Taste the New Testament

Like the beginning of a New Testament letter, Praise Be is the perfect start to the album – it gets our eyes on our great God and Father, who is worthy of our praise. This upbeat song gives glory to the One who has “birthed” us into His kingdom, granting us mercy and living hope through his Son, Jesus Christ, who was raised from the dead! What’s more, a glorious inheritance awaits us – one that will never perish, spoil or fade!

Sharper than a Dagger is a fun, catchy, punk rock tune proclaiming the power of God’s word, the Bible, which has the power to cut deep, convicting us of sin and righteousness and judgement.

Inspired by the early chapters of Colossians, Jesus Christ our Lord is a catechism-style anthem proclaiming the one who is at the centre of our faith, the centre of the Bible, and the centre of this album. Have a read of Colossians 1:27 to 2:5 and see how many of the references you can spot!

Where’s it from?? That’s right – Colossians 2:6-7.

So Then! is a fun, 12-bar blues memory verse that teaches us a very important lesson.  As wonderful as it is to be saved and to receive Christ Jesus as Lord, it doesn't end there...

We must continue to live for Jesus, being built up in Him, growing in faith and overflowing with thankfulness to God.

“Redemption” is one of the major themes of the Bible, and one that the Apostle Peter experienced first-hand.  Redemption refers to God’s plan to “buy back” a people for Himself.  All humans are born in slavery to sin… so what does that mean about God’s kingdom?  Who could possibly redeem me and let me in??

In Leviticus, the third book of the Bible, God commands the Israelites to bring sacrifices and offerings to God in order to make them ceremonially clean.  It’s difficult to read, because we don’t like the thought of killing lambs and goats.  But it was God’s way of showing His people how seriously he takes sin.  When we do the wrong thing, or fail to do the right thing, it displeases God and he punishes us, even with death!  And these animals were dying in place of the sinner.

Well, the animal sacrifices were only a shadow of the coming reality.

Jesus himself became the true sacrifice – how much more does his once-for-all sacrifice cleanse us from all our past sins, present sins, even future sins… all washed away by his sacrifice, his blood, his death.

Boast is a fun song.  It’s the only song from the Apostle Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church.

A bit earlier in his letter he explains the Christian message: that Jesus was crucified to save us.  He says that "the world" – that is, people who don’t trust in Jesus – consider the Christian message utter foolishness!

It’s not a message of great intellectual wisdom, nor is it a message about human triumph or power… instead, let everyone who boasts, boast in the Lord!

As humans, we like to earn our way.  We don’t like the feeling of being in debt to someone for something nice they’ve done for us.  We’d rather pay someone for doing us a favour rather than feel like we owe them.

We’re like that with God too!  We’d like to think that the reason we’re a Christian is because we decided to follow Christ – it was my decision to believe the gospel.  But Colossians confronts us with the reality that we are dead in our sins.  Not injured; not sick; not far away from God; but DEAD; spiritually DEAD; no spiritual life at all.  And it was when you were dead that GOD made you alive, through Christ.

Our forgiveness cannot be earned.  It’s completely by God’s mercy!

There’s a strange bit in this song about food and drink, new moon parties and Sabbath days… it’s talking about Old Testament practices that were merely a shadow pointing to a greater reality… and the reality is found in who??  That’s right, the one and only Christ!

Forgiveness is the one song on this album that doesn’t have a direct connection with a Bible passage, but it basically continues the album's message about the death (blood) of Jesus Christ being the way God forgives us, redeems us, washes our sins away, cleanses our guilty consciences and appeases God.

Appease is a strange word – it means to satisfy God’s anger against sinners.  God is just and he is rightly angry with us when we sin.  The Bible says that because of our sinful behaviour, God considers us his enemies!  Ouch!  That’s why we cry out “Oh Lord, my God, what can be done... to make me right with you?”  You are holy and pure; I’m full of sin – I constantly do wrong things.  And there are always opportunities to do good, but I often ignore them and do what is selfish instead…

Have you thought about God’s grace toward you?  It should leave you amazed at God’s kindness, his patience, his mercy…

This is the third song from 1 Peter chapter 1, and confronts us with our human frailty.  In light of eternity (forever!), our lives on earth are like grass which is cut green in the morning and turned brown by nightfall.  Or like a beautiful flower that blooms today and dies tomorrow.  In the words of Rich Mullins, we are not as strong as we think we are.

In contrast, God's word, the Bible, is eternal - it endures forever!  His promises never fail.  Though we grow old and die, His word is as fresh and powerful today as the day He spoke it!  And it will never grow old or perish or fade - which takes us back to the first song... 🙂