The North Carolina native John Mark McMillan, whose music has been described as "gutsy, poetic rock 'n' roll," has already built a faithful following, drawn unparalleled praise for his three independent releases, and his major label signing was greatly anticipated.

Last July, Integrity released The Medicine as an exclusive limited edition CD with four bonus tracks and live video performances. Among the bonus material is a moody performance of McMillan's modern classic, "How He Loves" and the swaggering, raucous "Carolina Tide," an allegorical narrative of resurrection told from the perspective of a second chance love, admittedly inspired by Springsteen's "Thunder Road" and the Biblical story of Ruth.

“I want to write songs that give your heart language in the porch lights of your own reckoning,” John Mark says, “dangerous songs that give you permission to wear your heart on your sleeve before Jesus, unencumbered by the grave cloths of mindless tradition.”

I had the chance to interview John Mark about his song “Death In His Grave.” Here are the answers to the questions I asked him.

Please share the background that led you to write the song "Death In His Grave."

At the time I was writing the song, I was into a lot of the old folk-style music writers like Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie. I don’t know if he wrote it, but Woody had recorded a folk song about Jesse James and Robert Ford which was also recently made into a movie starring Brad Pitt. I don’t know who changed the words, but someone changed the words to be about Jesus and Judas. The folk song was about how the coward Robert Ford laid Jesse James in his grave. The changed song was about how Judas Iscariot laid Jesus in His grave.

I was listening to a lot of that type of music at the time I wrote this song. I thought it would be cool to try my hand at that type of song. Originally I was going to try to write a hymn, but it came out more like a folk song. I was equally happy with that result. So, that’s how the song structure started.

There’s also a poem by Steve Turner called “The Morning Death was Killed.” He’s a great writer and I always thought that I’d like to write a song like that poem. This song was my attempt at writing about that topic. Turner has said the greatest issues of mankind we can write about is death and resurrection. The premier issues since the beginning of time that every human has had to deal with are death and resurrection. I took a lot of time writing this song to try to make it poetically suitable to the subject matter.

Please tell me about the Bible verses you used in writing the song. Any life verse?

1 Corinthians 15:21: “For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead.”

How has that passage and the message of this song been a part of your life? What’s the takeaway message?

More than anything, I think The Medicine and “Death In His Grave” explore the implications of resurrection in our everyday lives, even the dead places of our lives that need resurrecting. To His own hurt, Jesus chose to be a part of our world. Why would we pretend that we don’t bring all our love, loss, and insecurity with us into the conversations we call worship? After all, we don’t serve a God who is unacquainted with grief. He is not surprised by or even unfamiliar with the darkness that can plague a human heart. In fact, He specializes at dealing with that sort of thing.

The song is my take on the reality of the resurrection. C.S. Lewis says there are three types of language in songs: theological, poetic and common. David sings my God is a tower, representing the greater reality of Who God is. I’m singing about a story where the Earth, Jesus and death are all people. The characters in the song are my attempt to describe a greater reality than we can fully understand. If we believe that Jesus conquered death--which is the greatest issue in the history of mankind--then we can't view the world the way we previously did. If Jesus is the firstborn from among the dead, then there's hope that we can also be resurrected with Christ. There's more to the world than our little circumstances that we complain about and that dominate our lives.

Here are the lyrics:

Though the Earth cried out for blood
Satisfied her hunger was
Her billows calmed on raging seas
for the souls on men she craved

Sun and moon from balcony
Turned their head in disbelief
Their precious Love would taste the sting
disfigured and disdained

On Friday a thief
On Sunday a King
Laid down in grief
But awoke with keys
Of Hell on that day
The first born of the slain
The Man Jesus Christ
Laid death in his grave

So three days in darkness slept
The Morning Sun of righteousness
But rose to shame the throes of death
And overturn his rule

Now daughters and the sons of men
Would pay not their dues again
The debt of blood they owed was rent
When the day rolled a new

On Friday a thief
On Sunday a King
Laid down in grief
But awoke holding keys
To Hell on that day
The first born of the slain
The Man Jesus Christ
Laid death in his grave

On Friday a thief
On Sunday a King
Laid down in grief
But awoke with keys
Of Hell on that day
The first born of the slain
The Man Jesus Christ
Laid death in his grave

He has cheated
Hell and seated
Us above the fall
In desperate places
He paid our wages
One time once and for all