Christ The Lord Is Risen Today

Ellie Holcomb's "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today" carries Charles Wesley's 1739 Easter hymn almost word for word, letting three centuries of repeated "Alleluia"s do most of the work. Every line lands on the same word on purpose — the hymn interrupts itself with praise before it can finish a thought.

"Where's thy victory, boasting grave?" quotes Paul's own taunt from 1 Corinthians almost exactly — death personified as a defeated boaster, mocked openly rather than just quietly outlasted. "Love's redeeming work is done, fought the fight, the battle won" states the resurrection as a completed victory, not an ongoing struggle still awaiting its outcome.

"Made like Him, like Him we rise, ours the cross, the grave, the skies" widens the claim from something that happened to Jesus alone to something now shared by everyone following Him. Holcomb's added closing section, "Christ is risen indeed, there's a reason to sing," doesn't add new theology to Wesley's text — it just makes explicit what the repeated Alleluias were already saying: this isn't nostalgia, it's still true.