This page is provided so that you can hear the tunes of items which we use in church. Mostly they are written by the vicar. Please note that they are copyright - we are very happy to give permission to you to use them, but we would like to hear about it. Please include any use on your Christian Copyright Licence returns.
Down this page:
- the words,
- the story,
- the sheet music,
- media player.
How can sinners be set free?
Note: this midi-player is intentionally disabled for copyright reasons.
How can sinners be set free?
How can sinners be set free from their sin?
How can righteousness find entry within?
How can dirty hearts be cleaned, forgiv'n?
How can goodness fight and win?
I know that Christ can take our sin upon the cross.
By his passion Christ can pay for loss.
I'm sure that Christ can enter and meet our deepest need.
So I'm trusting Christ to save indeed.
How can selfishness and pride be cast out?
How can lives be changed when old natures shout?
How can ancient hurts be healed, forgiv'n?
How can sin be put to rout?
I know that Christ can take our sin ...
Good that I would do, I can't: for I find
evil crouching there at work in my mind!
How can I be changed, made fit for heav’n?
Who will come to save mankind?
I know that Christ can take our sin ...
Words copyright © John Hartley 2008.
Suggested tune: "Jesus Christus starb fur mich" - Peter Strauch & Ralf Frank.
Story behind the song
The words of this song came to me after Dave Davis, a friend from Christian Songwriting Organisation, drew our attention to the song "Jesus Christus starb fur mich", which he was wanting to translate. The lyrics of this song, which can be found on Dave's web site at http://www.geocities.com/postadavis/LifeIsNew.html, are essentially a very simple song about the basics of the gospel, and it seemed to some of us that they didn't really do justice to the tune, which can be found at: http://eins.scm-digital.net/show.sxp/shop_noten_vorschau.html?uwe_id=68210&fn=vorschau_68210.pdf.
There were two features of the tune which I thought called for something deeper. The first was the alternating minor / major modes (minor for the verses, major for the chorus), which I felt called for a verse which lamented sin and a chorus which spoke of Christ's victory (a bit like "Christian dost thou see them?" by J M Neale - Hymns Ancient & Modern Revised No. 99). The other factor was the irregular placement of the lines in the chorus which I saw on the you-tube video at:http://scripturn.com/video_H4iIRflxUbY.html - at the time I didn't realize this was a quirk of the pianist's interpretation and not the way the piece had originally been written. I felt this strange rhythm, which felt like the insertion of 3/4 and 5/4 bars, needed lyrics which would use the ascending accompaniment to explain the way the main parts of the tune fell. Hence the 3- and 4-syllable phrases before the main word "Christ" in each line of the chorus.
Readers will notice the influence of Romans 7 in the song. By ourselves we slide, but in Christ we can fight the evil within, and although our bodies are dead because of sin, yet our spirits are alive in Jesus Christ our Lord.
John Hartley.
Note: as I do not know the copyright position for this tune, the sheet music graphic and midi-file are not on display on this web site.
Windows Media Player. When you click the left-hand "play" button your computer should have started to play the tune. If it didn't, you might be able to get the tune by clicking here, or by right-clicking the link, choosing "save target as", saving it onto your computer, and then opening it with a music-playing program.
Please remember that a midi file of a tune isn't supposed to be a state-of-the-art musical arrangement - it is only supposed to give a basic idea of how the tune goes. Any reasonable organist / keyboard player / music group could make it sound far better.