To get us started, the following link has the "Simple Gospel" lyrics by United Pursuit.
This worship song has touched my heart so many times during church service or even while I'm driving down the road and it comes on. It creates a strong desire to know God better. It stops me in my tracks and I find myself belting out the lyrics, shedding a few tears, and closing my eyes to focus solely on the words (not while I'm driving of course). Digging deeper into the lyrics, many Bible verses were revealed to me that strengthen the meaning of the words.
A desire to know God.
Throwing religion away and solely seeking a relationship.
Understanding just how BIG and mystifying God is.
Realizing the worth and beauty we are given through Christ Jesus.
Finding God's truths and discovering that He has made it simple for us.
These are all major points that can be made from this one worship song alone. While it has a lot of lyrics that could be taken as easy to understand, and not needing deeper definition, "Simple Gospel" can be appreciated more and bring so much more glory to God when we find scripture in these words. We will go down the order of the points I have made above to ensure a full analysis of this song and full meaning to what it looks like to shed our religion and gain a relationship with Christ.
A desire to know God.
The main lyrics in this song are "I want to know you Lord, like I know a friend." This foreign concept of knowing our Creator and Lord so intimately is a beautiful one as well. Think about your best friend. Is there anything you wouldn't tell him/her? When something happens, whether it be good or bad, they are the first person you tell aren't they? You share laughs, tears, stories, dreams, wishes and pain with them. But what if we took that same effort given to a best friend, and transition it over to the One we owe our everything to? The Bible calls us a friend of God after all.
"And the Scripture was fulfilled that says, 'Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness' - and he was called a friend of God." -- James 2:23
A friend may not always be there, may not always have the right words to say, nor may they always understand the situation you are in. But Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior has walked on this Earth and endured far more hardships that we could ever imagine. He can walk us through everything and He is more than willing to. Last week, I highlighted just how much God loves us through the song "How He Loves," so we can be assured that God would love nothing more for us to give Him some of our time, share our secrets, dreams, hurt and desires with Him. Yes, He knows these already, but there's something so special and comforting about praying to Him about these things and sharing them with Him yourself.
"God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.''" -- Acts 17:27-28
Once we build up this desire to know God more and find friendship in Him, our lives will be blessed beyond measure. Through our desire to seek him first, God promises that we will find Him wherever we are, no matter where we are in ours lives currently. Seek Him, and He will bless. I have listed a couple more scriptures below that detail why we should seek God where we are at today.
"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." -- Matthew 6:33
"But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul." -- Deuteronomy 4:29
Throwing religion away and solely seeking a relationship.
The next set of lyrics in the worship song I want to focus on is the part where it continues to sing "So I'm laying down all my religion...I want to know you Lord." Naturally, you would think that in order to know God better, we have to get stronger in the Christian religion, understanding rules and traditions, what is right and wrong, etc. But God takes us exactly for who we are, transforming our worth in Christ, and showing us the core principles we should live by in our lives, focusing on religion less and on a relationship with Christ more.
"You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments." -- Matthew 22:37-40That's it. This scripture is all that we as Christians should strive to do. Not judging our people (that's God's job). Not passing by people we deem not worthy enough or unclean. Not following some religion, but creating a relationship with the One that the religion revolves around: Jesus Christ. Simply loving people and God with all our hearts, and following this love through actions such as helping those who need it.
"Then the Lord said to him, “Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? But now as for what is inside you—be generous to the poor, and everything will be clean for you. Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone." -- Luke 11:39-42
The Pharisees follow all the rules and look great on the outside to other people. They do no wrong. But Jesus calls them out and says that it does not matter what is on the outside if the inside is not first purified. Following the rules and tithing are nothing if your heart is in the wrong place and if you are still not showing love and compassion, even to those who do not know Christ. What matters is relationship not religion. Love God; love people. That is all.
"Jesus said: 'A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him." -- Luke 10:30-34
The priest and the Levite passed the beaten man because he was dirty and they were just cleaned in the temple. If they had helped him, they would have become unclean by religious rule and would have had to go back to the temple to clean themselves again. The Samaritan helped the Jew, even though these two groups of people are enemies, because the Samaritan understood what it meant to love everyone, no matter what society, the rulebook, or anyone else says. The Samaritan focused on a relationship with Christ and not on the traditions that follow society and a strict religion. Following Jesus is about a relationship with him, not follow a set of rules to be in a religion and use that title to boost yourself above others who do not yet know Christ. At the bottom of this post I have attached a video of a man that speaks truth into this very distinction, emphasizing the fact that if we were to stick to a strict religion, no one would ever have let Jesus enter their church and accept him.
Understanding just how BIG and mystifying God is.
One thing I love about Jesus is that He is not afraid to tell it like it is. He has called people out in the Bible, corrected people's wrongdoings and performed so many miracles to show people that He is the Messiah. So when the song "Simple Gospel" sings "I used to think that I could box you in," what United Pursuit is trying to highlight is that God's ways are so mysterious and so much bigger than we can comprehend. Our lives here on Earth are so minuscule compared to the eternity that we get to live in Heaven, so much so that when we can't see the bigger picture of why certain circumstances have happened, God reveals to us through scripture that it will all flow together and make sense somehow.
"Jesus answered him, 'What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.'" -- John 13:7We need to simply realize that we do not have to understand everything now. We just have to focus on loving people and God and glorifying God in our actions. If we are doing this, then everything else will flow into place. Our perspectives will change as we begin to notice how seemingly bad experiences happened to help us grow stronger or enable us to relate and help people that are going through similar circumstances. If we focus on worshipping God in all that happens around us, God's mysterious ways will be better understood as blessings he is working out for our good.
God is in control of all things.
Jesus defeated Satan.
Jesus defeated evil.
Jesus defeated death.
Surrender to Him. Understand that He is our Lord and Savior and follow Him. We don't have to have our lives all perfect and together. Christ shows us in scripture that He is the only way to eternal life, and that all who follow him will be forever satisfied, desiring for no earthly temporary things when they focus on desiring God alone.
"Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father expect through me." -- John 14:6
"Jesus answered and said to her, 'Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.'" -- John 4:13-14So no, we cannot box God in because we can never fully understand His power, His sacrificial love, nor his mystifying ways of miracles and being in control of all things. His perfection is just more reason to stand in awe of God daily, worshipping Him more as our desire to know God increases constantly.
Realizing the worth and beauty we are given through Christ Jesus.
"Lord I've been told to be ashamed. Lord, I've been told I don't measure up. Lord, I've been told I'm not good enough. But you're here with me." What beautiful lyrics in this song! They carry so much truth in them, too.
How many times in your life have you been told those lies? Satan tries to bring you down by revealing your imperfections and making you feel ugly, fat, insecure, inadequate, ashamed, like you are nothing and no one. But God counteracts that in scripture. God shows us our worth in Christ Jesus as He explains that Jesus dies for our sins and that our sins were washed away because of it. Jesus' name is written in place of where ours would have been when we become followers.
"And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." -- 1 Corinthians 6:11We are a new creation in Christ. He completely renews us and calls us children of God. How precious we are to Him. He cares for us like his own children.
If there is nothing else you get from this blog, get this -- YOU are loved. YOU are cherished. YOU are a son or daughter of Christ. There is absolutely NOTHING you could to make God love you less. You could never be too deep, too dark, to far away from God to make Him give up on you. All you have to do is turn around and begin to seek a relationship with Him. Come back home. Worship him and create a relationship with your Father in Heaven.
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." -- 2 Corinthians 5:17
"But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God." -- John 1:12
"What is more, I consider everything a lost because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ -- the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith." -- Philippians 3:8-9We should not be ashamed of who we are. Our past is what shaped us to who we are today. God created us and loves us no matter what. No, we do not measure up, and we are not enough on our own. But through Christ Jesus, we are given a worth that is so inexplicably perfect and wonderful, that nothing else matters. Our past is just a story to help show people that you are never to far from God to be saved. Embrace your story and find your worth in Christ. Share your story to combat Satan's attempts at feeding you lies that you are not worthy, and share it also to encourage other people in similar circumstances.
Finding God's truths and discovering that He has made it simple for us.
The last set of lyrics I want to highlight in this worship song are these: "I will rejoice in the simple Gospel. I will rejoice in you Lord." The Bible and God are one in the same. His personality and love for us is all there between the cover. And it is so, so simple.
I showed you already the scripture that tells us all we have to do is love God and love people. But through these next few pieces from the Bible, it become apparent that God wants what is best for us and He is for us.
"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." -- Matthew 11:28
"For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." -- Matthew 11:30He is not going to make us carry our own burdens because He already carried all of our sins to the cross. His yoke, his teachings that is, is easy and simple - to love. That's it. Relationship not religion. No strict rules, no proving your worth, no being the best. Simply desire to know God better and create a relationship with Christ.
"For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin." -- Hebrews 4:13
"For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." -- John 3:17Jesus walked on this earth just as we do daily so that He might better understand our temptations and struggles. And He did so flawlessly. We are not required to live up to those standards, but God is our guide; He is our goal. If we can desire to be a little more like Him every day, we are moving in the right direction. Seek God and love Him. Rejoice in the truth that He is alive and He loves us more than anything!
Verses mentioned above in the order of the Bible
- Deuteronomy 4:29
- Matthew 6:33
- Matthew 11:28
- Matthew 11:30
- Matthew 22:37-40
- Luke 11:39-42
- Luke 10:30-34
- John 1:12
- John 3:17
- John 4:13-14
- John 13:7
- John 14:6
- Acts 17:27-28
- 1 Corinthians 6:11
- 2 Corinthians 5:17
- Philippians 3:8-9
- Hebrews 4:13
- James 2:23
Video by Jefferson Bethke
