Stuart Townend – For The Cause

English artist Stuart Townend began his career in 1995 with his first album Classical Praise Piano: Come Holy Spirit. Since then, he released thirteen other albums, including:

• Say the Word (1997)
• Personal Worship (2001)
• Lord of Every Heart (2002)
• Monument to Mercy (2006)
• The Best of Stuart Townend Live (2007)
• There is a Hope (live) (2008)
• Creation Sings (2009)
• The Journey (2011)
• Ultimate Collection (2012)
• The Paths of Grace (2014)
• The Best of Stuart Townend Live, Volume 2 (2015)
• In Christ Alone: Songs of Stuart Townend & Keith Getty (2016)
• Courage (2018)

Insofar as I am aware, this artist has not received any prestigious awards; However, he regularly collaborates with Keith and Kristyn Getty, including this song.

I’ve reviewed other work touched by Townend, including I Will Wait for You (Psalm 130), How Deep the Father’s Love for Us, and In Christ Alone.

Lyrics can be found at https://genius.com/Stuart-townend-for-the-cause-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?

Christians sacrifice their lifestyles to follow Jesus and spread the news about Him, that He was crucified for sinners who don’t deserve Him, some of which called for His death.  We hope that some will come to faith in Jesus, the exalted, resurrected King who frees the underprivileged and downtrodden.  His name is above all others and one day, everyone will bow to Him.

Score: 10/10

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

All lyrics are in agreement with the Bible.

[Verse 1]

Line 1: Jesus is King (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).

Line 2: We surrender our lives to God (Isaiah 64:8, Matthew 10:38, Matthew 11:28-30, Matthew 16:24, Mark 8:34-38, Mark 10:28, Luke 9:23, Luke 14:27, John 15:1-11, Romans 6:13, Romans 12:1-2, Galatians 2:20, Philippians 2:5-8, Hebrews 11:6, James 4:7-10, and 1 Peter 5:6).

Lines 3 and 4: Though it may sound like an unfortunate conditional, that we’ll stop sacrificing until every knee bows and confesses Christ as Lord, (Romans 14:11 and Philippians 2:10-11), the latter statement also includes those who sacrifice.  This nullifies the conditional word “until” in line 3.

Line 5: See commentary in line 2.

Lines 6-8: If we sow seeds of righteousness, we will reap spiritual rewards (Galatians 6:7-9).  In many cases, the seed that is sowed is the Word of God that causes a harvest of believers who come to faith (Matthew 13:1-23, Mark 4:1-20, and Luke 8:4-15).

[Chorus]

Lines 1-4: The message that we tell others is that Jesus is above everyone else (Philippians 2:9) and that salvation comes through Jesus and no one else (John 14:6 and Acts 4:12).

[Verse 2]

Lines 1-4: This is summarized in John 3:16 and Romans 5:6-8, that Christ died for undeserving sinners.  Some were the very people who yelled for Jesus to be crucified, to which Jesus responded, “Father forgive them” (Luke 23:34).

Line 5: The same God who was killed on a Roman cross was also resurrected (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).

Line 6: As predicted in Isaiah 61:1 and Luke 4:18.

Lines 7 and 8: That is, Jesus offers us:

• internal peace (John 14:27, John 16:29-33, Romans 5:1, Ephesians 2:14-15, and Colossians 3:15),
• 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), and
• freedom from our slavery to sin (Romans 6:1-11, Romans 7:4-6, Galatians 2:19-20, 2 Timothy 2:11, and 1 Peter 2:24).

[Verse 3]

Lines 1-4: Townend quotes from Philippians 1:21 in line 2 and Matthew 10:38, Matthew 16:24, Luke 9:23-27, and Luke 14:27 in line 3 to make the same point: Townend prioritizes God above everything else (Luke 14:26).

Lines 5-8: Repeats lines 1-4.

Score: 10/10

3. How would an outsider interpret the song?

Unbelievers should interpret this song the same as I wrote in section 1.  The only possible misunderstanding would be the word “sin”, seen as an error or mistake as opposed to breaking God’s Laws.

Score: 9/10

4. What does this song glorify?

It glorifies God in that it proclaims the Gospel and our sacrifice to tell others, that they would follow Jesus.

Score: 10/10

Closing Comments

Stuart Townend’s For The Cause is a wonderful song.  It magnifies the good news, that Christ died for sinners and rose again, sowing the seed of His Word with the hope that others will join us, bringing God glory.  Those outside the camp of Christ will have little problems comprehending this gem, except for the possible misinterpretation of “sin”.

I highly recommend this for corporate worship.

Final Score: 9.5/10

Artist Info

Track: For The Cause (listen to the song)

Artist: Stuart Townend

Album: Courage

Genre: Hymn, Contemporary Christian Music (CCM)

Release Year: 2018

Duration: 4:23

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Updates:

03/25/2021 – Updated per repetition announcement.