Composed in Leipzig for the sixteenth Sunday after Trinity, Bach's Cantata No. 95 "Christus, der ist mein Leben" (Christ, he is my life) courts issues of life and death. As with several other Leipzig cantatas, the author of its text is unknown. Some scholars have taken the text, likely altered somewhat by Bach as was his wont, to have been intended as a critical reaction to the position of the Lutheran Church on the meaning of death and the anguish that is its consequence. The point may be textually argued, but Bach's music here is a reminder of what it is to reach the end of earthly life. Calling for a four-part chorus, it also employs soprano, tenor, and bass soloists, the first appearance of whom (tenor) comes within the opening chorale. While only one aria is included (although several recitatives are heard), the unknown poet provided four different chorales, thus allowing Bach to create a new order of chorale cantata, one based upon multiple choral themes. Unlike the ascending tonality found in most of Bach's cantatas, No. 95 holds what Bach scholar Eric Chafe has deemed catabasis, that is, tonality that descends rather than rises. For example, the first of two opening chorales, separated by the tenor soloist's recitative, are in "a sharp, major key (G), while the second is in a flat, minor key (G Dorian)." The first chorale expresses joy in death's arrival, whereas the second represents freedom from earthly tribulations. The first of the opening chorales confidently states that "Christ is my life and death is my reward." The tenor soloist asserts that, with gladness and joyful heart, he takes his leave and when the chorus begins its second portion of the cantata's opening, it is with the thought that departure comes with peace and joy as God wills, calm and quiet. The soprano soloist sings in recitative, "treacherous world, I'll have nothing further to do with you," quickly echoed by the chorus, which bids farewell to the wicked, treacherous world. The tenor implores that death now come quickly and, in the following aria, pleads that the joyous hour strike soon. The bass soloist avows that from the grave, he has entry into heaven, and the concluding chorale tells of departure with pleasure.

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