Across the Lands
(Keith and Kristyn Getty)
Praising the Word Incarnate (Part I)
LYRICS (Click to minimize)
You’re the Word of God the Father
From before the world began
Ev’ry star and ev’ry planet
Has been fashioned by Your hand
All creation holds together
By the power of Your voice
Let the skies declare Your glory
Let the land and seas rejoice!
You’re the Author of creation
You’re the Lord of ev’ry man
And Your cry of love rings out across the lands
Yet You left the gaze of angels
Came to seek and save the lost
And exchanged the joy of heaven
For the anguish of a cross
With a prayer You fed the hungry
With a word You stilled the sea
Yet how silently You suffered
That the guilty may go free!
You’re the Author of creation
You’re the Lord of ev’ry man
And Your cry of love rings out across the lands
With a shout You rose victorious
Wresting vict’ry from the grave
And ascended into heaven
Leading captives in Your way
Now You stand before the Father
Interceding for Your own
From each tribe and tongue and nation
You are leading sinners home!
You’re the Author of creation
You’re the Lord of ev’ry man
And Your cry of love rings out across the lands
You’re the Author of creation
You’re the Lord of ev’ry man
And Your cry of love rings out across the lands
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Keith Getty / Stuart Townend
© 2002 Thankyou Music
CCLI Song #3709898 | CCLI License #632898
Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.
Colossians 2:6-10 (ESV)
The Incarnation is one of the most beautiful truths in all of Christian belief. Tragically, however, we often only truly think of the Incarnation as often as some people go to church: on Easter and Christmas. On Easter, or the Holy Week in general, we think about how Christ died for us in human form. Each Christmas, we think about how Christ took on the form of a baby. Both of these are essential and amazing aspects of the Incarnation, but far from the only ones that matter!
In Him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. These words of Paul capture the marvel of the Incarnation. In Christ dwells the fullness of the deity. The beauty, wonder, holiness, mercy, love, justice, and all other incomprehensible attributes of our triune God live within Christ. At the same time, They dwell bodily! The humanity of Christ is not diminished by His deity, nor is His deity diminished by His humanity. He is God in every way that the Father is God, and He is man in every way that you and I are man.
In fact, He is the truest human! Paul writes, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation” (Col 1:15). Our humanity—that is, our nature as the images of God—merely reflects Christ’s image of God. Christ is the paragon of humanity itself, and to live truly humanly is to live in Christ and like Christ. We worship Him as God as well as live in Him as man.
Think about what this means! First of all, He is fully worthy of our worship as the Lord of Lords. Moreover, He is truly the only one who can mediate between God and man, because He is both! The beauty of the Incarnation is that Christ is able to save because He fulfills both sides of the covenant: as God and as man.
For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
1 Timothy 2:5 (ESV)
In every way that our fallen flesh is tempted, He has also been tempted. In every way that we have suffered loss and death, He has also suffered and wept. In every way that we have felt the decay of our mortality, He has also experienced decay. He partook even in our eventual death! But because of Him, we partake not only in His death, but in His resurrection as well.
Our salvation is not only given to us by Christ, but is Christ Himself! Salvation is not merely a transaction between God and man. No, salvation is found in the God-man Himself, Jesus Christ! He does not point us anywhere else other than Himself to find our salvation. In our union with Him, we enjoy the love of the Father and the justification of sins, because He is God and He is human like us.
Our salvation, our praise, our Christian lives, and our fellowship with the Godhead are only possible in Christ. Think about this next time you worship Him for being born from a virgin, or for dying for us. Christ makes sense of all that is physical and spiritual, and in Him we find true humanity and true deity. In Him we find ourselves.