Within the world of church music lies a specific style known as Sacred Harp music. Sacred Harp music is a form of hymn-singing that is a capella and relies on shape notes. A few years ago, I fell in love with a Sacred Harp hymn known as Antioch 277. The chorus rings out: “Shout on, pray on, we’re gaining ground. Glory, Hallelujah! The dead’s alive and the lost is found. Glory, Hallelujah!”
“Shout on, pray on, we’re gaining ground. Glory, Hallelujah! The dead’s alive and the lost is found. Glory, Hallelujah!”
Antioch 277
On the surface, the idea of gaining ground seems foreign, if not wrong, to many Christians in the 21st century. After all, isn’t the culture and the world around us snowballing downhill, face-first into greater and greater depravity? Is not the moral compass of our current culture more confused than ever on things like the sanctity of life, sexual ethics, recreational drug use, and social justice? The clear manifestation of the sins of the world leaves many Christians wondering in what sense we are “gaining ground.”
Yet, Scripture is clear in telling us that we are gaining ground in undeniable ways. In Colossians 1, the apostle Paul writes to the Colossian church, rejoicing with thanksgiving that the Gospel had come to them “as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing.” (Col. 1:6) Furthermore, Paul says that even amongst the Colossian church, he prays that the Gospel would bear the fruit of sanctification and increase the believers’ knowledge of God. At the very moment when Paul wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that the Gospel was gaining ground, he was imprisoned in Rome, the city of Colosse was in economic decline, and dangerous heresy was running amok. This setting hardly sounds like gaining ground. And yet, Paul tells us that even then, and even now, the Gospel is gaining ground.
This passage reveals two distinct ways that the Gospel is gaining ground. The first is the literal spread of the Gospel and more and more people coming to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ by the grace of God. Right now, throughout the world, the Gospel is going forward through the faithful and sacrificial work of Bible preaching missionaries and pastors. As R.A. Torrey notes, the verse is not talking about more Bibles being printed. Rather, Paul is saying that throughout the world, the truth of the Gospel is being believed by God’s grace and people are being “delivered from the domain of darkness and transferred” into the Kingdom of God. (Col. 1:13)
It is so easy for us to get trapped in only thinking about our area, our political landscape, our country, and our view of the world, which can easily color our thinking about the advance of the Gospel in a negative way. Growing up in South Alabama, in the politically conservative Bible Belt, I was truly and sincerely shocked to find out that there were actually Christians in California when I got older. Much less in places like China, Syria, and Chile, and the Congo. Yet, throughout the world, whether I believed it or not, faithful brothers and sisters were preaching the Gospel and the Gospel was bearing fruit and increasing by the grace of God. We need to shift from a self-centric viewpoint that only sees what is right in front of us to a church-centric viewpoint that views the world through the lens of the church universal. In other words, we should not only think about the advance of the Gospel and the fruit of that advance in terms of our life, or even our local church, but we should see that what God is doing is bigger than just us. God is moving all over the world, calling His people to salvation, and sanctifying His people to greater holiness. So, when we are tempted to be discouraged that we may be in a drier season in terms of fruit in our personal life or in our local church’s ministry, we should remember that God is working all over the world. We should speak with our mission partners and hear their stories. We should remember that God is accomplishing His perfect plan, and that not even the gates of hell can prevail against His church.
How do we respond to this glorious truth? We shout on and we pray on. We rejoice in the work that God is doing. We rejoice in the work of faithful churches, missionaries, and missions sending agencies. We rejoice that God is not still, sleeping, or slumbering. We pray for the work to be done, that God would raise up faithful missionaries, break the hearts of the lost, and draw people unto Himself. Additionally, we pray that our own personal efforts in sharing the Gospel would be effective.
However, the passage has more to tell us. The second way that we are gaining ground is in terms of the sanctification of believers in Christ. If we are truly saved by the grace of God, we are being sanctified by the grace of God. In other words, all true believers are gaining ground in their pursuit of holiness by God’s grace. Paul clearly states that the Gospel has continued to bear fruit in the Colossian church from the moment they “heard and understood the grace of God in truth.” (Col. 1:6) Paul continues by praying for the Colossian church that they would be sanctified. In Colossians 1:9-12, Paul outlines key areas where he is praying for their sanctification. He prays that the church would bear fruit, increase in the knowledge of God, be strengthened for endurance and patience, and be thankful for the grace of God to them.
In the same way, we can rejoice that God is sanctifying us, as true believers, as well. Just as the Colossian believers were growing in grace from the moment they heard and believed the Gospel, so too are we who believe today. Therefore, each day, as we press on in the Christian life, we are gaining ground. As John Newton, the former slave ship captain and author of Amazing Grace, once wrote: “I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am.”
“I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am.”
John Newton
Newton rejoiced that he was no longer the callous slave ship captain and rested in the amazing grace that saved such a wretch as him. Newton realized that though he still failed, he had gained ground by God’s grace. While our story is likely different from Newton’s, we too have gained ground from when we first believed. We are not where we want to be or where we will be when we enter eternity, but we are not where we were and that deserves rejoicing and prayer. Shout on. Rejoice in the work that God has done in your life. Pray on. Pray that God would draw you ever nearer to Him and that He would shape you into greater holiness.
These are two undeniable ways that Christians are gaining ground. God is adding to our number daily through the advance of the Gospel by His Grace. God is sanctifying us day by day by His Grace. In both cases, we can and must say, “Glory, Hallelujah!” I am not arguing for some pie in the sky optimism. But I am arguing for Gospel rejoicing over the fact that God’s Word is accomplishing its purpose, that dead hearts are raised to life by the grace of God, and that we are growing in grace. We must always keep perspective by seeing the big picture of God’s work throughout the world. So, shout on, pray on. We are gaining ground. Glory, Hallelujah!
Colt Hudson 