Hymn #569 in Celebrating Grace Hymnal — “In Christ Alone”
[pullquote_center width=”75%”]In Christ alone my hope is found;
He is my light, my strength, my song.
This cornerstone, this solid ground,
firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace when fears are stilled, when strivings cease.
My Comforter, my all in all, here in the love of Christ I stand.[/pullquote_center]
In about 1834, Edward Mote wrote this familiar refrain: “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name. On Christ the solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.” A century and a half later, Stuart Townsend and Keith Getty voiced these thoughts that echo those of Mote. The truth in the text shines through—there is one rock, one foundation, one source. Hopes placed on anything else—person, institution, tangential belief—are misplaced. Nothing else, no one else, can be the Rock in our lives. And, as much as we try, we cannot be the Rock in our lives. It is too much to ask or expect of any other than Jesus.
In Christ alone…