Singing is vital to healthy church life. If this were not so, significant portions of Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3 would have to be tampered with. Through singing, we guard gospel centrality corporately. We agree that it is good to be filled with the Spirit, to communicate truth to one another through the means of melody, to strengthen each other away from error, and to urge one another to send thanksgivings heavenward. When the Spirit moved the apostle Paul to address our singing, He would have nothing but hearts arrested in wonder at our triune God.
Apart from Paul, no one has been as influential in directing my attention to these requirements as Isaac Watts. A recent perusal of some of Watts' lesser-known hymns left me struck by his use of the term inimitable. Everyday vernacular doesn't have room for such a word—at least not where most people call home. But it's a good word, an important word. Consider these synonyms, and you'll see how fitting such a word is for describing the Lord Jesus Christ: incomparable, matchless, beautiful, extraordinary, exceptional, unique, excellent, unparalleled, unrivaled, wonderful, awesome, lovely, great, superior, better... The author of Hebrews helps us understand the Son's supremacy:
Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
Hebrews 1:1-4, ESV
With these things in mind, let's have our hearts stirred to worship the risen Christ with greater intensity and intentionality. Let's wipe off Watts' dusty papers and be reminded of how inimitable our Lord is!
"Christ's Humiliation, Exaltation, and Triumph"
The mighty frame of glorious grace
That brightest monument of praise
That e'er the God of love designed
Employs and fills my lab'ring mind
Begin, my soul, the heavenly song
A burden for an angel's tongue
When Gabriel sounds these awful things
He tunes and summons all his stungs (that is, a short musical phrase)
Proclaim INIMITABLE love
Jesus, the Lord of worlds above
Puts off the beams of bright array
And veils the God in mortal clay
What black reproach defiled his name
When with our sins he took our shame
He whom adoring angels blessed
Is made the impious rebel's jest
He that distributes crowns and thrones
Hangs on a tree, and bleeds, and groans
The Prince of Life resigns his breath
The King of Glory bows to death
But see the wonders of his power
He triumphs in his dying hour
And while by Satan's rage he fell
He dashed the rising hopes of hell
Thus were the hosts of death subdued
And sin was drowned in Jesus' blood
Thus he arose and reigns above
And conquers sinners by his love
Who shall fulfill this boundless song?
The theme surmounts an angel's tongue
How low, how vain are mortal airs
When Gabriel's nobler harp despairs
"The Inward Witness to Christianity"
Questions and doubts be heard no more
Let Christ and joy be all our theme
His Spirit seals his gospel sure
To every soul that trusts in him
Jesus, thy witness speaks within
Thy mercy which thy words reveal
Refines the heart from sense and sin
And stamps its own celestial seal
'Tis God's INIMITABLE hand
That molds and forms the heart anew
Blasphemers can no more withstand
But bow and own thy doctrine true
The guilty wretch that trusts thy blood
Finds peace and pardon at the cross
The sinful soul, averse to God
Believes and loves his Maker's laws
Learning and wit may cease their strife
When miracles with glory shine
The voice that calls the dead to life
Must be almighty and divine
Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.
Hebrews 3:12-14
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