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We Know That Christ Is Raised: History and Meaning

"We know that Christ is raised and dies no more"

Written
1967
Category
Hymn

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Story

We Know That Christ Is Raised is John Brownlow Geyer's 1967 baptismal and Easter hymn, rooted in Romans 6. Written for Stanford's ENGELBERG, it connects Christ's victory over death with baptismal life, the church, and new creation.

Overview

We Know That Christ Is Raised is John Brownlow Geyer's 1967 confession of Easter faith interpreted through baptism. Its controlling claim is that the resurrection is not only an event to remember: through incorporation into Christ, Christians are summoned to live within the new reality created by his victory over death.

The hymn joins Christology, baptism, ecclesiology, and new creation. It moves from the risen Christ to the baptized community and then toward the renewal of the whole created order. The repeated acclamation gives worshipers a concise response of praise after each doctrinally concentrated stanza.

This combination makes the hymn useful at baptisms, the Easter Vigil, throughout Easter, and during confirmation or reaffirmation of baptism. It can also help a congregation connect sacramental identity with embodied life together rather than treating resurrection solely as a future hope.

Historical Background

John Brownlow Geyer was a Congregational minister and Old Testament scholar who participated in the Dunblane consultations on contemporary church music. In 1967 he was teaching at Cheshunt College, Cambridge. By his own later account, work being discussed nearby involved producing living cells in the laboratory, and conversations about that research led him to explore how Christian baptism could be described as entry into a new form of life.

Geyer wrote We Know That Christ Is Raised that year with Romans 6:3-11 as its controlling biblical passage. The scientific setting was a stimulus and supplied imagery for the original version, but the hymn was not a scientific argument. Its main subject was participation in Christ's death and resurrection through baptism. Geyer designed four stanzas in the meter 10.10.10 with a short concluding acclamation and intended them for Charles Villiers Stanford's ENGELBERG.

The earliest located publication was Hymns & Songs: A Supplement to the Methodist Hymn Book, issued in London by the Methodist Publishing House in 1969. The original baptismal stanza employed an explicit analogy between the baptized community and a newly formed living cell. Geyer later replaced the most time-bound part of that analogy with language emphasizing Easter life and membership in Christ. Hymnals also differ in whether they include the explicitly Trinitarian stanza, so editions marked “alt.” may represent more than minor modernization.

The revised form traveled widely during the 1980s and 1990s. It appeared in Rejoice in the Lord, The Hymnal 1982, The United Methodist Hymnal, The Presbyterian Hymnal, the Psalter Hymnal, and later Lutheran, Reformed, Moravian, Roman Catholic, Anglican, United Church, and ecumenical collections. Editors classified it under baptism, Easter, resurrection, confirmation, baptismal life, and new creation. A Korean translation in the United Methodist Korean hymnal documents reception beyond English-language worship.

ENGELBERG has a separate history. Stanford composed it for William Walsham How's For All the Saints for the 1904 Hymns Ancient and Modern, providing varied settings for successive stanzas. Ralph Vaughan Williams's SINE NOMINE, published for How's text in 1906, became the more familiar All Saints pairing; ENGELBERG consequently became available for newer texts in the same distinctive meter. Geyer's deliberate choice helped establish a durable twentieth-century use for Stanford's tune.

Although ENGELBERG is the dominant pairing, it is not universal. The 1987 Psalter Hymnal uses Keith Landis's WALLACE, and the 1995 Chalice Hymnal uses Lawrence P. Schreiber's NATIONAL CITY. These modern tunes and their harmonizations have their own rights. Geyer's text also remains copyrighted, with current licensing referring to his estate; notices and dates vary among authorized revisions. The public-domain status of Stanford's melody therefore does not make the complete hymn public domain.

Biblical Foundations

Romans 6:3-5 is the hymn's controlling passage. Paul describes baptism as union with Christ in death and resurrection so that believers may walk in newness of life. Romans 6:9 supplies the opening confession that the risen Christ is no longer under death's dominion. Together these verses hold the once-for-all victory of Christ and the continuing shape of Christian discipleship in one movement.

Colossians 2:12 closely parallels this baptismal pattern, joining burial and resurrection with faith in God's action. The emphasis remains on divine agency: baptismal life is not self-invention but participation in what God has accomplished in Christ.

Second Corinthians 5:17 broadens the focus from individual renewal to new creation, while First Corinthians 15:20-22 places Christ's resurrection at the beginning of the promised life of those who belong to him. These texts support the hymn's widening horizon from Christ, to the church, to creation's final renewal.

Verse Explanation

Detailed stanza-by-stanza commentary is intentionally omitted because Geyer's hymn remains copyrighted. In broad structural terms, its four-stanza form moves from the resurrection of Christ to baptismal participation, Trinitarian life, the church, and the hope of renewed creation.

The short acclamation closing each stanza turns theological statement into congregational praise. This recurring response also gives musical balance to the three longer lines that precede it.

Authorized editions do not all present exactly the same text. Teachers should consult the wording in the licensed hymnal being used, especially because Geyer revised the early biological analogy and some books omit the Trinitarian material.

Theological Reflection

The hymn begins with Christology: Jesus Christ has truly passed through death and now lives beyond its dominion. Christian assurance rests on that completed divine action, not on the intensity of the congregation's Easter emotion.

Its baptismal theology follows Paul's language of participation. Baptism joins believers to Christ's death and risen life and identifies them with a community that must learn to live accordingly. Christian traditions differ in how they explain sacramental efficacy, but the hymn does not permit baptism to become an isolated ceremony or a merely private badge.

The Trinitarian dimension prevents resurrection life from being reduced to moral improvement. The Father raises and glorifies the Son, the Spirit animates the church, and the baptized live toward communion with the triune God. New life is therefore both gift and vocation.

The final horizon is ecclesial and cosmic. The church is called to embody Christ's risen life while awaiting a renewal it cannot complete by its own power. This eschatological balance resists both passivity and triumphalism: the congregation practices new creation now while trusting God for its fulfillment.

Church Impact

Hymnary indexes We Know That Christ Is Raised in more than thirty hymnals. That record demonstrates broad publication across Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, Reformed, Moravian, Roman Catholic, United Church, and ecumenical traditions, though publication alone cannot establish how frequently every congregation sings it.

Its classifications show a distinctive liturgical range. Some books place it specifically under Holy Baptism or baptismal life; others assign it to Easter, the Easter Vigil, confirmation, reaffirmation, funerals, or new creation. This range reflects the hymn's ability to connect the paschal mystery with Christian initiation and continuing discipleship.

The history of revision has also shaped reception. Removing the most dated scientific analogy made the baptismal proclamation more portable, while omission of the Trinitarian stanza in some books produced shorter denominational forms. The result is a widely shared hymn family rather than one completely uniform text.

The pairing with ENGELBERG gave new liturgical work to a tune no longer dominant for For All the Saints. Later use of WALLACE and NATIONAL CITY shows that editors continued to interpret the text musically. Churches should identify both the textual version and tune in their source before teaching, licensing, or recording the hymn.

Musical Notes

ENGELBERG is a 10.10.10-with-Alleluia tune composed by Charles Villiers Stanford and first published in the 1904 Hymns Ancient and Modern. Although the tune authority indexes it in G major, hymnals also print it in F major. Three expansive lines lead to a brief final acclamation, often expressed numerically as 10.10.10.4.

The tune uses energetic upward gestures, firm diatonic harmony, and a strong organ-supported profile. Its momentum suits resurrection proclamation, but the long phrases require a tempo that moves without rushing. Singers need clear breaths between textual units, while the concluding acclamation should complete rather than interrupt each stanza's musical arc.

Stanford's original setting for For All the Saints was more elaborate than the single harmonization found in many modern hymnals. It varied unison and harmonized stanzas and used the organ as an active partner. Modern worship leaders may recover some of that contrast with choir, brass, or varied registration, but any later arrangement must be credited and licensed separately.

Alternate traditions are well documented. WALLACE was composed by Keith Landis in 1977 and harmonized by Jeffrey Rickard; NATIONAL CITY was composed by Lawrence P. Schreiber in 1965. Both are modern copyrighted settings. Because Geyer intended ENGELBERG, Stanford's tune is historically integral to the represented pairing even though it predates the text by more than sixty years.

Application

  • Use the hymn at the Easter Vigil or a baptism so that the liturgical action and Romans 6 interpret one another.
  • Invite baptized worshipers to identify concrete habits that belong to newness of life, including reconciliation, shared service, and resistance to sin.
  • Teach baptism as incorporation into Christ and his body, not only as an individual spiritual milestone.
  • Connect Easter celebration with care for embodied community and creation rather than limiting resurrection to life after death.
  • When comparing hymnals, note substantive textual alterations and the possible omission of the Trinitarian stanza.
  • Obtain permission for Geyer's text and verify the rights of the exact tune, harmonization, accompaniment, projection, or recording used.

Discussion Questions

  1. How does Romans 6 connect Christ's resurrection with the daily life of baptized people?
  2. What does the hymn gain by moving from Christ's victory to the church and finally to new creation?
  3. How should Christians understand baptism as participation while respecting differences among sacramental traditions?
  4. Why might Geyer have revised the original biological analogy, and what does that teach about revising modern hymns?
  5. How does the Trinitarian stanza deepen the hymn's account of new life?
  6. What changes when the text is sung to ENGELBERG rather than WALLACE or NATIONAL CITY?

Teaching Tips

  • Read Romans 6:3-11 before singing and trace the movement from Christ's resurrection to baptismal discipleship.
  • Present Geyer's laboratory-cell explanation as his documented account of the hymn's stimulus, while avoiding the stronger unsupported claim that the entire hymn was an attack on reproductive science.
  • Explain that the 1969 text was revised and that authorized hymnals may contain different stanza selections or wording.
  • Identify ENGELBERG as the tune Geyer intended, while clarifying that Stanford composed it in 1904 for For All the Saints.
  • Use the baptismal font, Easter Vigil, confirmation, or reaffirmation of baptism as a visible liturgical setting for the hymn's theology.
  • Check permission for Geyer's words and for any modern tune, alteration, harmonization, accompaniment, projection, or recording.

Sources

  1. Methodist Church of Great Britain — Hymns & Songs: A Supplement to the Methodist Hymn Book — Methodist Publishing House, 1969

  2. Open Library — Bibliographic record for Hymns & Songs

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  3. The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology — John Brownlow Geyer

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  4. The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology — We know that Christ is raised and dies no more

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  5. Church of Scotland — We know that Christ is raised and dies no more, Church Hymnary 4, hymn 635

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  6. C. Michael Hawn — History of Hymns: We Know that Christ Is Raised

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  7. Hymnary.org — Text authority for We Know That Christ Is Raised

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  8. Hymnary.org — Psalter Hymnal 271, including Geyer's account and WALLACE tune data

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  9. Hymnary.org — Tune authority for ENGELBERG

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  10. Hymnary.org — Chalice Hymnal 376, NATIONAL CITY setting

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  11. Lift Up Your Hearts — We Know that Christ Is Raised

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  12. Hymnology Archive — For All the Saints, ENGELBERG history

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  13. One License — Licensing record for We Know That Christ Is Raised

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  14. Jeremy Dibble — Charles Villiers Stanford: Man and Musician — Oxford University Press, 2002

  15. World English Bible — Classic edition, public-domain Scripture text

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