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