John Mark McMillan – Death In His Grave

Contemporary Christian writer and artist John Mark McMillan has kept a low profile since his crisis of faith in 2017. He still tours and recently released Awake In The Dream on January 10, 2020.

I have not been impressed with McMillan’s work. His song How He Loves scored low. Co-written song King of My Heart did better, but still not great. Hopefully, Death In His Grave will change my mind.

For those who are interested, McMillan gave his line-by-line commentary on this song. I intend to use it as a basis for my independent review and may choose to penalize it if his lyrics do not communicate his interpretation. 

I give credit to McMillan for parsing through each line and providing commentary on his song. Not many artists are willing to provide that level of detail to their audience.

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.

1. What message does the song communicate?

Despite mankind’s efforts to live a sinful life, crucifying Jesus in the process, He laid down His life freely on our behalf as payment for our sins through suffering and death.  Those under the Old Covenant need not “pay rent” any longer through blood sacrifices.  Christ died once and for all, dethroning death’s power over our lives by killing him.

He is the firstborn of the dead, His resurrection signifying the first event that begins His rule and reign as King of kings over both the living and the dead.  We will one day become seated as part of the heavenly bodies.

The minor issues mentioned in section 2 have very little impact on McMillan’s overall message.

Score: 9/10

2. How much of the lyrics line up with Scripture?

Most of it does; However, Verse 1, line 7 is out of place and doesn’t make sense Biblically.  Also, the Bible does not support that Jesus took the keys of death during His time in Hades, as recorded in Chorus, lines 3-5.

Lyrics posted with permission.*

[Verse 1]

Though the Earth cried out for blood
Satisfied her hunger was
Her billows calmed on raging seas

Historically, these are events that lead up to the words written in Chorus, that is, the crucifixion of Jesus.  When Jesus was before Pilate a second time, the crowd demanded for Jesus to be crucified (Matthew 27:11-26, Mark 15:1-15, Luke 23:1-25, and John 19:1-16).

Theologically, the “earth” represents mankind.  We’ve all broken God’s laws (Romans 3:23) and walked according to the world system as slaves of sin (John 8:34, Romans 6:6, Romans 6:20-22, and 1 Corinthians 6:12), which kills us spiritually (Proverbs 21:16, Luke 15:11-24, Romans 6:23, Ephesians 2:1-2, Colossians 2:13, and 1 Timothy 5:6).

For the souls of men she craved

Given the context of Jesus’ execution, the word “men” does not make sense here.  It should say something like “the soul of one man”.

McMillan claims that this references the groaning of the earth, awaiting Christ’s second coming (Romans 8:22-23); However, that does not make sense in light of this song’s immediate context.

Sun and moon from balcony
Turned their head in disbelief
Their precious love would taste the sting

The only reference in the Bible that I’m aware of is Joseph’s dream in Genesis 37:9, which references his father Jacob and his stepmothers Leah and two midwives as the sun and moon.  If that is so, then it says that Joseph and his wives “turned their head in disbelief” when Jesus was crucified.  Yet, was Jesus their “precious love”?  This interpretation doesn’t make sense.

According to McMillan’s commentary, this represents the darkness that came during Jesus’ crucifixion (Matthew 27:45, Mark 15:33, and Luke 23:44). This darkness is the “turning away” of the “greater and lesser lights” (Genesis 1:16) from that which created them, namely, Jesus Himself (Colossians 1:15-16). Since Jesus created them, it is reasonable to conclude that He is their “precious love”.

Disfigured and disdained

The disfigurement of Jesus has at least two forms:

1. Flogging/scourging (Matthew 27:26, Mark 15:15, and John 19:1).
2. Nails through His wrist (Matthew 27:35).

He was also despised:

1. His disciples left him when He was arrested (Matthew 26:47-56 and  Mark 14:43-50).
2. Peter denied Jesus (Luke 22:54-61 and John 18:25-27).
3. Jesus was mocked, spat upon, taunted, slapped, and given a crown of thorns (Matthew 26:67-68, Matthew 27:27-32, Matthew 27:38-44, Mark 14:64-65, Mark 15:16-20, Mark 15:27-32, Luke 22:63-65, Luke 23:11, John 18:19-24, and John 19:1-3).

[Chorus]

On Friday a thief

Though not a thief Himself, Christ was crucified between two robbers (Matthew 27:38, Mark 15:27, Luke 23:39-40, and John 20:18).

There are a lot of opinions and views on whether or not Jesus died on Friday.  The Bible does not say it was a Friday; However, I happen to agree with Got Questions‘ conclusion: it matters little.

On Sunday a King

Contrasted with line 1, the resurrection of Jesus is required for Him to reign as King of kings (Isaiah 9:6, Isaiah 11:10, Micah 5:2, Matthew 2:1-6, John 12:15, John 18:37, 1 Timothy 6:13-16, Revelation 17:14, and Revelation 19:11-16).

Laid down in grief
But awoke with keys
Of hell on that day

Another contrast similar to lines 1 and 2.

One minor issue is that the lyric suggests Jesus took the keys of hell when He went there.  That is not what Revelation Revelation 1:18 states.  It says he has the keys.  It does not state where or in what condition He possessed it.

The first born of the slain

The “firstborn” is one who inherited possession and rulership over their father’s property when they died.  Jesus is the “firstborn” over death (Colossians 1:18) in the sense that He rules over it (Romans 14:9).

The Man, Jesus Christ laid death in his grave

Death is the final enemy that Christ defeated (Isaiah 25:8, Hosea 13:14, Luke 20:35-36, 1 Corinthians 15:24-26, 1 Corinthians 15:55-57, 2 Timothy 1:10, and Hebrews 2:14). Death’s final fate is entry into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14).

Side note: I love McMillan’s wording here.  Death is dead.  Brilliant!

[Verse 2]

So three days in darkness slept

References the period of time that Jesus will remain dead prior to His resurrection (Matthew 12:38-40, Matthew 16:21, Matthew 20:17-19, Luke 9:22, Luke 24:7, Luke 24:21, Luke 24:46, John 2:13-21, Acts 10:40, and 1 Corinthians 15:4).

The Morning Sun of righteousness

Combines Jesus as the Morning Sun (Revelation 22:16) and the sun of righteousness (Malachi 4:2).

But rose to shame the throes of death
And over turn his rule

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), making possible dethroning death’s rule and reign over us (Romans 5:17).

Now daughters and the sons of men
Would pay not their dues again
The debt of blood they owed was rent
When the day rolled a new

References the yearly debt payment under the Old Covenant; sin sacrifices to atone for lawbreaking (Leviticus 4:1-35), yet this only covered over their sins.  It does that take them away (Hebrews 10:4-11).  Only Jesus’ sacrifice can do that (Hebrews 10:12-18).

[Bridge]

He has cheated Hell and seated us above the fall

The first part reiterates previous lines regarding Christ’s defeating death by rising from the dead.  The second is about Christ placing us in the heavenly places (Ephesians 2:5-6) compared to the fall of mankind (Genesis 3:1-24).

In desperate place, He paid our wages one time once and for all

Though we were sinners, separated from God, He paid our penalty (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) once and for all (Romans 6:10, Hebrews 7:27, Hebrews 9:28, and Hebrews 10:10).

Score: 8/10

3. How would an outsider interpret the song?

This song contains much Christianese language that, upon initial listen, may find interpretation difficult for unbelievers without deep research; However, the obvious name-drops of Jesus Christ makes it easy to view this as exclusively Christian.

This song is not intended for an unbelieving audience.

Score: 5/10

4. What does this song glorify?

It glorifies God through its Gospel message in vivid detail, slightly hidden with minor issues discussed in section 2.

Score: 9/10

Closing Comments

John Mark McMillan’s Death In His Grave is a beautifully written recasting of the Gospel message.  Though non-Christians will likely find it hard to understand, Christians will enjoy his vivid use of English to describe important theology surrounding slavery to sin, Christ’s rescue, His rule and reign over death, and mankind’s entry into eternal life with Jesus.

Despite its minor issues, I recommend this song to worship leaders whose audience can handle theologically-rich lyrics.  I cannot recommend it for seeker-sensitive churches.

Final Score: 8/10

Artist Info

Track: Death In His Grave (listen to the song)

Artist: John Mark McMillan

Album: The Medicine

Genre: Pop

Release Year: 2012

Duration: 5:54

Agree?  Disagree?  Don’t be shy or have a cow!  Calmly and politely state your case in a comment, below.

*Copyright © 2008 Integrity’s Hosanna! Music (ASCAP) (adm. at CapitolCMGPublishing.com) All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Updates:

03/24/2021 – Updated per repetition announcement.

02/03/2020 – Deleted a duplicate set of lines in Verse 1.  Thanks to commenter JM for pointing this out!