Gateway Family,
We're excited to introduce a new song this Sunday! After last year's worship conference, our team discussed how we could use our gifts to serve our local church here at Gateway, and songwriting was one of the ideas. I believe God has truly gifted Stephen as a songwriter, and we'll be adding more of his songs to our Sunday morning rotation over the next few months.
We hope these songs, echoing the truth of Scripture, will bring you encouragement, rest, and comfort. Lord willing, we'll one day be able to bless the global church with them too.
Please take some time to read Stephen's story and the heart behind this song, "My Only Hope is Jesus Christ," and then take a few minutes to listen to it.
To help you learn it, you may listen to it below:
"My Only Hope Is Jesus Christ" - YouTube
(Note - Those services may show ads and song recommendations outside of our control)
REFLECTIONS ON "MY ONLY HOPE IS JESUS CHRIST"
Stephen Bray
Gateway Family,
The most important battle you’re facing today is not with your boss, your family, your health, or your schedule. It is the daily struggle to trust the promises of the gospel when your circumstances seem to testify otherwise. This battle against the flesh does not occur once and then pass away; it is a lifelong war we fight until our final breath. Our endurance in this fight is the true measure of faithfulness. As Paul writes, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7), and as the writer of Hebrews declares “you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised” (Hebrews 10:36).
No doubt you already know this, but we are so prone to forget, aren’t we?
I wrote the song “My Only Hope is Jesus Christ” during one of the most difficult seasons of my life. Outwardly, I wore the familiar resolve many of us bring to a Sunday morning. Inwardly, I was fighting each day to believe that God was still truly good, not just good in theory or good to others, but good to me personally, in that moment, under the weight of overwhelming providence. I wanted to say with the psalmist, “I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living” (Psalm 27:13), and with Paul, “we know that for those who love God all things work together for good” (Romans 8:28), but the truth is I felt abandoned.
Rather than heed the wisdom of Proverbs 3:5–6, I chose to rely on my own limited understanding instead of trusting fully in the Lord’s wisdom. As my thoughts turned inward, I began to dwell more on what I lacked than on the grace I had already received (Philippians 4:11–13), and my heart grew resentful. I began to wonder if I was more like Esau than Jacob, like clay formed by the Potter for judgment rather than mercy (Romans 9:21–24). My theology had not changed, but my confidence in God’s goodness was deeply shaken. At my lowest point, I prayed words marked by foolishness and sin: “Lord, if this is all You have for me, if this is truly Your purpose, then let me just die and be with You now.”
Never before do I recall feeling such self-pity. Like Jonah, I had grumbled to the point of preferring death over trust-filled obedience to God’s sovereign plan (Jonah 4:3). I had spoken words to the Creator that no creature has the right to speak, as I challenged the hand that formed me (Romans 9:20; Job 40:1–4).
Yet God, in His extraordinary mercy, gently answered my sinful despair by bringing to mind the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19–31). If you recall, the rich man lived in ease, while Lazarus suffered daily at his gate. But in death, everything was reversed. Lazarus was carried to Abraham’s side, and the rich man found himself in torment: cut off, unrelieved, and without hope. He pleaded for mercy, and it was denied. He begged for a warning to be sent to his family, and that too was denied with these sobering words: “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.”
As I reflected on the rich man’s anguish and his desperate longing for his family to be warned, I was gripped by the weight of that final sentence. In that moment, I felt the crushing weight of God’s law as the Lord brought to mind all that I already knew: all that He had revealed in His Word and accomplished for me in Christ. My unbelief began to unravel. In kindness, the Spirit both convicted and comforted me, lifting my eyes once more to the cross of Christ. Such is the power of the gospel. Thanks be to God!
The following day, the truth of the gospel was clear to me once again. I felt renewed. And as I do most days, I began to write down what I was thinking. In my notes, I wrote what would later become the central theme of this new song: “Look to the suffering of the cross and listen to the despair of the grave-for they both declare that Christ is your only hope!”
I confess this to you, brothers and sisters, because my experience is a common one. I am not the hero in my story, and neither are you. As believers in Christ on this side of heaven, we are often walking contradictions. We are like David, declaring with confidence, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil” (Psalm 23:4), and yet in another breath crying out, “Has His steadfast love forever ceased?” (Psalm 77:8). We are like Peter, bold enough to step out of the boat in faith, then afraid and sinking when the wind begins to blow (Matthew 14:28–30). Life in the “already but not yet” is a daily battle. And though the war has been decisively won in Christ, it is here in the tension of this present age that we must fight by the power of the Spirit (Romans 8:13).
My prayer in sharing this testimony with you, and for bringing this song before you, is that God would continue to knit our hearts closer together as a church body as we press on with confidence in the hope of the Gospel. I am praying for you, and I’m asking you to pray for me, that God would daily give us grace to apply the truths of the gospel to our lives, no matter the circumstance.
My intent in writing this “My Only Hope is Jesus Christ” was to provide the church with a framework for gospel-centered self-preaching. Each verse encourages us to speak truth to our souls in the very moments we are most prone to give in to doubt and unbelief: when we suffer (verse 1), when we wrestle with guilt (verse 2), and when we face the fear of death (verse 3). In each of these verses, we are reminded of precious gospel truths that God has given to us in Scripture to help us rise above our emotional, often sinful, creaturely responses to difficult circumstances. The chorus teaches us to declare Christ’s sufficiency as our foundation, righteousness, substitute, and living hope (1 Peter 1:3–4; Hebrews 6:19–20). The bridge calls us to stand boldly, assured that because we are united with Christ, we already possess everything we need, including victory over sin, death, and fear (Romans 8:37–39).
MY ONLY HOPE IS JESUS CHRIST
Verse 1: (Psalm 42:5; Hebrews 4:15–16; Psalm 56:8)
O my soul, why do you tremble? Don’t you know your Savior’s near?
He has shared your every sorrow, He has faced your every fear.
Though your days may bring you sadness, And your nights may bring you pain,
He who holds you knows your troubles, He will never look away.
Verse 2: (Romans 3:10–12, 23; Galatians 3:13; Romans 8:1–2; 2 Corinthians 5:21)
O my soul, though you are guilty, With no merit to possess,
He who bore your curse completely clothes you in His righteousness.
When the law reveals your failure, When your sin reveals your shame,
Look to Christ your great Defender, Who now guards you with His grace.
Verse 3: (Psalm 90:12; 1 Corinthians 15:20–23; Romans 8:11; John 6:40)
O my soul, your days are numbered, Soon enough you’ll fall asleep,
He who died now lives forever, He will raise you from the deep.
Though the grave draws ever nearer, Jesus Christ is nearer still,
He will bring you home to glory, By the power of His will.
Chorus: (Acts 4:12; 1 Corinthians 3:11; Romans 5:8; 1 Corinthians 15:55–57)
No other ground, no other plea, No other Savior died for me,
The cross declares, the grave replies My only hope is Jesus Christ!
Bridge: (Romans 8:31–39; Philippians 1:21; Galatians 2:20)
Though trials come, I will not falter. Though sin accuse, I will not flee.
Though death be sure, I will not tremble. For my strength is Christ in me.