"Wonderful Savior"

Day 1

Today I begin a series of meditations on texts written by John Hallett. He was a marvelous composer, arranger, pianist, music editor, conductor, church musician….and the list goes on!

He wrote or co-wrote some wonderful texts. He also collaborated with fine writers of texts for which he wrote beautiful melodies. Some of these texts will be shared this month.

Meditate on the lyrics. I will share scriptures that relate to the song text. May these texts encourage you to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. If you are not following Him and want to know more, keep writing. You are also welcome to contact me if you have any questions.

Day 1: Maundy Thursday

Wondrous to me is the story of matchless love,
How Christ relinquished His glory of heaven above,
Choosing for sinners to suffer, His life a ransom to offer.
All who believe and receive Him shall never die.
"Wonderful Savior" by John C. Hallett (1962)

What makes you wonder? What makes your jaw drop in amazement? What, as my mother used to say, “floors you?”

For John Hallett the wonder was that Jesus Christ “relinquished His glory of heaven above,
Choosing for sinners to suffer, His live a ransom to offer.”
“Relinquished His glory?” Paul, the author of many books in the New Testament wrote to the believers in the city of Philippi about what their attitude should re in relationship to one another:

“Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death — and the worst kind of death at that: a crucifixion.” [Philippians 2:5-8 in “The Message Bible”]


Why did Jesus die on the cross? He chose to. He exchanged His life for ours so that we would not have to pay the penalty of sin, which is death. As Hallett put it: “Choosing for sinners to suffer, His life a ransom to offer.”
“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Mark 10:45)

“For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.” (Hebrews 9:15)

Ransom. You’ve heard of that. Someone is kidnapped. The perpetrators of the crime demand “ransom money.” “Pay $ and we will set your family member free.” That is what Jesus did for us. That is why John Hallett wrote: “Wondrous to me is the story of matchless love.”
Talk about a wonderful story. Well that is not the end: “All who believe and receive Him shall never die.”
If I were held hostage, it would be foolish for me if I refused to leave my captors the moment the ransom money was paid! Well, that is what is happening if we continue in the bondage of sin.

Tomorrow, Good Friday commemorates the day that Jesus sacrificially laid down His life….paying the ransom so you and I may go free. All we have to do is “believe and receive Him.” We are then taken out of the darkness and brought into the light! Brought into freedom.

The Good News is on this Maundy Thursday is that you have been set free from sin and bondage. Jesus paid the ransom!

Let this Maundy Thursday be the day you realize that Jesus Christ has ransomed you from sin and given you life and liberty! Then you, too, can say: “Wondrous to me is the story of matchless love.”