A healthy portion of our congregational singing has to do with the great salvation that we have. To give just one example, we sing with John Newton, “The Lord has promised good to me, his Word my hope secures; he will my shield and portion be, as long as life endures. And when this flesh and heart shall fail, and mortal life shall cease, I shall possess within the veil a life of joy and peace.”
It is, of course, only natural, and perfectly human, to break forth into song when we are amazed by something so great. And, to be sure, salvation is a great multitude of blessings and benefits. The Westminster Shorter Catechism helpfully summarizes these great blessings and benefits in a series of questions and answers:
Question 32: What benefits do they that are effectually called partake of in this life? They that are effectually called do in this life partake of justification, adoption, and sanctification, and the several benefits which in this life do either accompany or flow from them.
Question 33: What is justification? Justification is an act of God's free grace, wherein he pardons all our sins, and accepts us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone.
Question 34: What is adoption? Adoption is an act of God's free grace, whereby we are received into the number, and have a right to all the privileges of the sons of God.
Question 35: What is sanctification? Sanctification is the work of God's free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness.
Question 36: What are the benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification? The benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification, are, assurance of God's love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, increase of grace, and perseverance therein to the end.
The Shorter Catechism presents an embarrassment of riches that encompass legal, relational, and existential elements of blessing. It is for good reason that we sing so heartily of the great salvation that we have.
For all the greatness of these benefits, we must remember that they are not pre-packaged, self-contained goodies available for purchase. We cannot separate these benefits from one another, and we certainly cannot abstract them from the one from whom they flow. As Calvin writes in his Institutes of the Christian Religion, “How do we receive those benefits which the Father bestowed on his only-begotten Son—not for Christ’s own private use, but that he might enrich poor and needy men? First, we must understand that as long as Christ remains outside of us, and we are separated from him, all that he has suffered and done for the salvation of the human race remains useless and of no value for us” (III.1.1). The Westminster Larger Catechism then provides a positive definition of union in Christ, which is the opposite of the concern raised by Calvin: “What is that union which the elect have with Christ? The union which the elect have with Christ is the work of God's grace, whereby they are spiritually and mystically, yet really and inseparably, joined to Christ as their head and husband; which is done in their effectual calling” (WLC 66).
Now, this truth is also something that we confess in song. Every week, we confess the reality that the benefits of redemption flow from Christ when we sing, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow/praise him all creatures here below/praise him above ye heavenly host/praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!” This idea is also poetically captured by Robert Robinson in his hymn, “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing:”
Come Thou Fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise;
Teach me some melodious sonnet, sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it, Mount of God’s redeeming love.
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