Romans 6:4 says, “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”
Every Easter my Grandmother would call our house and when my brother, sister and I would answer the phone she would say, “He is risen!”, we would smile and reply, “He is risen indeed!” Though I was unaware, what was being instilled in us as children was a tradition that the church has held for centuries. Historically, on Easter Sunday the pastor of a congregation would stand before his people and create a memorial of Easter Sunday by saying to the people, “Christ is Risen.” The people would joyfully respond, “Christ is Risen Indeed.”
For Easter 2009, a friend of mine, JD Greear, pastor of the Summit Church in Durham, NC began his sermon by walking their church through this memorial. I immediately thought I would attempt to put this liturgical tradition to song. Christ is Risen Indeed was written that week.
Initially I had written the melody to the Isaac Watts Hymn #72, but I quickly realized there were some new ideas and phrasings I wanted to interject. In continuing to work on it, I arrived at having rewritten the entire song. I took it to my brother in law/producer, Jordan Critz, and asked him his thoughts. He immediately heard a stronger melody for the chorus, and the song was birthed.
We often sing of the cross, and rightfully so. But we also must sing of the resurrection. J. Oswald Sanders writes on it’s importance, “The life of Christ demands such a climax. If we believe He was supernaturally conceived, lived without sin, died a voluntary, atoning death, then the resurrection is easy to believe. Without it, a perfect life would end in a shameful death, surely an inappropriate close. The resurrection cannot be isolated from all that preceded it.” If we are to sing of the cross, we must do so in light of the resurrection.
Paul frames this idea perfectly in 1 Corinthians 15:14-17, “ And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.”
The second verse focuses on the scope of our salvation. It says, “What a joy to know by grace we’ve been redeemed (justification), through Christ we died a death to sin and all it’s folly (sanctification), but glorified we will rise to live eternally (glorification). I am continually looking for ways to weave the Gospel narrative in the songs we sing, and this was one more attempt to do so, with the focus on the work of Christ.
There is a necessity to the resurrection. Without it we are void of hope, and our salvation is incomplete. While our generation is pursuing “Their Best Life Now”, our grandparents longed for a more blessed hope in the life to come. Because of this, I have tried to be intentional in writing toward that idea. It is vital for us to be a people who continually “long for the appearing of Christ” (2 Timothy 4:8). We are in continual need to pull our attention and affections from created things toward the uncreated one.
The cross is the centerpiece of the Gospel, but the resurrection is God’s glorious masterpiece.
