I have been associated with educational institutions long enough to know that “official” statements often paper over the real issues that would otherwise make the institution look bad to the general public or donors. This appears to be one such case. Although the official statement would lead most readers to think that the song was not censored for promoting the view of “the cross as satisfying God’s wrath,” the facts appear to be otherwise. I say that not just because of a vague hunch but rather for three solid reasons.

Initially, the hymnal committee was in favor of the song’s inclusion in the new PCUSA hymnal. However, that was when they had an unauthorized version before them that had replaced the original words “the wrath of God was satisfied” with “the love of God was magnified.” They subsequently discovered that the writers of the song, Stuart Townend and Keith Getty, had not approved the change previously and would not consent to it now.

Apparently, though these songwriters were all for God’s love, they didn’t like the implication that they had committed some sort of theological heresy in writing the original lyrics. (Note that Townend wrote a song in 1995 called “How Deep the Father’s Love for Us.”) Probably too (I’m just guessing here) they felt that they had already covered the theme of God’s love with the stanza:

In Christ alone, who took on flesh,

Fullness of God in helpless babe!

This gift of love and righteousness,

Scorned by the ones He came to save.

Obviously these words are expressing the fact that Christ is God’s “gift of love” to the world, the “fullness of God in helpless babe … scorned by the ones He came to save.” As the “fullness of God” Christ is clearly not playing the Good Cop role in relation to God the Bad Cop. Rather, by dying for us He is clearly carrying out God’s will. There is also another allusion to divine love in the previous stanza (“What heights of love, what depths of peace”) but since the stanza ends with “Here in the love of Christ I stand” it may be Christ’s love that is meant. Even if that were the case, since the song then describes Christ as the “fullness of God,” Christ’s love is obviously at the same time God’s love.

So it is clear that the songwriters for “In Christ Alone” are not denying God’s love. They affirm it in the song. Yet they are also right to speak about how Christ’s death fulfills the demands of God’s justice/wrath and the relief that it is for us to realize that we will not be recipients of that wrath. Not that God wants to destroy us: At the greatest personal cost God has done everything to prevent that from happening short of obliterating our decision to say yes or no. But God has also told us in Scripture that we face His wrath if we don’t take the way out that He offered to us in Christ. It is the only way that could be offered; otherwise God surely would have found another way of saving us than having His own Son undergo an excruciating and shameful death on our behalf.

So the committee was left with the option of taking the song with the words “wrath … satisfied” as opposed to “love … magnified” or not taking it at all. The official communication by the hymnal committee flatly denies that the song was rejected over the theme of satisfying God’s wrath:

Some have argued that this decision reflects a defective theology or unwillingness to reckon with the judgment of God. But the absence of one text, however popular, should not be construed as a failure to address this theological theme. Scripture speaks in a variety of ways about what happened in Christ’s death, and a model of atonement that understands the cross as satisfying God’s wrath and saving us through the blood of Christ is already richly presented in this collection. For instance, “Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me” and “Judge Eternal, Throned in Splendor,” beloved hymns from the 1955 Presbyterian Hymnbook, are both included in [our hymnal] Glory to God, as is “Lamb of God” by Twila Paris from the contemporary praise and worship canon, and a praise hymn from Korea that speaks powerfully of how Jesus “with His blood has washed and healed me / paid the heavy cost.” (my emphasis)

I have been associated with educational institutions long enough to know that “official” statements often paper over the real issues that would otherwise make the institution look bad to the general public or donors. This appears to be one such case. Although the official statement would lead most readers to think that the song was not censored for promoting the view of “the cross as satisfying God’s wrath,” the facts appear to be otherwise. I say that not just because of a vague hunch but rather for three solid reasons.

First, the songs cited in the official communication as also speaking of “satisfying God’s wrath” do not in fact do so. The hymn “Judge Eternal, Throned in Splendor” doesn’t even refer to Christ’s atoning death. Twila Paris’s delightful song, “Lamb of God” [Editor’s note: the original URL (link) referenced is no longer valid, so the link has been removed.] says “O wash me in His precious blood” and mentions God’s love but nowhere refers to God’s wrath, let alone Christ’s death as satisfying that wrath. The unnamed praise hymn from Korea says that Christ’s blood “paid the heavy cost” but doesn’t say to whom or in compensation for what. Even the old standard, “Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me,” though it says that Christ’s blood will “save from wrath,” doesn’t say anything explicit about Christ’s death satisfying (i.e. fulfilling the demand of) God’s wrath. Readers without a theological background may think that this is nitpicky. Yet there are many Christians, both liberal and Orthodox (including many who hold an exclusive “Christus Victor” model), who would emphatically deny that these themes imply that God’s wrath or judgment was satisfied by Christ’s death.

Second, the committee’s own actions underscore that the rejection of “In Christ Alone” was due to the theme of the satisfaction of God’s wrath. The committee was fine with accepting the song when it thought the song read “the love of God was magnified.” Yet when the committee discovered that the original read “the wrath of God was satisfied” and could not be changed, a majority rejected the song. Because of two words, “wrath … satisfied,” and really the one word “satisfied” in connection with God’s wrath, nine committee members stumbled over the stumbling stone that the demands of God’s wrath are “satisfied” by Christ’s death.

Third, the official statement is at odds with statements made by the committee’s own chair, Prof. Dr. Mary Louise (Mel) Bringle. What makes the claim of the official statement really bizarre is that, just before assuring readers that the view of “the cross as satisfying God’s wrath … is already richly presented in this collection,” the official statement itself declares: “For a more detailed and nuanced account, see hymnal committee chair Prof. Mary Louise Bringle’s Christian Century article “Debating Hymns.” Yet Bringle appears to contradict the official denial. Bringle states emphatically:

Arguments [for rejecting the hymn] … pointed out that a hymnal does not simply collect diverse views, but also selects to emphasize some over others as part of its mission to form the faith of coming generations; it would do a disservice to this educational mission, the argument ran, to perpetuate by way of a new (second) text theview that the cross is primarily about God’s need to assuage God’s anger. (my emphasis)

Here Bringle is quite clear that the majority of the committee rejected the hymn on the theological grounds that “it would do a disservice” to the committee’s “educational mission” to “form the faith of the coming generations” if they accepted a hymn with the words “the wrath of God was satisfied” because it would “perpetuate … the view that the cross is primarily about God’s need to assuage God’s anger.” That’s quite a strong statement. Themajority saw it as their mission to educate out of Presbyterians the notion that God’s wrath is satisfied by Christ’s death.

You will note that Bringle uses the adverb “primarily.” We should not “perpetuate the view that the cross isprimarily God’s need to assuage God’s anger,” meaning, if we are to take the adverb seriously, that the cross ispartly about assuaging God’s anger. The adverb is not to be taken seriously. For had it been taken seriously by the committee majority, the majority could not have voted down the hymn on the basis of one or two words that, while not representing the totality of truth (what does?), nonetheless are true enough. The word “primarily” provides some cover for the majority who otherwise could be charged with rejecting wholesale a distinctive element of Reformed theology.

We can’t simply attribute to Bringle bad memory here in recounting the reasons for the vote of the majority. The reason is not just because the official statement itself commends her “more detailed and nuanced account.” It is also because she states that at the time this hymn was discussed the committee was no longer meeting so “our discussions had to occur through e-mail.” “The final arguments for and against its inclusion are preserved in writing.”

So while the official committee statement gives the impression that the satisfaction theory had nothing to do with committee’s rejection, it refers readers to the chair’s account that states otherwise. Sounds like inept doublespeak. It would be easy enough for the committee to show that there was no theological animus behind its decision, were that the case, simply by publishing the pertinent emails (minus names). I’m not holding my breath for that.

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[Editor’s note: One or more original URLs (links) referenced in this article are no longer valid; those links have been removed.]