This Is the Christ
#1017 Hymns—For Home and ChurchLyrics
The Story Behind “This Is the Christ”
An apostle's testimony, set to his cousin's music: how President James E. Faust's witness of the Savior became a hymn — and was sung at his own funeral.
Two Cousins and a Wish
For years, President James E. Faust (1920–2007) — a lawyer, a legislator, an apostle, and from 1995 a counselor in the First Presidency — told his second cousin, the composer Michael Finlinson Moody, that he wanted to make a song together. Moody was no casual choice: he chaired the Church's General Music Committee and had helped lead the creation of the 1985 hymnal.
In 1995 the wish finally became a project. When Moody asked for a text, Faust handed him a sheet of paper — thoughts and scriptures he wanted the song to express, drawn from a lifetime of testifying of Jesus Christ. That same year, in his first general conference as a member of the First Presidency, Faust had borne exactly that witness: 'Mine is the certain knowledge that Jesus is our divine Savior, Redeemer, and the Son of God the Father.'
Building the Hymn
Moody asked Jan Underwood Pinborough — a Church magazines writer who served with him on the music committee, and a hymn writer herself — to shape Faust's thoughts into meter and rhyme. Her verses paint the risen Savior appearing to the people of the Book of Mormon, the voice 'so mild' of 3 Nephi 11 that pierced them to the center. When Faust read what she had written, his review was five words long: 'I wouldn't change a word.'
For the chorus, Moody's wife Maria had the defining idea: gather the Savior's titles from Faust's own general conference addresses. Six of his talks, spanning 1976 to 1995, were distilled into the refrain's declaration of the Christ. The hymn is, quite literally, an apostle's conference testimonies set to music.
Its first audience was two people. At Christmastime 1995, the Moody family sang it for President and Sister Faust at the Church Administration Building.
The Testaments
Most Latter-day Saints first heard the hymn without knowing its name. In 2000, an arrangement recorded by the Tabernacle Choir became the musical heart of the Church's film The Testaments of One Fold and One Shepherd, which played for years in the Legacy Theater on Temple Square — the hymn swelling as the healed blind man falls at the feet of the risen Christ.
In August 2007, the Tabernacle Choir sang it once more — at President Faust's funeral, returning his own testimony to him as a farewell.
A Testimony with a Hymn Number
On September 12, 2024, 'This Is the Christ' was released as hymn #1017 in the second batch of Hymns—For Home and Church — alongside 'Amazing Grace' and 'Behold the Wounds in Jesus' Hands.'
It carries a distinction few hymns share: its text began as the spoken witness of a living apostle, one who signed off on every word. As Moody put it, Faust's desire was 'to express his testimony, as a special witness of the Savior, with the added power of music.'
Did You Know?
- President Faust and composer Michael F. Moody were second cousins — and Faust had been asking him for years to write a song together.
- The chorus was distilled from six of President Faust's general conference addresses, spanning 1976 to 1995 — an idea suggested by the composer's wife, Maria Moody.
- Faust's entire review of Jan Pinborough's finished text: 'I wouldn't change a word.'
- Its first performance was private — the Moody family sang it for President and Sister Faust at Christmastime 1995.
- The Tabernacle Choir sang it at President Faust's funeral in 2007 — his own testimony, sung back to him.
Scripture Connections
- 3 Nephi 11:3–17 — The risen Savior appears at the temple in Bountiful — the scene the first verse paints, beginning with the voice 'so mild.'
- Luke 22:42, 44 — Gethsemane — 'not my will, but thine' — the witness of the second verse.
- 3 Nephi 17:5–10 — The Savior healing the Nephites one by one — the ministry the hymn celebrates.
- Doctrine and Covenants 107:23 — Apostles as 'special witnesses of the name of Christ' — what President Faust was doing when he wrote this text.
Talk About It
Questions to spark a conversation with your family or Primary class:
- This hymn began as an apostle's testimony. If you wrote down your own testimony of Jesus, what would you want it to say?
- In 3 Nephi 11, the people heard a 'small voice' that pierced them to the center. Why do you think the Savior's voice was mild instead of loud?
- President Faust worked on this song with his cousin. Is there something you could create with someone in your family?
- The choir sang this hymn at President Faust's funeral. Why do you think a testimony set to music can outlive the person who bore it?
Teaching Resources
Attribution
Music by: Michael Finlinson Moody, 1995; alt. | THIS IS THE CHRIST
Text by: James E. Faust and Jan Underwood Pinborough, 1995
Audio files from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints