“Because He Lives”
Caleb & Kelsey
Each week, FishWorship highlights a beloved hymn that continues to inspire and encourage believers today.
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This week’s Hymn of the Week is the beloved Christian classic “Because He Lives,” performed by Caleb & Kelsey. Caleb Grimm is perhaps best known as a member of the contemporary Christian vocal group Anthem Lights, but he and his wife, Kelsey, have also become well known as Caleb & Kelsey for their arrangements of hymns, worship songs, and other Christian favorites. Their 2019 recording of “Because He Lives” gives this familiar hymn a fresh, intimate treatment, with the couple singing together from a church pew. The official video was released by Anthem Lights on April 18, 2019.
The performance is particularly fitting because Caleb & Kelsey have made a specialty of bringing older Christian songs to a new generation through their own arrangements. Rather than treating “Because He Lives” simply as a traditional congregational hymn, they approach it as a husband-and-wife duet, allowing their two voices to complement one another while keeping the central message of the hymn intact. Their version was also released as an official Caleb & Kelsey arrangement, with the recording listed as a 2019 arrangement of the song originally composed by William J. Gaither and Gloria Gaither.
“Because He Lives” itself dates back to 1971, when Bill and Gloria Gaither wrote the song during a particularly uncertain period in their lives. They were preparing for the birth of their son Benjamin while facing the troubling social climate of the early 1970s. The song grew out of their realization that, despite everything happening around them, their faith in the risen Christ gave them confidence to face the future. The song was released by the Bill Gaither Trio in October 1971 and quickly became one of the Gaithers’ best-known compositions.
The song soon moved beyond the Gaithers’ recordings and into congregational worship. Its first appearance as a congregational hymn was in the 1975 edition of the Baptist Hymnal, where it was hymn #448, under the title “Because He Lives” and with the tune identified as RESURRECTION, composed by Bill Gaither. And its reach has gone far beyond that first hymnal appearance: Hymnary.org currently lists “Because He Lives” in 82 hymnals. That is quite a remarkable journey for a song that was written only in 1971.
More than five decades after it was written, “Because He Lives” continues to express one of the most fundamental assurances of the Christian faith: because Jesus Christ conquered death, Christians can face the future without fear. That enduring message is what makes this hymn such a natural choice for FishWorship—and Caleb & Kelsey’s heartfelt rendition gives us another opportunity to hear a familiar hymn with fresh ears.
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