The last few years I have been more critical of what I listen to. Many songs I can just put on my "Lutheran Glasses" and enjoy, but there are some that just irk me! Over the last week I have heard one particular song quite a few times. "Someone Worth Dying For" by Mikeschair.
Songs like this one are full of good sentiments - heck, don't you want to be someone worth dying for??
Here's the chorus:
Am I more than flesh and bone?
Am I really something beautiful?
Yeah, I wanna believe, I wanna believe that
I'm not just some wandering soul
That you don't see and you don't know
Yeah I wanna believe, Jesus help me believe that I
Am someone worth dying for
I'm sure many of you, along with me, want to believe you are something beautiful, someone loved by God.
The song even takes a turn and tells us we are these things: something beautiful, noticed & loved by God and worth dying for. (and you gotta believe that!)
Unfortunately, it's a lie.
Romans 5:8 says, "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
We were NOT worth dying for. We were born sinful and continued to sin each and every day of our lives. Worth it? I don't think so!
But Christ died for us anyway!
That is the true Gospel. That even though we were not worth dying for, Christ still did. Even though He knew that by dying for us, we would still continue in sin, He still died for us. Not only that, but He washed us clean, put on a robe of righteousness, and presented us before God the Father, who sees us as redeemed. Christ justified you, He "redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature, purchased and won me from all sins..."
Happy Reformation Day, 2011
While it's true that we're not beautiful in the sinless sense, God also deemed that we, in our sin-filled state, ARE worth dying for. We, as His creation, are beautiful because of His Son and because of HIS nature, He chose to die for us.
ReplyDeleteRight - but the song makes it sound like there is something in ME that makes me worth dying for. We by ourselves are not worth dying for, yet Christ chose to do so anyway.
ReplyDeleteIn my Bible Study last night we were talking about the differences between Grace and Mercy..
ReplyDeleteGrace is getting what you DON'T deserve, and Mercy is not getting what you DO deserve. I think that goes along pretty well with this too... God saved us by GRACE... He gave us the ultimate gift, something that only Jesus deserved. He also saved us by MERCY, by not giving us what we Do deserve... eternal damnation for our Sins.
Great points, Sarah. It is the subtleties in Christian pop songs now that really get you thinking about what it is you are singing.
ReplyDeleteLove the post, Sarah. Such an important distinction.
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