Hymn of the Month: I will boast only in the cross!

     Last fall I was in a Christian bookstore where I saw a stack of two or three dozen copies of Chris Tomlin’s newest CD, “Love Ran Red”. I bought one and played it once, played it twice, played it a dozen times. It is more “modern” than I’m used to but the lyrics took hold of me—“At the Cross, at the cross, I surrender my life”; “Jesus, He loves me, He loves me, He is for me”; “I will feast at the Table of the Lord”; “I heard the roar of the Lion of Judah”; “Jesus, this is You.”

     I knew I had really absorbed the words when I was later reading 1 John 4:4 and thought, “There’s a quotation from Chris Tomlin!”—“Greater is the One  Who lives in me…”

     There are half a dozen great songs on this CD but the one that moved me most is this:
 

     I will boast only in the cross

     Where my Saviour died for me.

     Nothing else, no other love,

     Goes so far and runs so deep.

     I will boast only in the cross.

     See His head, His hands and feet,

     Scars of grace—the scars that heal.

     He broke the curse and set me free.

 

     Only One took the nails,

     Only One tore the veil,

     Only One spotless Lamb.

     I will boast only in the cross.

 

     I will boast only in the cross—

     The Father’s love at Calvary

     My sin erased, my debt he paid.

     This is my hope, this song I sing.

     This is my hope, this song I sing.

 

     Only One took the nails,

     Only One tore the veil,

     Only One spotless Lamb.

     I will boast only in the cross.

 

     Only One took the nails,

     Only One tore the veil,

     Only One spotless Lamb.

     I will boast only in the cross.

 

     I will boast only in the cross.
 

 

     Real devotion to Christ shines through in every line. The words are simple but the thoughts are deep. And within the song is a hauntingly simple piano tune.
 

     After absorbing the lyrics of Tomlin’s songs, I discovered that we would be in Miami in February at the time of the very first concert of his “Love Ran Red” tour. Six of us got tickets online, assembled at the Red Roof Inn across from the airport, and taxied over to the 8000 seat arena of the University of Florida for our concert. His introductory song was “How Great Is Our God” and it just got better!
 

     I’ve often thought how wonderful it would be to sit in an audience and hear Philip Bliss, or Daniel Whittle, or Ira Sankey sing their songs. Moving 150 years on, here we were listening to a new poet singing his own new songs!

     Chris Tomlin was born May 4, 1972, in Grand Saline, Texas. He learned the guitar by playing along to Willie Nelson records, but Wikipedia lists his “instruments” as “vocals, guitar, piano”. He “wrote his first worship song at age fourteen. He entered college planning to study physical therapy, but says he felt God’s calling to something else.”
 

     He was a worship leader at various churches and youth conferences but in 1997, Louie Giglio asked him to work “with the Passion Conferences. Tomlin has been in that movement ever since.” He is now based at the Passion City Church, in Atlanta, Georgia. Tomlin married Lauren Bricken in November, 2010, and they now have two daughters. Outside the music industry, Tomlin is on the board of CURE International, providing medical care to children in the developing world.  
 

     A recent newspaper article quotes Tomlin on this album: “I don’t think I can write a bigger song in my life than ‘Almighty’. When I hear that opening melody, and that opening piano, it’s like a glimpse of heaven to me. And yet I don’t think I can write a more intimate song of grace than ‘Jesus Loves Me.” It’s great that they’re both on this record together.”