Before I delve in, let's just say:
I really didn't take this song seriously when I first heard it but then it started popping up in different places, so I thought I'd put my own little two cents out there in the blogger world and see if it can do any good. So here it is, if you like it then please comment, rate, subscribe lol I've been on youtube a little too much :) Seriously though, as do the rest of the bloggers out there, I also appreciate comments and likes or dislikes. :) Oh and sorry for the length of this post, I really didn't intend for it to be this long! :)
Who can blame God for dying for you? I mean who wouldn't die for someone as beautiful as you?.....
"*Sob, sniff* So touching. I'm just so encouraged, my poor pride and self-esteem feels so much better now"
Or in the words of Todd Friel from Wretched Radio "I'm bummed, I've got low self-esteem. Where is this going? That God is our great big cosmic psychiatrist he's going to fill us with self-esteem, he's going to help us to know that, hey life isn't so bad after all you were worth dying for. ... Theology doesn't get much worse than that."
I've been thinking about this subject lately, basically how unworthy we are of being saved and how amazingly merciful God is to us. I'm really shocked that anyone would write a song like this and that people would actually like it much less allow it to rise to the level of popularity that it's at. Wait a minute, I'm in America the church with the largest attendance is Lakewood Church. I'm not surprised anymore. Joel Osteen probably sings this song in His praise and worship service.
DISCLAIMER: My desire is not to bash the Mike's Chair group, rather I hope to encourage other Christians to think of themselves the way the Scriptures describes them because God's is so much wiser than we are.
I first heard this song on Wretched Radio, in Todd Friel's contest "Which is Worser" If you would like to hear it for yourself you can download it from iTunes, it's the September 30th segment. But to continue in his words, "This is what makes it so bad. He uses the word grace and you say what's the problem skinny boy he uses the word grace! Yeah, because he makes grace contingent on YOU! And that YOU were worth dying for! And that you and I have some sort of intrinsic value WHEN WE DON'T! Yes we're imago dei but we're marred and we're broken and we're busted and we're contaminated and we are stained with sin. Completely polluted, totally depraved NOT WORTH DYING FOR BUT HE DYED FOR US ANYWAY! And instead of elevating us like this song does the good news of the gospel of grace that says you are a worm I am a worm and He died for me anyway making His love not contingent on me but contingent on Him. That in fact is the good news of the gospel."
In a way this song is rather subtle in it's communication of the message because it sounds really nice and even loving and when taken in context with the video, so encouraging to the saddened soul. However, this song shows just where greasy, gracey preachers have brought mainstream Christianity. Diametrically opposed to Scripture.
In my analysis of this video, Mike's Chair is trying to answer the question:
Why Did Christ Die For Us?
To answer this question we come to a fork in the road
The first fork is - Christ's motive for dying to save the whole body of the elect in general
Scripture provides the answer:
1. His obedience to the Father
"Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:5-11
"For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me." John 6:38
"Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." Luke 22:42, Matthew 26:39, 26:42,
as well as Isaiah 53:10, Matthew 26:39-42, Hebrews 5:8, 10:7-9 and many, many other passages in Scripture which explain that Christ came to earth to do the will of His Father.
2. The second motivation for Christ to die for the sins of the elect in general is best stated in the words of Paul:
22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory."
In order to make known the riches of His glory!
I don't know about you but I'm starting to see a trend here, no where in the verses we've seen does it say anything about dying for the sake of man. That really isn't seen anywhere in Scripture at all (even once) point to man as possessing something that would make him worth dying for.
It's all about Christ my friends, it's all about Him and His glory. *Period*
Now let's go back to the fork in the road. Why Did Christ Die For Us
The other fork is called, "What was Christ's motive for dying to save the individual person?"
This is the question that Mike's Chair is attempting to answer on their own and they fell of of the cliff of Error in doing so. In my words this question is, Why did God choose me to be one of His elect? What would motivate Him to save someone like me who is so unworthy of being saved? Mike's Chair is trying to say that their was something in me that was "worth dying for" However Scripture says,
"All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away." ~ Isaiah 64:6
Even with a human understanding I realize that I am not someone worth dying for, thus how much more does the Holy and Righteous God who sees the sin in me in all it's full black vileness?
So, Why did Christ Die for Us? At first when I wrote the rough draft of this blog post I answered this question with an acknowledgement of my ignorance. I didn't know. But then my praiseworthy Mother read me this portion of her Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon in which he asks this very same question and answers it so biblically and fully.
"Our Lord, who is fair as the lily, has entered into marriage union with one who confesses herself to be black, because the sun has looked upon her. It is the wonder of angels that the love of Jesus would be set upon poor, lost, guilty men. Each believer must, when filled with a sense of Jesus' love, be also overwhelmed with astonishment that such love should be lavished on an object so utterly unworthy of it. Knowing as we do our secret guiltiness, unfaithfulness, and blackheartedness, we are dissolved in grateful admiration of the matchless freeness and sovereignty of grace. Jesus must have found the cause of His love in His own heart, He could not have found it in us, for it is not there. Even since our conversion we have been black, though grace has made us comely. Holy Rutherford said of himself what we must each subscribe to- "His relation to me is, that I am sick, and He is the Physician of whom I stand in need. Alas! how often I play fast and loose with Christ! He bindeth, I loose; He buildeth, I cast down; I quarrel with Christ, and He agreeth with me twenty times a day!" Most tender and faithful Husband of our souls, pursue Thy gracious work of conforming us to Thine image."
Do you see what I'm doing here? I'm trying to show you that we, you and I, are so utterly unworthy of Christ's love. While this song tries to tell people they are worthy, the Bible is telling you that you are unworthy. (side note here: Isn't that what the world does? God says something then the world contradicts it?) Now, before you get depressed and think I'm just a kill joy who walks around with grey clothes and a serious solemn expression on my face all day let me explain why it's better that we are utterly unworthy rather than worthy.
Our pride revolts at the thought that without the covering of Christ's blood we are an offense to God. Every moment Christ is interceding for us before the throne of God above and if He stopped even for a moment we would be eternally condemned to suffer the wrath of Almighty God. We posses a totally depraved nature that does not reign in us, as a child of God, but still remains in us, because of that nature we sin. Even one sin is enough to condemn us. The love of God made manifest in Christ Jesus saves us from the power of sin and death. His love continues to forgive every sin, He pours out His perfect majestic altogether lovely Spirit on us and continually sanctifies us, washing us clean of that bitter black vile of sin that clings to us and far, far too often drags us down and takes our eyes off of Him who's love has saved us. That is love, that although I was dead in my trespasses, even though there is not a single lovely thing about me! Even though I do at times dreadfully displease Him He still loves me!!!! Tell me is that not far better? Doesn't that give you much greater joy to know that you are loved despite your sin? Yes it is true that we cannot stay and wallow in the disgusting depths of our sin but yet rejoice with me, God loves His children! When we fall into sin we don't need to feel like we're lost and need to earn brownie points with God to regain our former status we are sinners who are in dire need of His grace and He is merciful, gracious, compassionate, never ending in loving kindness! O Lord show us our utter depravity that we may know your magnificent love! Not just feel it but know it and posses it for our own! In the words of Spurgeon,
"Child of God, do you hesitate to appropriate this title? Ah! has your unbelief made you forget that you are greatly beloved too? Must you not have been greatly beloved, to have been bought with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spots? When God smote His only begotten Son for you, what was this but being greatly beloved? You lived in sin, and rioted in it, must you not have been greatly beloved for God to have borne so patiently with you? You were called by grace and led to a Savior, and made a child of God and an heir of heaven. All this proves, does it not, a very great and super abounding love? Since that time, whether your path has been rough with troubles, or smooth with mercies, it has been full of proofs that you are a man greatly beloved. If the Lord has chastened you, yet not in anger; if He has made you poor, yet in grace you have been rich. The more unworthy you feel yourself to be the more evidence have you that nothing but unspeakable love could have led the Lord Jesus to save such a soul as yours. The more demerit you feel, the clearer is the display of the abounding love of God in having chosen you, and called you, and made you an heir of bliss. Now, if there be such love between God and us let us live in the influence and sweetness of it, and use the privilege of our position. Do not let us approach our Lord as though we were strangers, or as though He were unwilling to hear us--for we are greatly beloved by our loving Father. "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" Come boldly, O believer, for despite the whisperings of Satan and the doubtings of thine own heart, thou are greatly beloved. Meditate on the exceeding greatness and faithfulness of divine love."
My friend, Christ did not look at me and say "Now there's someone worth dying for" In the words of Paul Washer "He saw an object of wrath. He saw someone who had broken every law he had ever made and lived a dislocated, perverted life that's what he saw. Why did he save you? 2 reasons: God is love. Secondly to demonstrate His glory, His mercy, His attributes to not only the world but even beyond."
At first as I was writing this I was thinking man I wish I could say that He saw something special in me I mean, that would make me feel SO much better, my self-esteem would fly through the rooftop but then I thought of the discussion I just had with my Mom and I remembered her words "He loved me even when I was unlovable" That's true love. That's the love of *my* Beloved. Where would be the meaning and loveliness of a Christ who died for someone who's worth dying for? I was worth it so it's no big deal. That's just wrong, and it's wrong because it minimizes the love, mercy, grace, goodness in a word glory of God. It minimizes the glory of God which is the very passion and purpose of our existence. I am His Beloved due to His own grace and mercy.
In contrast to the song by Mike's Chair let's now listen to -Beloved by Tenth Avenue North.
There, that's where the emphasis must be. On Christ. It's all about Him.
Sola Scriptura, Sola Fide, Sola Gratia, Sola Christus, Soli Deo Gloria!
"Let the devout reader adore the Saviour for the spontaneous and hearty manner in which he undertook the great work of our salvation." Spurgeon- Treasury of David Psalm 40:8
