He Did It All

Track seven closes Movement II, and it is the gladdest song on the record - a fast train-beat that never lets up, because by now the album has built up a head of steam about what God has done. He did it all, He did it all. Salvation is of the Lord.

The verses run the golden chain of Romans 8, link by link, as a timeline. Before the world was called to be, He set His love, He wrote my name - election. He climbed the hill and paid it all, and called me from the stone - the cross and the effectual call. He counted me as righteous, He holds me by the hand, and He will bring me all the way - justification, perseverance, glory. It gathers up the last three songs and runs them as one unbroken chain.

And the bridge is the payoff of the whole device, and the gladdest thing on the album. I ran back down the line of it, from the glory to the grace, and I could not find a single link that I had set in place. Not the calling, not the cross, not the verdict, not the crown. The singer searches the entire chain of his salvation for one link that was his own contribution, and there is not one. And here is the turn - that is not a disappointment, it is the joy. He did it all - so I lay my glory down. A man with nothing to boast of is the happiest man in the room. Salvation is of the Lord, first word to last.