No eye has seen, no human mind can comprehend
The glorious treasures you have stored for us.
Yet hope is sure for you are risen from the dead
and that same power is transforming us.
One day we’ll see your face
and on that day, we’ll join,
as countless voices shout your praise
You are risen, victorious
You are reigning in majesty
You are risen, so glorious
You are reigning in majesty, in majesty
All heaven waits and all creation holds its breath
to see the freedom of your kingdom come
And we shall rise, no more held captive to decay
as recreated life is born in us.
©2009 Daniel Read
The firm hope, expressed throughout the New Testament, is this: that what happened to Jesus on that first Easter morning is what God will do, one day, for all of creation, ourselves included. You might call it New Creation, New Heaven and Earth, the Kingdom of God, the Life of the Age to Come, or Resurrection. You can see the link quite clearly in (for example) 1 Corinthians 15: just as Jesus was raised from the dead, so shall we be.
In fact, it is remarkable just how much resurrection shapes the theology of the New Testament. It infuses almost everything, both as metaphor (you have died to your old self and been raised to new life in Christ) and as giving the concrete ground, and shape, of our future hope. There is nothing which compares to the form, and the uniformity, of this belief, neither in pre-Christian Judaism nor in the surrounding culture of the time. It truly begs the question (the historical question): what events might give rise to this particular shape of belief? How did this worldview emerge, and why is it so uniform across all early Christianity known to us?
Given that this hope of New Creation is so clear in the new Testament, it is also (sadly) remarkable that it is so often assumed, even amongst Christians, that our hope is to escape this Earth and to go to Heaven when we die. But, that is not a description of death defeated: it is just death, with a silver lining. Jesus’ resurrection means so, so much more.
Perhaps this is why the resurrection is so often absent from our songs: we don’t know what to do with it. There are so many more songs which focus on the cross, with perhaps only a brief mention of resurrection. There are many other songs that simply reinforce the idea that we just go to heaven when we die. What I think is this: we simply don’t have a commonly accepted language to describe resurrection and new creation in our songs. The words used in the Bible for these things simply do not occur to our songwriters: I am afraid to say we songwriters are lazy, and so often just recycle the words, phrases and images from other songs.
I think this is one reason why this song, especially the second verse, jars a little. They are not our usual lyrics, even if they are more or less straight out of Romans 8. They are alien words from a different world, or perhaps more accurately, a new Earth.
Our vicar described this song as “Tom Wright theology, set to music”. Well, all I can say is, I try my best! The recording below is taken live off our church sound desk, which is one reason why the balance is a little off (in our small church, the guitar amplifiers add to the overall sound!).
Occasional Read 