In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the focus of hymn writers was on the person of Jesus and his death for us on the Cross. Example: “See, from his head, his hands, his feet: sorrow and love flow mingled down; did e’er such love and fellowship meet, or thorns compose so rich a crown?”
Christians in general were fascinated with Christ’s Sacrifice and Redemption. Then, along with the advent of radio and television came such events as the Billy Graham crusades and the influence of psychology and its exploration of the “self” — long before the self-hypnotic “selfie”. The emphasis then moved from who Jesus was to who we are through him.
In the 1970s we sang, “I’m a new creation, I’m a brand new man; old things have passed away, I’ve been born again; more than a conqueror, that’s who I am; I’m a new creation, I’m a brand new man!” True, but we need to remember that the I AMs of Who, What and Where we are in heavenly places are due entirely to the physical sufferings and horrific death of Jesus on our behalf.
I love Paul’s Epistles, and I have special devotion for Matthew, Mark and Luke’s narratives, and I return time and again to the profound insights in the Gospel of John. I wish that the emphasis underlying today’s worship was less self-oriented and more Christ-centered in some churches. The pendulum will find its balance between the two, and I pray that it will do so soon in corporate worship.
The inclination toward self has the effect of drawing us away from the centrality of the Cross and Redemption. I teach that the Gospels show us how to walk in the Lord’s footsteps; the Acts of the Apostles encourage us to walk in his shoes; and the Epistles reveals how he walks in our shoes. Changes of emphasis take place in our walk with the Lord. Seasonal changes are welcome and necessary in the Christian life.
We are not to conform to the world system but instead be transformed into the image of Christ. Two caterpillars look up at a butterfly fluttering overhead, and one turns to the other and says: “You’ll never see me up in one of those things!” I wait with great expectation to rise to meet the Lord at his coming, because I can’t wait to get up there in a resurrection body; and while waiting do all I can to avoid a grub’s life. Butterflies is such a misnomer! Why were they not called Flutterbys?