Jesus’s return, referred to in Paul’s letter to Titus as the blessed hope of the church, will be when Jesus comes back with his saints to rapture the church. A recurring theme in a number of my lyrics and a compelling sense that world events are fast approaching the Day has given an increasing urgency for us as a sleeping church to tell the Good News of salvation and eternal life through song to a public that no longer hears the Gospel in our lands. 

‘Take Salvations Way’ was a frank outpouring of that lament. A directness that came to me with the first line on forgiveness for whatever we have done and became more urgent with a longing to tell out Salvations message for today – simply and boldly. Jesus’s parable of the rich fool (Luke 12:16–20) is disarmingly direct: he thought he had plenty of time to enjoy life, but God had news for him: “This very night your life will be demanded from you” (verse 20). Inwardly we may think we can put off accepting Jesus but none of us knows when our time on earth is up. We have today—we have the present moment—and, if we are hearing his voice we should not harden our hearts and keep putting off our need of repentance and saving belief in God’s Son . The line ‘Tomorrow may be too late’ is unequivocal. Wisdom tells us “Today is the day of Salvation”. We ignore it at our eternal peril.

Andy Baker’s foot-tapping tune and April’s straight-from-the-shoulder treatment may rattle some cages but certainly gets right to the point. I can’t get it out of my head!

Rob Tromans

Composer/Songwriter of 'Take Salvations Way'