"Resolving the Tension"

What I love about the hymn we have been singing each week as our opening hymn in worship, “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” is the tension the hymn writer lives in. It reflects perfectly the tension of the Christian life which we all live in.

The first two stanzas of the hymn are songs of praise to God for the work He has carried out in Christ. God is truly our fount of every blessing, our redeemer, and our rescuer. The God who daily pours out his grace upon us.

Then we sing stanza three. This is when the reality of living in a sinful, broken world is clearly seen. “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it / Prone to leave the God I love…”

On Sunday as we studied Ephesians 5  we heard Paul use the image of light and dark to describe the Christian life and its difficulty. We know that the light of Christ overcomes all of our sin, but first that light must expose and convict us of that sin. This is exactly what stanza three of “Come Thou Fount” does for me. It reminds me of the many ways I wander from God despite His faithfulness to me. It reminds me that the One who has rescued us from all danger of sin and death is the one we are constantly wandering from. It shows me the tension of this Christian life.

Really, it reminds me of the entire narrative of the Bible. God longs for relationship with His people. His people wander off. Rinse. Repeat. Ugh. 

This is why the hymn writer spends the final stanza looking ahead to the day when all the tension of this life will be finally resolved. When all that we long for will be ours:  

Oh, that day when freed from sinning, I shall see Thy lovely face; Clothed then in the blood-washed linen, How I’ll sing Thy wondrous grace!

It’s the day when what is ours in part, will be ours in whole. It’s the day when we will be freed forever from sin - in the very presence of God - Clothed forever in Christ and His forgiveness.

For now, we live in the tension. Saints yet sinners. Freed yet captive. Children of the light being pulled back into the darkness. But with the hymn writer we sing in hope of the promise God has made to his people - the promise of “Oh, that day”. That day when the sinner/saint tension will be resolved and freedom and forgiveness will be ours forever!