Johnny Cash credited both Nick Lowe and Nick’s then-wife Carlene Carter with bringing him a song they said belonged to him. When Johnny first heard it, he did indeed know it belonged to him. “Redemption,” was released on Johnny’s “American Recordings” album in 1994.
On this song, Johnny sang unapologetically Christian lyrics, “The blood gave life to the branches of the tree / And the blood was the price that set the captives free / And the numbers that came through the fire and flood / Clung to the tree and were redeemed by the blood.”
You should know that Johnny’s connection to the song came from his earlier drug-filled life in the music industry. In his own words, “I believe what I say, but that don’t necessarily make me right," he told Rolling Stone magazine in 2000. “There’s nothing hypocritical about it. There is a spiritual side to me that goes real deep, but I confess right up front that I’m the biggest sinner of them all.”
Here was an honest man who truly believed in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the ultimate purpose for God’s redemption!
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Sources: Christianity Today + ABC Television/Getty Images + Justin Laberge