he who has eyes...

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” [Romans 3:23-24]

I’ve been mulling over the lyrics from a David Crowder song recently. The song is called Wholly Yours, and it was quoted in a Time article recently about “The New Calvinism” and how it is one of ten ideas changing our world right now (for proof, think of how large Mars Hill Church in Seattle has become — a congregation in the heart of an “ungodly” city whose pastor Mark Driscoll is as Calvinist as they come). That article put the song in my head for the last few weeks, and I began thinking about this idea of total depravity and the implications of how much greater that makes the work of the Cross and the Resurrection. I thought I’d share with you this song and some corresponding thoughts of mine, seeing as we’ve just kicked off Holy Week — culminating in the celebration of the greatest event in human history: the Resurrection.

———

David Crowder Band – Wholly Yours

i am full of earth
You are heaven’s worth
i am stained with dirt, prone to depravity
You are everything that is bright and clean
the antonym of me
You are divinity
but a certain sign of grace is this
from a broken earth flowers come up
pushing through the dirt

You are holy, holy, holy
all heaven cries “holy, holy God”
You are holy, holy, holy
i wanna be holy like You are

You are everything that is bright and clean
and You’re covering me with Your majesty
and the truest sign of grace was this
from wounded hands redemption fell down
liberating man

You are holy, holy, holy
all heaven cries “holy, holy God”
You are holy, holy, holy
i want to be holy like You are

but the harder i try the more clearly can i feel
the depth of our fall and the weight of it all
and so this might could be the most impossible thing
Your grandness in me making me clean

glory, hallelujah
glory, glory, hallelujah
You are holy, holy, holy
all heaven cries “holy, holy God”
You are holy, holy, holy
i want to be holy, holy God

so here i am, all of me
finally everything
wholly, wholly, wholly
i am wholly, wholly, wholly
i am wholly, wholly, wholly Yours

i am wholly Yours

i am full of earth and dirt and You

———

Now, that’s a song.

Before I say anything, I want to say one thing. Do I struggle with the ideas of Calvinism? Absolutely. Where do I stand on the predestination vs. free will “debate”? I’m not really sure, except maybe the use of quotations around the word debate gives it away a bit.

But my own thoughts on Calvinism aside, we’re celebrating something so magnificent this week that a song like this one really highlights what’s happened on our accord in heaven. We were a people without hope under the Law [see Romans 5:12-19; Galatians 3:15-25]. Romans 3:23 says it best, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (emphasis added). But Paul goes on to say, “… and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” [Romans 3:24].

Though we are all evil through and through, Christ gave us a free gift of being forgiven before God. You just have to take this gift. That’s it. Take it.

Now, think of my oft-quoted verse (see here or here or here for my uses of it), “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” [Romans 5:8]. And then look at the verse right before it, “Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die” [Romans 5:7]. And Christ died for all people, though we are… you know… evil through and through.

Then, think of how I’ve often used this verse on the site. I’ve basically been very convicted lately of the Church and her failings and wanting to exhort her and restore her to who she’s supposed to be. So, I’ve been complaining about all the ways in which I’m ashamed of the Church… and complaining… and complaining. Seriously, if you were around me all the time (sorry Ken and Anca), you’d realize just how much I do this about the Church and even my local body.

And in all honesty, it’s like I’m making it about me — what I think the Church should be like, what vision I have for a future congregation, how I am being mistreated or whatever. And, it’s not about me! If I keep trying to make everything about me and trying to fix everything and trying and trying and trying… then surely this self-focus will permeate other aspects of my life. I’ll try and try and try to earn my own salvation, and then be hit with this reality from the song:

But the harder I try the more clearly can I feel the depth of our fall and the weight of it all.

So we celebrate this week the fact that it’s not about us, and this is wonderful because we are full of earth and stained with dirt. If it were about us, this world would be nothing but soil. But, though we are soil, something beautiful can still come through us if we are broken and filled with the seeds of life [see Mark 4:1-20]:

But a certain sign of grace is this: from a broken earth flowers come up pushing through the dirt.

We celebrate this week what Christ did for us on the cross, taking away the shame of our sin by nailing it to the cross and pouring out His blood for us [see Colossians 1:19-20]:

And the truest sign of grace was this: from wounded hands redemption fell down, liberating man.

And, let us not forget, the culmination of what we celebrate this week isn’t the fact that Christ died on a cross (though this action was of infinite importance), we celebrate the fact that He was resurrected from the dead, offering us that same life in abundance [see Romans 6:5-11; Philippians 3:10-11; 1 Peter 1:3-4] — not just in an eternal sense that applies when we die and go before God, but today. Here and now. Through the Holy Spirit, we are filled with the divine right now, not just earth [see 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Colossians 1:27]:

I am full of earth and dirt and You.

So, rejoice this week in the fact that we are no longer dead to sin but alive in Christ. Rejoice Church! Sorry for being so hard on you all the time.

We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. [Romans 6:2-4]

p.s. I’m aware of the cleverness of using tulips as my flower du jour in the attached picture. What can I say…