Remembering Jesus’ death is an important part of my church’s worship activities and we do this each week as we take the bread and wine. On one particular occasion, the leader mentioned Jesus dying “in my place” and those words became very real to me as I thought about this further over the coming weeks. Jesus, as a perfect man, was the only person who could become my substitute and die in my place, taking on the full wrath of God’s judgement that my sin deserved. Romans 5:1-2 states: “By faith we have been made acceptable to God. And now, because of our Lord Jesus Christ, we live at peace with God. Christ has also introduced us to God’s undeserved kindness on which we take our stand. So we are happy, as we look forward to sharing in the glory of God.”

The first 2 verses concentrate on what Jesus did for us by dying in our place. What he’s done for each of us should change the way we live our lives and how we show our gratitude to him. The chorus of the song brings out that we should rejoice in the fact we have forgiveness, we are now fully adopted children in God’s family (there are no longer barriers of sin) and that our gratitude should result in freely giving our earthly lives in full service to Jesus as our worship to him. The third verse focuses on the benefits we don’t deserve because of God’s grace.

I completed this song just before Easter 2011 and sung it first with a congregation on Easter Sunday.