Todd Agnew Talks About the Story Behind his New Song "Glory to Our Great Redeemer"

After a five year hiatus from recording, CCM singer and songwriter Todd Agnew is set to release his "best of" collection, From Grace to Glory, this spring.The album chronicles both the highlights and hidden moments of the past 15 years of music ministry. 

Perhaps best known for his million-selling worship single, "Grace Like Rain," Todd has spent the last few years becoming a teacher (Visible Music College), a student (Dallas Theological Seminary), a husband, and step-father to two teenage kids.  And yet, Todd is still at heart an artist called by God to share his musical talents with audiences everywhere that together they might have an authentic encounter with the One who created and redeemed them. 

The centerpieces of Todd's new project are "Glory to Our Great Redeemer," a new worship song, and "Nearer Home," a new song composed with "Grace Like Rain" co-writer Chris Collins.  In reflecting about his new song "Glory to Our Great Redeemer," he says:

"Years ago, I read a book that asked why we use so many metaphors for what happened at the cross. We say that sins were forgiven, covered, pardoned, that Christ was a lamb, a sacrifice, a substitution, that we were redeemed, rescued, ransomed. The author asked which one of these was actually correct and why do we continue to use the rest of them. It has bothered me ever since.

I started writing a song a couple of years ago, and the first four lines went:

Glory to our great redeemer
Spotless Lamb for sinners slain
My pardon purchased, my ransom paid
Glory, glory to His name

Oh no! I used four different metaphors just in the beginning of this song! And it paralyzed me. I have put so much emphasis on correct theology that I didn't want to write something that was wrong. So I put the song on the backburner and left it there.

To catch you up on my life a bit, I have been pursuing a Master's at Dallas Theological Seminary. In my time there, I took a class on soteriology with Dr. Scott Horrell. In an assignment, Dr. Horrell led us through many different biblical passages explaining what happened at the cross. It turns out we use all those metaphors because they're all in the Bible!

The more I thought about it, the more sense it made. One simple human metaphor would not be able to describe God's plan to redeem all of mankind. So instead God painted a beautiful picture, each metaphor another brushstroke helping understand what He has done for us. He is all of these things to us, doing all these things for us, remaking us in all of these ways."

Here's where you can find the song: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/from-grace-to-glory-the-music-of-todd-agnew/id1220606838. 

 

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