Worship Song Highlight: "It Was Finished Upon That Cross"

This year our church is going to be singing “It Was Finished Upon That Cross” by CityAlight as our theme song for the Easter season. CityAlight is a music ministry based out of a local Anglican church in Australia, St. Paul’s Castle Hill. Ever since CityAlight came across my radar as a worship leader around 2017/2018, I have nicknamed them “Hillsong meets the Gettys.”

            CityAlight sounds similar to Hillsong United or Hillsong Worship in its instrumentation and pop vocal styling. The singers all sound youthful, and their production quality is very similar to Hillsong. Yet there is a definite difference between a CityAlight song and a Hillsong song. CityAlight has a very focused mission of writing simple, congregational melodies that are married with biblically rich lyrics. You may categorize their songs as modern hymns, along the lines of Keith and Kristyn Getty, Matt Papa, Matt Boswell, and Stuart Townend. Lyrically, their songs have a greater depth and tend to be structured like hymns, whereas modern praise and worship songs do not always have lyrics with as great a depth and often utilize the verse/chorus/bridge form.

            CityAlight is most well known for their hymn “Yet Not I But Through Christ in Me,” which has risen to number 46 in the CCLI Top 100 as of Spring 2022. “It Was Finished Upon That Cross” was a single they wrote and released in 2021.

I already loved this song and was considering using it at our church. Then we started a sermon series through the book of Leviticus in Fall 2021, and I made up my mind that we had to introduce it for Easter 2022! Leviticus points us repeatedly to the need for sacrifice to atone for sins. We learn from Hebrews 9:26 that Jesus “appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” In fact, Hebrews uses that phrase “once for all” four times. The New Testament teaches us that Jesus’s death on the cross was the final sacrifice that fully satisfied God’s wrath and completely accomplished our forgiveness and redemption.

Repeatedly throughout the gospel of John, Jesus says his hour has not come, referring to his time to die on the cross. Then, when his hour finally does come and the moment all of history has been waiting for occurs, as Jesus dies, he breathes his last words: “It is finished” (“Tetelestai”) (John 19:30).

Jonny Robinson, Nigel Hendross, and Rich Thompson of CityAlight used the phrase “It Was Finished Upon That Cross,” as the theme and final line of stanzas 1, 2, and 4 of the hymn. The hymn is an incredible meditation on what Christ accomplished and given to us through his finished work at the cross.

The first stanza states that the sun “had ceased its shining,” referencing Matthew 27:45, which testifies the sky was dark for three hours. The sun ceasing its shining is also a metaphor for darkness seeming to win the victory. Yet in actuality, “Christ had triumphed over evil,” as Paul tells us in Colossians 2:14-15.  The second stanza declares the good news that “The curse it has been broken,” and “Jesus paid the price for me.” I love the line “Boldly I approach my Father,” which is drawn from Hebrews 4:16 and is also a significant line in the classic Wesley hymn “And Can It Be?” We no longer have guilt to carry, but rather, we are clothed in Jesus’ righteousness (Romans 3:22, 1 Corinthians 1:30, Philippians 3:9).

The third stanza is a half-stanza that takes the song from the cross to the resurrection. For this reason, this is a superb song to sing throughout Lent, Holy Week, for a Good Friday service, and also Easter Sunday! Finally, after a full last stanza, the song finishes with an ending which mirrors the music of the second half of the full stanzas. I appreciate some of the lovely poetic devices used in the fourth stanza. The writers use alliteration in the line, “Free to live and free to love.” They also use contrast/irony in the beautiful lyric, “Death is dead and Christ is risen.”

As many great hymns of the faith do, this one ends by looking forward to eternity:

“Onward to eternal glory,

To my Saviour and my God,

I rejoice in Jesus’ victory,

It was finished upon that Cross.”

            I am beyond excited that our church is singing this song during the weeks leading up to Easter and then in the joyful “Eastertide” season afterwards. You can read a great article where Tim Challies interviews two of the CityAlight writers here: https://www.challies.com/interviews/get-to-know-cityalight-and-their-new-album/

You can find resources here: https://www.cityalight.com/it-was-finished-upon-that-cross/

And listen to “It Was Finished Upon That Cross” here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7_7OfLEyAo