Ok…I’m not trying to throw stones at this guy. I heard this particular song on my local CCM radio station and as is normally the case I asked myself the question, “Would I be comfortable with this song sung on a service at Grace Life Church?”
Here are the lyrics:
Give me rules I will break them
Give me lines I will cross them
I need more than a truth to believe
I need a truth that lives, moves, and breathes
To sweep me off my feet
It ought to be
More like falling in love
Than something to believe in
More like losing my heart
Than giving my allegiance
Caught up, called out
Come take a look at me now
It’s like I’m falling, oh
It’s like I’m falling in love
Give me words I’ll misuse them
Obligations I’ll misplace them
‘Cause all religion ever made of me
Was just a sinner with a stone tied to my feet
It never set me free
Deeper and deeper
It was love that made Me a believer
In more than a name, a faith, a creed
Falling in love with Jesus brought the change in me
By Jason Gray
Here’s the song in which to listen:
You can watch Jason play and sing the song here.
I totally get what Gray is trying to say. Christ is certainly more that just a bunch of laws. He is very much more than religion. However, to say things like “more than a truth to believe” and “more than a name, a faith, a creed” in a negative light might be a bit over the line.
Yes, our primary motivation in following Christ is treasuring Him. I agree 100%. But I don’t believe God’s word says that we follow Christ at the expense of doctrine, truth, creeds, etc. I also believe that Gray may be setting up such good things as rules, “words”, and boundaries in our relationship with Christ as being antithetical to Christianity. I think Gray may be comparing apples to oranges a bit.
Another message that seems to come through Gray’s lyrics is this notion that God’s Law is divorced from the gospel. May it never be! God’s Law is crucial to lead us to Christ (Rom. 5). It is clearly wrong to ONLY give the Law and stop short of Christ. But is Gray saying that we should not present “rules”, “lines”, and “a truth” at all? Is he saying that we should go more for the Hollywood, romanticized version of the gospel? I’m not saying that he is, but it could certainly be heard that way in listening to the song.
I’m not telling you to “black-list” Gray or his music. But, Brother Music Minister, please ask yourself these types of questions and use some discernment when permitting songs on church services.
I pray that I will live out a more passionate, treasuring of Christ as my absolute first-love with more effectiveness and more local and global impact and that I would do so in truth, observing biblical boundaries, holding to a biblical faith all to the glory of Christ Jesus! If that what Gray is desiring, then we’re in agreement. I just wouldn’t throw everything under the bus that he does in this particular song.
