Matt Maher – Born on That Day

Canadian Contemporary Christian artist Matt Maher began his career in 2000.  He released eleven albums and five EP’s, including:

• The End and the Beginning (2001)
• Welcome to Life (2003)
• Overflow (2006)
• Empty & Beautiful (2008)
• Alive Again (2009)
• The Love in Between (2011)
• All the People Said Amen (2013)
• Saints and Sinners (2015)
• Lord, I Need You (EP, 2015)
• Echoes (2017)
• The Advent of Christmas (2018)
• Alive & Breathing Vol. I (EP, 2019)
• Alive & Breathing Vol. II (EP, 2019)
• Alive & Breathing Vol. III (EP, 2019)
• Alive & Breathing (2020)
• Alive & Breathing Vol. IV (EP, 2020)

Maher won several awards, including seven GMA Canada Covenant’s, three Dove’s, and three Unity’s.

Lyrics can be found at https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/mattmaher/bornonthatday.html.

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?

It is a culmination of several points in a singular package.  These points include:

• Jesus came to save us from our eternal damnation.
• He is God born as a mortal man, leaving His throne and glory.
• He created Mary, indirectly stating that the Son of God created the universe and rules over it.
• He was given the names “Jesus” and “Emmanuel”, the latter meaning “God with us”.
• John the Baptist is the voice in heaven who prepares the way for Christ.
• Maher responds to God with praise and worship.
• Christmas was born when Jesus was, though not claiming it was December 25th.
• Jesus is the glory of the Father.
• Christ was born so that we could be forgiven, indirectly referencing the cross.
• The angels worship Jesus.
• When we encounter Jesus, we will not be the same people.

Although there is no official format, its structure appears to be standard.  Stanzas 2, 5, and 7 act as the Chorus, with Stanza 3 and 8 acting as a sort of “post-chorus”.  Aside from these, there’s not much repetition throughout this song.

Score: 10/10

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

The entire song agrees with God’s inspired Word.

Since this song does not contain a Verse/Chorus/Bridge format, I assigned stanzas to each paragraph.

[Stanza 1]

Line 1: The silence and chaos represent our spiritually dead state (Proverbs 21:16, Luke 15:11-24, Romans 6:23, Ephesians 2:1-2, Colossians 2:13, and 1 Timothy 5:6).

Line 2: This rescuer is God who became one of us (John 1:1, John 1:14, and Philippians 2:5-7).  He was held by Mary, whom He created.  This points to Christ’s sovereignty over creation (Genesis 1:1, Deuteronomy 4:39, Deuteronomy 10:14, Joshua 2:11, Nehemiah 9:6, Psalm 29:10, Psalm 45:6, Psalm 50:7-15, Psalm 93:1-2, Psalm 115:3, Psalm 135:6, Isaiah 43:13, Isaiah 45:9-10, Isaiah 46:10, Lamentations 5:19, Daniel 4:35, Romans 9:19-21, Ephesians 1:11, Hebrews 1:8, James 4:15, Revelation 4:11, and Revelation 20:11).

Line 3: His name is Jesus, who claimed to fulfill the prophecy in Isaiah 61:1 in Luke 4:18-21.  He came to take away the sins of the world (John 1:29).

[Stanza 2]

Line 1: According to Isaiah 7:14, a virgin would conceive and bear a son and give him the name Emmanuel, which means “God with us”.  This was fulfilled in Matthew 1:20-23.

Lines 2 and 3: This references John the Baptist, who was prophesied in Isaiah 40:3 to prepare the way for the LORD.  This was fulfilled in Matthew 3:1-12, Mark: 1:1-8, Luke 3:1-17, and John 1:19-28.

Lines 4-6: Slightly alters lines 1-3 to personalize it, that Maher hears the name Emmanuel and responds to it with praise in worship.

[Stanza 3]

Line 1 and 2: We don’t know when Christmas Day is.  Yes, we celebrate Christmas on December 25th; However, the date comes from Roman Catholic attempts to ease the conversion of Pagans, who believed that their god Mithras was born on December 25th.  So, when we sing “Christmas was born on that Day”, we’re not claiming that Christmas was born on December 25th.  The Bible doesn’t tell us which specific day Jesus was born.  The important thing is that Jesus was born (Matthew 1:25 and Luke 2:6-7).  Whatever day that was, that is the day that Christmas was born, even if we happen to celebrate it on a different day.

Lines 3 and 4: Repeats line 1.

[Stanza 4]

Line 1: According to Hebrews 1:1-3, Christ is the radiance and glory of the Father.

Line 2: Summarized in Philippians 2:5-8, the KJV states that Jesus had no reputation and became mortal to humble himself on the cross.  John 3:16, Romans 5:6-8, Hebrews 9:22, and 1 John 4:9-10 tells us why: because God loves us and without His shed blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.  Other translations say that Christ “emptied Himself”, including the NASB that I cited in this review.  In other words, He left His throne, power, and glory to become a frail, weak, human being.

[Stanza 5]

Repeats Stanza 2.

[Stanza 6]

Line 1: For the first part, see Stanza 3, line 1.  For the second, this is part of the Lord’s prayer in Matthew 6:9–13 and Luke 11:2-4.

Line 2: Maher praise and glorifies Christ.

Line 3: The angels show their reverence and adoration towards God in Luke 2:13-14 after Christ was born.  Also, Hebrews 1:6 states that God lets the angels worship Jesus.

Line 4: Repeats line 2.

Lines 5-7: Essentially repeats lines 1-4.

[Stanza 7]

Repeats Stanza 2.

[Stanza 8]

Essentially repeats Stanza 3, adding that we will be changed.  Though it’s not specific, one example is that we’re no longer dead in our sins, made alive with Jesus (Romans 6:1-11, Romans 7:4-6, Galatians 2:19-20, 2 Timothy 2:11, and 1 Peter 2:24).

Score: 10/10

3. How would an outsider interpret the song?

For unbelievers, Maher makes it clear that it’s a Christmas song, stating that “Christmas was born on that day”, that is, the day Jesus was born.  Maher heavily uses Christianese terminology, making casual references without connecting the dots.  I know what he means because I’ve studied Christian theology; However, an unbeliever who has not will probably walk away somewhat confused, with questions such as:

• How does Jesus coming break the silence or calm the chaos?
• Who is “Emmanuel”?
• What is this voice that prepares the way?
• What does Jesus’ birth have to do with forgiveness?
• What is “kingdom come”?
• What did Jesus come to save us from?

I am more confident that they will comprehend that:

• God became one of us in the form of Jesus.
• Jesus came to be a Savior of sorts.
• Angels and Maher worships Christ.

Score: 4/10

4. What does this song glorify?

It brings glory to Jesus in its many Scripturally accurate points that honor the Christmas story.

Score: 10/10

Closing Comments

Matt Maher’s Born on That Day is an excellent song for believers.  It makes several pointers that connect Christmas with Easter, that Jesus came to save us from eternal separation from God.  Unbelievers will probably miss this main message; However, they will know it’s meant to celebrate the birth of Christ.

I highly recommend this song for corporate worship, except in seeker-friendly churches.

Final Score: 9/10

Artist Info

Track: Born on That Day (listen to the song)

Artist: Matt Maher

Album: The Advent of Christmas

Genre:  Christmas, Contemporary Christian Music (CCM)

Release Year: 2018

Duration: 4:36

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