
Ok, so in the summer at Mobilise and Newday, we learned a song written by Simon Brading named Christus Victor. Personally, i loved it! Took me a couple of times through to start understanding why we were singing what we were singing (which will be explained later), but on the whole i thought it was excellent. What i am about to write is in reference with the pre-chorus which goes like this:
"Who are ya?! Who are ya?!
O, death, where's your sting?
Who are ya?! Who are ya?!
You're not singing anymore!"
The song is effectively about the victory of Christ on the cross, hence the name 'Christus Victor' which is latin for Christ is victorious. The verses state some amazing truth about what Jesus achieved on the cross, talking about the victory he won for us. The chorus speaks of our God being unstoppable, and undefeated.
I have had conversations with people about this song and they have been very varied, and very interesting. Trying to canvas a 'common' opinion seems hard as everyone has their say, so it is in light of these discussions i am wishing to write this post. I have hard people saying that the difficulty with this is that it feels like we are corporately 'mocking' Satan, telling him he is not singing anymore, and there are a couple of comments i would like to add with regards to this
- First of all, this is a take on the popular football chant, which to be honest is overused and sang in every football stadium around the country, but i'm not here to talk about that!! So when Simon introduced it at Mobilise he talked about this, and actually said this was like a victory cry for God's people as our Lord and Saviour, Jesus has won the day in a similar (but more important, more meaningful, and more impressive) way to when our football team are beating their opponent.
- The most important thing of weighing up whether to use a song in a time of worship or not is obviously its foundation on biblical truth. One of the things that people have said to me as previously mentioned is that this could be dangerous as it can come across that we are mocking Satan. Biblically, we have every reason to be careful where this is concerned, if i can draw your attention to Jude 1:9 it says this:
'But when the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said "The Lord rebuke you!"'
The first thing that we notice here is that Michael is an archangel, a being of God's creation and perfection, a creature of eternity and God's dwelling. Then see how he 'did not himself dare' to bring a taunt towards the devil, i believe that since this was the attitude of an angel we should adhere to that and leave the rebuking up to Jesus himself! But by all means we can ask for it and believe it in his name.
- One more thing to add is that the pre-chorus actually has the reference to a verse from 1 Corinthians 15:55 which reads
'Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?'
So the lyrics definitely have biblical credibility. So! i hear you ask...... who are we singing to?
Well, the obvious answer would be death. Looking at the whole passage in 1 Corinthians, we can deduce that the particular comment was a mocking taunt to the power of death. My personal view on what the bible means by 'fear of death' is that actually that is what drives all of our fear, fear which we need no longer suffer under as Jesus took all of our burdens, fear, shame, guilt, heaviness upon himself; so that we could live a life of fullness and freedom by his spirit. Thinking of Paul's famous words in Romans 8:36 onwards, he talks about how we shall no longer fear death as nothing can tear us from the love of Christ.
I believe it is in rebuking our fears and failures that we should be singing those words 'Who are you?' with the attitude of 'you have no right to oppose me as i am a child of the King!' As we declare them to be singing against our struggles, to be singing against uncertainty, and against fear that holds us back from God's fullness.
Hope this has been helpful
Rich
