More than a song. Because Jesus paid more than we could.
“To the hearer who doesn’t really listen, Redemption Song has a victorious ring. Ultimately, though, it’s a bleak defeat.”
In 1979, Bob Marley wrote a track for his band’s upcoming album Uprising. The title: Redemption Song. Unbeknownst to the public at the time, Marley was dying from cancer in his toe (a story for another time). But critics say you can hear him wrestling with mortality in the lyrics of Redemption Song.
Old pirates, yes, they rob I
Sold I to the merchant ships
Minutes after they took I
From the bottomless pit
The music video created for the song reflects the churning mix of imagery Marley employed. Shades of the Bible’s slaves in Exodus, and Joseph’s being sold into slavery, references to the heroes (or ‘prophets’ as Marley calls them) of the American Civil Rights Movement. It’s rousing, and emotional. But it also reflects the unspoken helplessness Marley felt.
Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery
None but ourselves can free our minds
Have no fear for atomic energy
‘Cause none of them can stop the time
Marley sees Redemption, and freedom, as something that’s up to him. And the villain in the story is the relentless march of time, as his disease ran the clock down on his life.
To the hearer who doesn’t really listen, Redemption Song has a victorious ring. Ultimately, though, it’s a bleak defeat. Why? John (8:34) tells us, “All who sin are slaves to sin”. If it’s up to us, we’ll ultimately fail (Romans 9:16).
Roll back history by 110 years and we find another redemption song. And its opening immediately rips the power out of our hands.
I hear the Saviour say,
“Thy strength indeed is small,
Child of weakness, watch and pray,
Find in Me thine all in all.”
The author, Elvina Hall, was a divorcée in an age when that was social suicide for women. They were cut adrift to suffer their singleness. Like Bob Marley, Elvina processed her situation through song, and how she could be redeemed from her state. But her eyes were opened to the truth of her immediate situation, and the ultimate triumph she could have. You’ll recognise her chorus:
Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.
She glories in her weakness, because it points her to God’s unconquerable strength.
This past Sunday, Gabe told us to stop thinking we’ve cleaned the room when we’ve actually just piled the sin up in cupboards now filled to bursting. And Tim told us that when we feel trapped by our situations and outcomes, we can be set free by Christ’s redeeming work – have the price we owed paid for us!
So, the question we have to ask is: will Redemption come from a song we try to comfort ourselves with, or a Person Who Scripture tells us is the Comforter (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).
This is Redemption: The price we owed but could never pay was paid by Him. Now to Him we owe our everything.
That’s why we pray:
Perfect Lamb, Ransom, Payment, Jesus, we thank You.
We can’t know what the full penalty of our sin is, or the true cost to You. But we can know You paid it.
Now there’s no song we can sing, no move we can make, no act, and no price we can pay. There is only You. Precious, glorious, magnificent, loving, reaching, and redeeming You. Lord of our lives, we thank You for paying to set those lives free. Spirit, empower us to offer ourselves as living sacrifices.
Thank You, our Jesus.
Amen.
Listen to “Jesus Paid It All”
https://music.apple.com/za/album/jesus-paid-it-all/1538053975?i=1538054214