The Modern Post – Grace Alone

Praise & worship and rock band The Modern Post is an independent group, forming in 2012 at the Mars Hill Church in Orange County, California.  Led by frontman Dustin Kensrue, they released their debut EP Grace Alone that same year, The Water & the Blood in 2013,  and Christmas EP Lowborn King in 2014.  Kensrue returned to his roots as the frontman for rock band Thrice in 2015 after forming it in 1998.  The Modern Post is currently inactive.

Lyrics can be found at https://genius.com/The-modern-post-grace-alone-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?

The song’s title Grace Alone is a major theme throughout these lyrics.  As explained in more detail in section 2, the following are possible due to God’s undeserved favor:

• Adoption as sons and daughters of the Most High (includes citizenship)
• Salvation
• Perseverance of the saints

The Modern Post adds further detail to bolster this theme, contrasting:

• slavery to sin lost in darkness with a born-again life in the light of God,
• the terrible cost that Jesus paid to leave His home to become one of us and sacrifice Himself for our sin with unearned righteousness granted to us by grace and grace alone, and
• the choice of human freedom to run away from God with God’s predestination that woos us to choose salvation and endurance.

Score: 10/10

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

I found all of these lyrics to agree with the Bible.

[Verse 1]

Lines 1 and 2: The Modern Post does not literally communicate that the Fall and subsequent hiding from God in Genesis 3:6-7 is theirs.  Rather, they identify with this event in their own lives, when they disobeyed God and ran from Him.

Lines 3-6: It is the Father’s will not for us to be separated from Him, away from His Presence.  Rather, it was His will for all to repent (2 Peter 3:9), migrating us from our deadness in sin to be made alive in Christ (Romans 6:1-11, Romans 7:4-6, Galatians 2:19-20, 2 Timothy 2:11, and 1 Peter 2:24).

The Modern Post admits that their righteousness is not theirs (2 Corinthians 5:21 and Philippians 3:9).  It also does not come about through adherence to the Law (Acts 13:39, Romans 3:20-21, Romans 4:13, Romans 9:32, Galatians 2:16, Galatians 3:10-13, and Galatians 5:4).  Rather, it is an unearned gift; the grace that God offers us.  More on that in Chorus 1.

[Chorus 1]

Lines 1 and 2: References Ephesians 1:3-14, which contains all the elements in these two lines.

Lines 3 and 4: Summarizes important points of Ephesians 2:4-9 with some poetic rewording (e.g.; “above my station”) and hints of line 2.

[Verse 2]

Line 1: The context of Verse 2 is Jesus, based on line 3. He left heaven to do the will of the Father (John 6:38). What will specifically? To seek and save those who are lost (Luke 19:10).

Line 2: He knew it so well, He asked the Father to take this “cup of wrath” away three times (Matthew 26:36-46, Mark 14:32-42, and Luke 22:39-46).

Line 3: Jesus’ resolve was to go through with it, evidenced by the events that followed the verses in line 2 and subsequent Acts of the Apostles.

Lines 4 and 5:  See commentary on Verse 1, lines 3-6.  Specifically, paragraph two, sentence two.

Line 6: Jesus paid the penalty for The Modern Post’s sin-debt (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).

[Chorus 2]

Line 1: It is the precious blood of Jesus that washes away sins and redeems us (Ephesians 1:7, Hebrews 9:22, 1 Peter 1:2, and 1 Peter 1:18-19).

Line 2: Succinctly summarized in 2 Corinthians 5:15 and 1 Thessalonians 5:10.

Line 3: Combines the raising of Christ and newness of life in Romans 6:1-4 with The Modern Post as a new creation in 2 Corinthians 5:17.

Line 4: Combines the concept of “born again” in John 3:3 with justification by faith (Genesis 15:6, Exodus 33:19, Psalm 32:1-2, Romans 3:21-24, Romans 4:3-8, Romans 5:1-2, Romans 5:6-8, Romans 5:15-21, Romans 6:14, Romans 8:1-4, Romans 9:14-16, Romans 11:5-6, Galatians 2:21, Galatians 3:6, Galatians 5:4, Ephesians 1:7, Ephesians 2:4-9, 2 Thessalonians 2:16, Titus 2:11, 1 Timothy 1:15-16, and James 2:23).

[Verse 3]

Lines 1 and 2: References The Modern Post’s deadness in sin (Proverbs 21:16, Luke 15:11-24, Romans 6:23, Ephesians 2:1-2, Colossians 2:13, and 1 Timothy 5:6).  Darkness is specifically mentioned in Proverbs 4:19, John 1:5, John 3:19-21, and John 11:10.

Line 3: The Spirit of God opened up the spiritual eyes of The Modern Post so that they could see (That is, a spiritual awakening (John 3:3, John 9:25, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Ephesians 2:5, Ephesians 5:14, Titus 3:5, and 1 Peter 1:3).  We were once dead in our trespasses, but are now made alive in Christ (Romans 6:1-11, Romans 7:4-6, Galatians 2:19-20, 2 Timothy 2:11, and 1 Peter 2:24).

Line 4: There is a way that seemed right to The Modern Post, but it leads to death in the end (Proverbs 14:12 and Proverbs 16:25).

Lines 5 and 6: God took The Modern Post’s hearts of stone and turned it into hearts of flesh (Ezekiel 11:19, Ezekiel 36:26, Jeremiah 31:33, and Hebrews 8:10).

[Chorus 3]

Line 1: Probably references the awakened “sleeping spirit” in Ephesians 5:13-14.

Line 2: God transforms the black, cold heart described in Verse 3, lines 1 and 2 with His light that drives out darkness (Psalm 107:10-16, Luke 1:79, John 1:1-13, John 12:46, Ephesians 5:8, Colossians 1:13, and 1 Peter 2:9).

Line 3: Specifically mentioned in Hebrews 12:28.

Line 4: Ephesians 1:5-6 specifically connects adoption with grace.

[Outro]

Lines 1-4: From God’s perspective, the perseverance of the saints is guaranteed by the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13-14). Jesus will not lose any who are His (John 6:39). However, from man’s perspective, we have a personal responsibility to put the words of God into practice (John 13:17, Philippians 3:17, Philippians 4:9, James 1:22, and 2 Peter 1:10). The guarantee of the Holy Spirit gives us the “grace alone” piece that fits with our responsibility to do as we are commanded.

Through it, The Modern Post will run the race until the end.  They will not be disqualified (1 Corinthians 9:24-27 and Hebrews 12:1-3).

Score: 10/10

3. How would an outsider interpret the song?

This song is thick with Christianese that requires a good understanding of deep Christian theological doctrines of salvation via born again, predestination, adoption, and perseverance of the saints. Though this might make it difficult for unbelievers to interpret, the combined concepts of “grace alone” and “Jesus” are uniquely Christian and, insofar as my discussions with unbelievers are concerned, is something that most have heard about.

Score: 5/10

4. What does this song glorify?

It glorifies the Gospel message, which itself brings God glory.

Score: 10/10

Closing Comments

The Modern Post’s Grace Alone is an excellent Christian song. It is well-written in poetic fashion, combining deep, theological concepts such as predestination, salvation, adoption, and perseverance of the saints into a cohesive, rhyming whole that barely repeats itself and glorifying God. Unbelievers may find it difficult to digest these concepts without deep study; However, there are enough hints for them to ascertain Christianity.

If your congregation prefers to praise God with combined testimonial and God-glorifying song lyrics, considering adding this gem if you think they can handle it.  If not, perhaps you should look elsewhere.  This is likely out of the question for seeker-sensitive churches.

Final Score: 9/10

Artist Info

Track: Grace Alone (listen to the song)

Artist: The Modern Post

EP: Grace Alone

Genre: Pop, Rock

Release Year: 2012

Duration: 3:34

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.