“In Christ Alone”: the 2001 hymn by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend

Keith Getty wrote the melody first, a gentle tune with an Irish lilt. He sent it to Stuart Townend, who wrote words that told the whole story of the gospel in four verses. “In Christ Alone”, released in 2001, became one of the most sung hymns of the twenty-first century, heard in cathedrals, megachurches, school assemblies and funerals.

The writers and a modern hymn

Keith Getty is a composer from Northern Ireland. Stuart Townend is an English worship leader and songwriter, known for songs such as “How Deep the Father’s Love for Us”. Their collaboration started a modern hymn-writing partnership. At a time when many churches were moving from hymns to short worship choruses, Getty and Townend set out to write songs that carried more theology, with several verses that told a story, like traditional hymns.

Incarnation, cross and security

The opening verse presents Christ as the believer’s hope, light and strength, and as a cornerstone that holds firm through drought and storm. It sets the tone of quiet confidence that runs through the whole hymn.

The second verse moves from the birth of Jesus, God appearing as a helpless baby, to his death on the cross. The third verse turns to the resurrection, picturing Christ rising from the grave in triumph. The final verse speaks of assurance. Because of Christ, the singer has no guilt in life and no fear in death, and is held secure until Christ returns or calls them home.

A controversy and its popularity

One line in the second verse speaks of God’s wrath being satisfied at the cross. In 2013, a hymnal committee of the Presbyterian Church (USA) wanted to change it to a line about God’s love. The writers declined, and the committee left the hymn out of its hymnal. The episode sparked a wide debate about how churches understand the atonement.

The hymn regularly ranks among the most sung songs in churches in the United Kingdom and United States, according to licensing data. It has been recorded by many artists.

In African churches and the Getty hymns

Choirs and worship teams in Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa sing the hymn, especially at Easter and funerals. Its clear teaching makes it popular with churches of different traditions. Keith and his wife Kristyn Getty went on to write many more modern hymns, including “The Power of the Cross” and “Speak O Lord”, and they lead a large annual hymn-singing conference.

Getty and Townend set out to write a hymn that would teach as well as move. Two decades later, congregations who have never heard their names can sing all four verses from memory.