Photo by Mateus Campos Felipe
Hillsong is a behemoth Christian music powerhouse that continues to dominate the world. Hits such as Oceans, Who You Say I Am, and King of Kings continue their presence in many congregations around the world.
Hillsong Church, based in New South Wales, Australia, spawns congregations across 23 countries around the world.
Their music ministry consists of four bands: Hillsong United, Hillsong Worship, Hillsong Young & Free, and Hillsong Kids.
Hillsong’s album roster is so large, it has its own Wikipedia page.
Check out my entire list of Hillsong reviews and Christmas song, Prince of Heaven. Man of Sorrows is my 23rd review from this artist.
Note to new users: This is a different kind of review site! Read About the Berean Test and Evaluation Criteria prior to reading this review. I strongly encourage you to consider the potential blessings and dangers of this artist‘s theology by visiting Resources.
1. What message does the song communicate?
With its many titles associated with Christ, it communicates His suffering, death, and resurrection with a slight Ye Olde English flair. He was betrayed by His fellow Jews (as well as us), stricken and suffered for our lawbreaking, receiving the cup of God’s wrath upon Himself that we deserve. This was the Father’s will and shows how much God loves us! In response, we praise Him in worship.
Score: 10/10
2. How much of the lyrics line up with Scripture?
This entire song and the Bible are in agreement.
Lyrics posted with permission.*
[Verse 1]
Man of Sorrows, Lamb of God
The first part comes from Isaiah 53:3, the second from Isaiah 53:7, John 1:29, John 1:36, 1 Peter 1:19, Revelation 5:12, and Revelation 13:8.
By His own betrayed
It was the Jewish people who demanded for His crucifixion (Mark 15:13 and Luke 23:21). They were His own people, Jews, who rejected Him (John 1:11 and Romans 11:1-11).
The sin of men and wrath of God
Has been on Jesus laid
Christ bore our sins (Isaiah 53:4-11, Matthew 8:17, John 1:29, Galatians 3:13, and 1 Peter 2:24) and accepted the cup of the wrath of God (Matthew 26:36-46, Mark 14:32-42, and Luke 22:39-46).
[Verse 2]
Silent as He stood accused
Prophecied in Isaiah 53:7, Jesus remained silent when He was accused of many things (Matthew 26:63, Mark 14:58-61, Mark 15:4-5, and Luke 23:9). That doesn’t mean He didn’t speak at all (examples can be found at Matthew 26:64, Mark 14:61-62, Luke 22:67-70, and John 18:20-23), but that He didn’t attempt to defend Himself.
Beaten, mocked, and scorned
Jesus was:
- Beaten (Matthew 26:67-68, Matthew 27:26-30, Mark 15:16-19, John 18:22, and John 19:1-3)
- Mocked and scorned (Matthew 27:27-30, Matthew 27:39-44, Mark 14:65, Mark 15:16-19, Mark 15:29-32, Luke 23:11, Luke 23:39, and John 19:3)
Bowing to the Father’s will
Jesus’ will is to do the will of the Father (Matthew 26:39-44, Mark 14:35-36, Luke 22:41-42, John 4:34, John 5:30, and John 6:38).
He took a crown of thorns
This is part of the mockery and beating that Jesus endured (Matthew 27:29, Mark 15:17, and John 19:1-3).
[Chorus]
And oh that rugged cross, my salvation
Where Your love poured out over me
Jesus demonstrates His love for Hillsong by dying for their sins (John 3:16 and Romans 5:6-8).
Now my soul cries out “Hallelujah!”
Praise and honour unto Thee
The word ‘Hallelujah” is a compound Hebrew phrase, with “hallelu” meaning “a joyous praise in song” and “jah” or “yah”, which refers to the Tetragrammaton YHWH. Put together, Hillsong is singing “we joyfully praise God in song” when they use this word. God is worthy of their praise (1 Chronicles 16:25, 2 Samuel 22:4, Psalm 96:4-5, Psalm 145:3, and Revelation 4:11).
[Verse 3]
Sent of heaven, God’s own Son
Jesus came from God’s thone (Philippians 2:5-7) and is called the Son of God (Matthew 11:27, Matthew 14:33, Matthew 16:15–17, Matthew 27:43, Matthew 27:54, Mark 1:11, Mark 3:11, Mark 9:7, Mark 15:39, Luke 1:35, Luke 4:41, Luke 22:29, John 1:14-18, John 1:34, John 3:16-18, John 11:27, John 19:7, John 20:31, and Acts 9:20).
To purchase and redeem
And reconcile the very ones
Jesus paid for our lawbreaking (Isaiah 53:1-12, Matthew 20:28, Mark 10:45, John 1:29, John 3:16, John 19:30, Acts 4:12, Acts 20:28, Romans 5:6-10, Romans 6:23, 1 Corinthians 1:30, 1 Corinthians 6:20, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Galatians 1:3-4, Galatians 3:13, Ephesians 1:7, Colossians 2:14, 1 Timothy 2:6, Titus 2:14, Hebrews 9:12, Hebrews 9:15, Hebrews 9:22, Hebrews 9:26, 1 Peter 1:17-21, 1 Peter 2:24, 1 Peter 1:18-19, 1 John 1:7, 1 John 2:1-2, and Revelation 5:9), redeeming us (John 3:16, Romans 5:6-8, 1 Corinthians 6:20, Hebrews 5:9, Hebrews 9:28, 1 Peter 1:18-19, 1 John 1:9, and 1 John 2:2) to reconcile us back to a relationship with God (Romans 5:10, Romans 11:15, 2 Corinthians 5:18-21, Ephesians 1:3-10, Ephesians 2:15-18, and Colossians 1:20-22).
Who nailed Him to that tree
Who put Jesus up there? Yes, there’s a historical answer: the Jews did it. However, in this context, this is talking about something different. Why was Jesus up there? He paid for our sins. That’s in line 2. Who was responsible for His crucifixion? In a sense, we all are. If we didn’t break His Laws (Psalm 14:1-3, Psalm 53:1-3, Job 15:14, Ecclesiastes 7:20, Jeremiah 17:9, Romans 3:10, Romans 3:23, and 1 John 1:8-10), there would be no need for Christ to die (Galatians 2:16, Galatians 2:21, and Galatians 3:21).
[Bridge]
Now my debt is paid, it is paid in full
By the precious blood that my Jesus spilled
Colossians 2:14 is a great summary passage to describe these two lines.
Now the curse of sin has no hold on me
The curse of sin is spiritual death (Romans 6:23). Hillsong will instead experience eternal life with God (Mark 10:29-30, John 3:15-16, John 3:36, John 4:14, John 5:24, John 5:39-40, John 6:27, John 6:40, John 10:28, John 17:3, John 20:31, Romans 5:21, Romans 6:22-23, Romans 8:18, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, Galatians 6:8, 1 Timothy 1:16, 1 Timothy 6:12, 2 Timothy 2:11, Hebrews 5:9, 1 Peter 5:10, 1 John 2:23-27, 1 John 5:10-13, 1 John 5:20, Jude 1:20-21, Revelation 3:5, Revelation 7:16-17, and Revelation 21:3-4).
Whom the Son sets free, oh is free indeed!
Quotes from John 8:36 to express the same idea as its previous line.
Now my debt is paid, it is paid in full
By the precious blood that my Jesus spilled
Now the curse of sin has no hold on me
Whom the Son sets free, oh is free indeed!
Repeats lines 1-4.
[Verse 4]
See, the stone is rolled away
Behold the empty tomb
The boulder that sealed Jesus’ tomb was moved, with its tomb empty (Matthew 28:2, Mark 16:4-6, Luke 24:2-6, and John 20:1-7).
Hallelujah, God be praised
See commentary on Chorus, lines 3 and 4. The context is different, but the general ideas are the same.
He’s risen from the grave!
This is the part where thunderous applause is expected. Christ rose from the dead (Matthew 28:1-20, Mark 16:1-20, Luke 24:1-12, John 20:1-29, Acts 1:3, Acts 3:15, Acts 4:33, and 1 Corinthians 15:3-8)!
[Outro]
Praise and honour unto Thee
Repeats Chorus, line 4.
Score: 10/10
3. How would an outsider interpret the song?
Much of it will be easy to follow. I can’t imagine that many who hear this song will be unfamiliar with Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, even if they do not understand its signifigance. It’s as overtly Christian as one can be.
I have less faith in an unbeliever’s correct interpretation of the following:
- Sin as lawbreaking/debt/curse
- Salvation is from eternal separation from God
- Christ purchased our redemption
- Christ reconciles us back into a relationship with God
- Freedom doesn’t give us a license to do whatever we want
Score: 6/10
4. What does this song glorify?
It glorifies Christ as the object of our worship for taking away our sins and rising again, restoring us our lost relationship with God.
Score: 10/10
Closing Comments
Hillsong Worship’s Man of Sorrows is a stunning song for believers. Its overtly Scriptural lyrics focus on the passion of Christ as He bore our transgressions, suffering the Father’s wrath that we deserve. This demonstrates God’s incredible love for us, as we worship in response to His reconciliation and resurrection. These bring God glory. Unbelievers may find some of its lyrics difficult to comprehend without further research, but will easily understand it as uniquely Christian.
I highly recommend this song for corporate worship to churches that can handle some meat; However, be prepared to hand out a few tissues. I’ll need a box for myself.
Final Score: 9/10
Artist Info
Track: Man of Sorrows (Live) (listen to the song)
Artist: Hillsong Worship
Album: Glorious Ruins (Live)
Genre: Hymn
Release Year: 2013
Duration: 5:14
Agree? Disagree? Don’t be shy or have a cow! Calmly and politely state your case in a comment, below.
*Copyright © 2013 Hillsong Music Publishing (APRA) (adm. in the US and Canada at CapitolCMGPublishing.com) All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Updates:
05/07/2021 – Per Artist Theology announcement, I expanded the red text to encourage others to study Hillsong’s theology.
03/24/2021 – Updated per repetition announcement.
Comments
Albert D.
Just discovered this website. Good review of the song lyrics. One line I don’t agree: ‘By the precious blood that my Jesus spilled’. Fortunately it was not spilled, but was put to good use.
Neal Cruco
Albert,
Jesus’ literal, physical blood was indeed spilled on the cross. I’m not sure how you can say it wasn’t. Christians often sing about Jesus’ blood washing over us and/or cleansing us (as in the first verse of “There Is A Fountain”), but that is only a figure of speech. Jesus’ blood actually just poured out of Him, staining both the cross and the ground below. I think that qualifies as “spilled”.
racefangurl
I guess Albert was unaware of def 2 of spilled. He refers to def 1 and was thinking spill like spilling your drinking glass was the only use of word, at least to me.
Vince Wright
Albert,
Thank you for your compliment and comment!
According to Merriam-Webster, definition 2b, spill means “to cause (blood) to be lost by wounding”. Yours may be the first definition: “to cause or allow especially accidentally or unintentionally to fall, flow, or run out so as to be lost or wasted”. Figuratively you are right, Jesus’ spilled blood wasn’t wasted; However, historically, He was wounded and lost blood, for us.
-Vince Wright
Daniel Gagnon
I’ve heard the sentiment that we put Christ on the cross and I don’t know if agree with and I don’t think it can be totally backed up with scripture.
God put Christ on the cross and He put Him there out of love for us
John 3:16-17 NKJV — “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
Romans 3:23-25 NKJV — for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed,
And Christ was obedient to God and he freely gave up His life for us
John 10:14-18 NKJV — “I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. “As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. “And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd. “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. “No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.”
Reading all of this I can’t say that I put Christ on the cross. God loved us and in His love He sent us Christ. And Christ in His Love for us and the Father was obedient to the Father and freely gave His life on the cross as payment for our sins.
Think about if you owed a large debt to a bank that you couldn’t pay. And a rich man saw your debt and saw that you couldn’t pay it and decided to pay it for you as a gift.
You could say that the reason the debt is there is because of you, but I don’t think you could say that you made that man pay the debt. He did it of his own goodness and to say that you made him pay takes away from what he did and is inaccurate.
In the same way I think saying that we put Him on the cross takes away from the free gift that we’ve been given and makes us somehow responsible for something that God has done and I want to be sure that I give God all the glory that He deserves.
And one last thought Christ says
Matthew 11:29-30 NKJV — “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Carrying the responsibility and guilt for Christ’s death is no light burden and it definitely would be no rest for my soul. Instead I think we find our rest in the fact that the debt was paid by God through Christ and it’s a burden that we no longer have to bear.
We should see Christ on the cross and grieve for our sins and look to his wounds and stripes and see the real cost of our sins. And we should be so joyful and grateful that God sent Christ to bear that burden for us in an act of love
And maybe I’m not completely correct in all of this, I’d love to hear what you think about it.