New, Cross-Centered Stanza of "Holy, Holy, Holy"

"Holy, Holy, Holy" is one of the all-time classic and beloved hymns of English hymnody. And for good reason. It's God-centered and Trinitarian in its theology (it was originally written for Trinity Sunday), and it's majestic musically.

But for some time now, I've felt as if there's been something missing from this classic hymn. There's no stanza that's explicitly Christ-centered and cross-centered. While the cross certainly displays the love and grace and mercy of God, it also displays the holiness of God. And this is a truth that is often overlooked. So why not highlight this truth in a hymn about the holiness of God? We need to be reminded that sin has cost God greatly. At Calvary, God not only unleashed His mercy; He also upheld His holiness - all at the cost of His beloved Son.

So I've written a new stanza to sing with "Holy, Holy, Holy" to try and communicate these truths. I'm sure other hymnwriters could offer a better additional stanza than this one, but here is my attempt to provide a Christ-centered and cross-centered stanza to a classic hymn (we're going to sing it at our church between the original third and fourth stanzas).  

Holy, holy, holy! raise our eyes to Calv'ry,
That we might behold Thy Son condemned upon the tree.
Oh, how sin has cost Thee; oh, Thy grace and mercy!
Christ, fully punished; sinners, fully free!

The Benefit of Biblical Theology

Graeme Goldsworthy, one of the foremost proponents of biblical theology in our day, discusses why biblical theology is so appealing and so important:

The immediate appeal of biblical theology to preachers, teachers and ordinary Christians is that it provides a "big picture" that makes sense out of the bewildering bulk and variety of the biblical literature. It seeks to view the whole scene of God's revelation from the heights - to mount up with eagles' wings and allow God to show us his one mighty plan from creation to new creation.  When the Bible ceases to be a mass of unconnected stories and other bits of writing, and begins to look like a unity that connects the narratives of Israel with those of the four Gospels, that shows up the progression from the creation to the new creation, and that highlights the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the prime focus of the whole Bible, people usually sit up and take notice. If the Bible is indeed the one word of the one God about the one way of salvation through the one Savior, Jesus Christ, it is biblical theology that will reveal this to us.

--Graeme Goldsworthy, Christ-Centered Biblical Theology

Never Moving Beyond the Cross

"We never move on from the cross of Christ - only into a more profound understanding of the cross."

--David Prior, The Message of 1 Corinthians

Luther on the Christological Center of the Scriptures

"He who would read the Bible must simply take heed that he does not err, for the Scripture may permit itself to be stretched and led, but let no one lead it according to his own inclinations but let him lead it to the source, that is, the cross of Christ. Then he will surely strike the center."

--Martin Luther