Oh How Good is Christ the Lord!

There’s a neat little song tucked away in our Baptist Hymnal I remember singing a couple of times throughout my ministry. Because it lacked the quality of the church’s great hymns, it never endured as one of the church’s great statements of faith. And because it was pretty much a chorus song, it got washed away in the flood of praise and chorus music that hit the church in the late 90s. But its simple truths and simple melody grab my mind every now and then. Its melody has a Puerto Rican flair to it and says:

Oh how good is Christ the Lord
On the cross He died for me.
He has pardoned all my sin,
Glory be to Jesus!

Glory be to Jesus!
Glory be to Jesus!
In three days He rose again!
Glory be to Jesus!

He pardoned my sins because He died on the cross.
Pardon was exactly what King Saul was begging from Samuel (1 Sam. 15:25). But he was begging it from the wrong one which showed the true condition of his unrepentant heart. Saul wanted pardon without repentance and he saw his sin more as an offense against Samuel than as an offense against God. This is what is so remarkable about God. The very one who has been offended is the very one who pays the price of forgiveness. Christ’s death bought our forgiveness… “we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins” (Col. 1:14) and we have “peace through the blood of His cross” (Col. 1:20).

He died on the cross because He is good.
This goes to His motive. David said to give thanks to the Lord “for He is good” (Psa 107:1). It is God’s goodness, not man’s that is to be praised. There is no one who seeks after God (Rom 3:10); we have all gone astray and pursuing our own pleasures (Isa. 53:6). Still, while we were sinners, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8). Is it any wonder I was taught to sing in my preschool Sunday School class: “God is so good! God is so good! God is so good! He’s so good to me!”

Glory be to Jesus!