STORY BEHIND THE SONG: Salvation Has Come

"Salvation Has Come" is one of those songs that you don't even remember writing because it comes together so fast.  Most of the time when I start writing a song, it is birthed out of my own private worship time.  Just me, a guitar, and the God of space and time.  It's really absolutely overwhelming whenever you sit down and allow yourself to think about it.  Through Jesus Christ, the Word tells us that we have confidence to BOLDLY approach the supreme holy authority of everything.  That right there is unbelievable.  But it's our reality as believers.  Our amazing, life-changing, inspiration infusing reality.  We are known and know the God of gods, the Lord of lords, the King of kings, through the miracle of salvation in Jesus Christ.  Overwhelmed doesn't even scratch the surface.

So during this particular time as I was singing alone in my room, the phrase "You are my King" began rising in my heart and mind and before I knew it I was singing it repeatedly, with each phrase swelling in intensity. In a moment  I was on my feet, almost shouting when I started singing things like "You are freedom, You are justice, You are mercy, You are God", basically anything ascriptive I could think of.  There really isn't a better way to praise God than to dote on His attributes and character.  Plus you'll never run out of material, which for a songwriter is kind of a big deal.

By the time I was finished singing, the song had pretty much written itself.  The biggest obstacle was the actual structure of the song, which turned out to not be that big at all.  All in all the song took about 45 minutes to write, which is unbelievably uncharacteristic of my songwriting style.  It usually takes me weeks and sometimes months to call a song 'finished'.

The song itself is one of celebration and joy over the fact that God's grace has found us, and that it is unbelievable, available, and life-giving.  My prayer is that the song would spur others on to never tire of celebrating the miracle of salvation.  This celebration of who Christ is and what He has made us is our light in a dark world.

Salvation Has Come will be released as a single on October 19, 2010.  My new album 'Heartbreak & Chainfall' is coming November 2, 2010.  Both will be available on iTunes.

Here are the lyrics:

Rise up and praise, the King of Glory is near

Rise up and shout, the King of Heaven is here

Sing hallelujah for His grace is ours

Today is the day, salvation has come

Sing it out, sing it out we love You Jesus

Shout it out, shout it out Your are our King

Celebrate, celebrate the name that frees us, Jesus

You are, You are , You are our King

Lord You have called the vilest sinner Your offspring

Lord You are more than all we need

Sing hallelujah for His grace is ours

Today is the day, salvation has come

Sing it out, sing it out we love You Jesus

Shout it out, shout it out Your are our King

Celebrate, celebrate the name that frees us, Jesus

You are, You are , You are our King

You are, You are , You are our King

You are, You are, You are

You are freedom

You are justice

You are mercy

You are God

You are freedom

You are justice

You are mercy

You are God

Today is the day, salvation has come

Today is the day, salvation has come

Sing it out, sing it out we love You Jesus

Shout it out, shout it out Your are our King

Celebrate, celebrate the name that frees us, Jesus

You are, You are , You are our King

You are, You are , You are our King

You are, You are, You are

Lyrics by Jason Dunton

copyright Basilea Music 2010