Photo by Mohamed Nohassi
Modern hymnists Keith and Kristyn Getty became an active duo since 2002. Keith has been in the music business since 1995, orchestrating for several McDonald’s commercials, recording from the Music from the Lord of the Rings Trilogy album, and for several Christian artists such as Natalie Grant and Michael W. Smith. Keith’s most famous work is In Christ Alone, co-written with Stuart Townend and re-recorded with his wife Kristyn. Together, they released two albums under their former group name, Keith Getty and Kristyn Lennox. These include Tapestry (2002) and New Irish Hymns 2: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (2003).
Under their current name, Keith and Kristyn Getty, they released fourteen albums and one EP, including:
- New Irish Hymns 3: Incarnation (2004)
- New Irish Hymns 4: Hymns for the Life of the Church (2005)
- Songs That Jesus Said (2005)
- The Apostles’ Creed (2006)
- Modern Hymns Live (2006)
- In Christ Alone (2007)
- Keswick Live (2008)
- Awaken the Dawn (2009)
- Joy – An Irish Christmas (2011)
- Hymns for the Christian Life (2012)
- Modern and Traditional Hymns: Live at the Gospel Coalition (2013)
- Facing A Task Unfinished (2016)
- The North Coast Sessions (2018)
- His Mercy Is More (2019)
- Resurrection – EP (2020)
Keith Getty Getty was appointed Most Excellent Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2017 Birthday Honours for his modern hymnal work.
Also, check out my review of In Christ Alone.
Lyrics can be found at https://genius.com/Keith-and-kristyn-getty-christ-our-hope-in-life-and-death-lyrics.
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?
These lyrics start with a rhetorical question that is answered: Jesus is the only hope for us. He knows how long we will live and sustains us during this mortal life. He is the foundation, the solid rock for which we can stand and find refuge. His goodness ought to bring us comfort during times of trial and tribulation.
Another question is posed and left unanswered: what would happen if we lived apart from Christ’s commandments: The answer is obvious: we’d still be spiritually dead, left to our sinful lifestyle apart from God.
In response, we praise God in song and spread the news about Christ’s death and resurrection to others, ready to meet Jesus in the air while He throws death into the eternal hellfire. We will feast with the Lord, where there will be no more pain or suffering, implying no more sin. Death will have no hold over us, as we proclaim “Christ, he lives”.
Score: 10/10
2. How much of the lyrics line up with Scripture?
All of it is Biblical.
[Verse 1]
Lines 1-4: Jesus is the only way by which we may attain salvation (John 14:6 and Acts 4:12).
Line 5: That is, God (Psalm 31:15).
Line 6: The answer is sin. Sin is the things we do apart from Christ’s commandments (1 John 3:4).
Line 7 and 8: Apart from Christ’s love, which compels Him to die for wretched, wicked sinners (Romand 5:6-8) sustains us to the end (1 Corinthians 1:4-8).
[Chorus]
Line 1: 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, we are singing “we joyfully praise God in song” when we use this word, chosen by the Getty’s as our response to Christ’s goodness.
Line 2: That is, our hope in God gives rise to eternal life spent with Him (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).
Line 3: Repeats line 1.
Lines 4 and 5: That is, for all eternity we say Jesus is our only hope. See commentary on Verse 1, lines 1-4.
[Verse 2]
Lines 1 and 2: Though sometimes hard to experientially comprehend, especially during troubled times (such as the current COVID-19 pandemic), grasping the truth of God’s goodness brings comfort to those who believe (Matthew 11:28-30, Romans 15:5-6, and 2 Corinthians 1:3).
Lines 3 and 4: The shed blood of Christ for the forgiveness of sins is how we know how much He loves us (Romans 5:6-8).
Lines 5-8: The same Jesus who is the foundation for our faith (Deuteronomy 32:4, 1 Samuel 2:2, 2 Samuel 22:47, Psalm 18:31, Psalm 28:1, Psalm 62:2, Psalm 94:22, Psalm 118:22, Isaiah 28:16, Matthew 7:24-27, Matthew 21:42, Acts 4:11, 1 Corinthians 3:10-11, Ephesians 2:20, 2 Timothy 2:19, and 1 Peter 2:6) is also our refuge during hardships (Genesis 15:1, Deuteronomy 33:29, 2 Samuel 22:3, Psalm 3:3, Psalm 5:11, Psalm 12:5, Psalm 18:2, Psalm 20:1, Psalm 28:7, Proverbs 30:5, Psalm 33:20, Psalm 34:19, Psalm 46:1, Psalm 57:1, Psalms 59:1, Psalm 84:11, Psalm 89:18, Psalm 91:1-16, Psalm 115:9, Psalm 121:1-8, Psalm 140:4, Isaiah 41:10, 1 Corinthians 10:13, and 2 Thessalonians 3:3).
[Verse 3]
Lines 1-4: The prize for enduring to the end is everlasting life (1 Corinthians 9:24-27). Death will be robbed of its sting (1 Corinthians 15:55-57).
Line 5: That is, meet Him mid-air (1 Thessalonians 4:17).
Line 6: Death will be thrown into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14) and there will be no more pain and suffering, which are caused by sin (Revelation 21:4).
Line 7: That is, the great feast as described in Christ’s Parable of the Great Banquet in Matthew 22:1-14 and Luke 14:15-24.
Line 8: Another reference to eternal life with God. See commentary in Chorus, line 2.
Score: 10/10
3. How would an outsider interpret the song?
The Getty’s language is a healthy mix of Biblical terminology with everyday language, making unbeliever interpretation easy. Those outside the camp of Christ can reasonably come to the same conclusion as I: Jesus is the only hope and Christians worship Him in response, expecting to spend their eternity with Him.
Score: 10/10
4. What does this song glorify?
This song brings glory to God through praising Him as our redeemer, rock, fortress, and comforter.
Score: 10/10
Closing Comments
Keith and Kristyn Getty’s – Christ Our Hope in Life and Death is a great song. It leads us to worship Jesus as our savior because of His great love for us, that while we were sinners, Christ died for us. We tell others about Christ’s death and resurrection and will spend eternity feasting with our Lord, bringing Him glory. The unsaved will find this message to be uplifting and easy to comprehend.
I highly recommend this song for corporate worship.
Final Score: 10/10
Artist Info
Track: Christ Our Hope in Life and Death (listen to the song)
Artist: Keith and Kristyn Getty (Feat. Matt Papa)
EP: Resurrection – EP
Genre: Hymn
Release Year: 2020
Duration: 4:13
Agree? Disagree? Don’t be shy or have a cow! Calmly and politely state your case in a comment, below.
Updates:
03/25/2021 – Updated per repetition announcement.
07/01/2020 – Thanks to commenter Jessica for correcting me on my issue with Verse 3, lines 3 and 4. This significantly improved my score, from 8/10 to 10/10.
Comments
J
As an aside, this song was inspired by Article 1 of the Heidelberg Catechism
Rohan
Thanks for your thoughts.
I’m a little confused on your issue with verse 3. In particular, you mentioned that it’s saying that salvation is attained by telling other people about Jesus?
Possibly it’s because you’re reading the previous line to be about evangelism? My impression of the verse is that it’s about death; our death (and resurrection). When we die, our hope is that Christ lives. Christ our hope in death. So to the grave, we sing that Jesus lives.
It does use the word ‘reward’ to describe heaven, but I didn’t think it was saying it was a reward for the previous line. More in the sense of Paul’s running the race to win the prize?
This is a song that I’m considering teaching, so I always appreciate hearing how other people understand the lyrics. Two brains are better than one, and all that.
Vince Wright
Rohan,
Thank you for your comment!
Yes, I was taking Verse 1 and 2, in part, as evangelism. The phrasing and wording of these lines make it sound like our reward from heaven is to sing “Christ, he lives; Christ, he lives!”. The connecting word between these two phrases (lines 1 and 2 with lines 3 and 4) is the word “and” in line 3, which acts as a conjunction between two thoughts.
At least, that’s what my logical brain thinks!
-Vince Wright
Jessica
Hi, thank you for the review it was a pleasure to read.
I’m a little confused about your interpretation/criticism of the first 4 lines in Verse 3.
From what I understand, I think verse 3 is related to 1 Corinthians 15:55-57(particularly v.55) and it is conveying the idea that the grave has no power over us because Christ lives. The first two lines are talking about how we respond to the grave, and not what we tell unbelievers.
“UNTO the grave, what will we sing?”
Then lines 3-4 continue to talk about how by believing that Christ lives, and that death is defeated, we have everlasting life with the one who defeated death.
I hope this makes sense.
Thank you!
Vince Wright
Jessica,
Thank you for your comment!
What you say makes sense! The first line states that the singing is “unto the grave”, not to unbelievers. Therefore, it’s not speaking of evangelism. Thus, the reward is as you say: they will not be disqualified for receiving their prize, that is, inheriting eternal life.
I updated my review.
-Vince Wright