This modern day hymn was written by British Christian worship leader and writer of contemporary worship music, Stuart Townend and fellow songwriter Keith Getty. It has become a favorite in the repertoire of thousands of churches around the world.

"In Christ Alone" was Townend's first collaboration with any other songwriter. He told Crosswalk the story of the song: "The song came about in an unusual way. Keith and I met in the autumn of 2000 at a worship event, and we resolved to try to work together on some songs. A few weeks later Keith sent some melody ideas, and the first one on the CD was a magnificent, haunting melody that I loved, and immediately started writing down some lyrical ideas on what I felt should be a timeless theme commensurate with the melody. So the theme of the life, death, resurrection of Christ, and the implications of that for us just began to tumble out, and when we got together later on to fine tune it, we felt we had encapsulated what we wanted to say."
Townend continued: "The lyric [of this song] excites me because it places our hope, our assurance, our eternal destiny in the right place—on the solid foundation of Christ. I know in my own life I need reminding continually not to live by my feelings or my circumstances, but by the unchanging truth of the gospel."

Since its initial creation at the beginning of the 2000s, many versions of "In Christ Alone" have been recorded by artists around the world. They include renditions by Avalon, Margaret Becker, Marie Brennan and Newsboys.