Author: Stuart Townend
Listen To The Song:
As I look at the wonderful outpouring of worship songs in recent years, I’ve noticed that many of them describe our feelings and experiences of God in worship; rather less turn our attention completely away from ourselves to look at God. We need to make sure we don’t limit God to our experience of Him; part of our worship needs to be exclusively for, about, and to God Himself – as the psalmist says, “to gaze upon His beauty” (Ps 27:4).
That’s what I’ve tried to do in the chorus of this song. The verses chart our history, current place and future in Christ, but the chorus is entirely devoted to describing the Saviour, using various names that the Bible itself uses for Him. Let’s examine a couple of them.
Lord of history – the Bible teaches that God is sovereign over all the earth. Although there are many things we don’t understand about what happens in the world, whether it’s an international crisis or a personal tragedy, we do know that God is bringing all things to a divine conclusion. God is not frustrated by the plans of men: His plan for the world and the church will not be thwarted. We can trust in His total sovereign plan.
But God isn’t just Lord of the big picture: He’s Lord of our personal history too. He knows where we have been, what we have done, and He’s used it all to bring us to this place and point in time. His purpose is being worked out, and we are being shaped by the same power that raised Jesus form the dead (Eph 1:19-20).
Heaven’s Champion - sometimes we can be so focused on our personal redemption that we can miss the glory of the greater purposes of God in salvation. Jesus came to earth with a mission – to bring back a lost humanity, to restore a relationship severed by sin and rebellion, and to shape a beautiful Bride for eternity.
Jesus became the Champion of heaven as He set about His mission, preaching good news to the poor (Isa 61:1ff), enduring the cross, defeating death and the curse of sin, and arriving back in heaven having disarmed the principalities and powers (Col 2:15). Imagine the celebration of heaven at the ascension of Christ – truly the Champion’s return!
Finally, there’s one phrase in the song that I want to look at, which I believe is fundamental to our full freedom in Christ (2 Cor 3:17; Rom 8:21; Gal 5:1). In verse 1 we sing “of sins forgiven, of conscience cleansed”. Now the first phrase we tend to fully embrace. We know that our sins are forgiven, that all the wrongs we have done were laid on Christ at the cross (Isa 53:6).
But many of us stop there. We know we’re forgiven, but we still carry round with us the guilt and condemnation associated with those sins. We may be free, but we still think and act as slaves, “miserable sinners saved by grace”. We know the prison gates have been smashed open, but we still live within the prison walls.
But Jesus didn’t die just to forgive us when we sin: He broke the power of sin over us! The forgiveness of God means we can live with a clear conscience, knowing we stand pure and blameless in His sight, with the ability and power to live in a way that pleases God. Sure, we may fall from time to time, but His acceptance, love and presence are always there, and are not dependent on our effort or righteousness (Rom 8:38-9; Heb 10:22).
May God really establish these truths in our lives as we gaze upon our beautiful Saviour.
HT: www.worshiptogether.com
http://worshiptogether.com/resources/bibleStudy.aspx?iid=215702
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