ROAR

I have taken some time (way too much time) off from doing music and even from writing. I have been compelled lately (more like convicted) to get involved and stop saying no to everything. A friend of mine asked if I would be open to helping her lead worship this coming Sunday and I said yes. One of the songs she has selected as a possibility lead me to this.

I plopped down in front of the 75 inch TV and turned up the sound bar. Before I knew it I was on YouTube ready to hear this song for the first time. It started pretty good, then it took over my vision of Christ and reshaped what I saw in my mind.

It opened my eyes to a side of the gospel I had never really taken ahold of before. Like most people raised in the church I am very familiar with the image of Jesus as our lamb. The Lamb of God. When John saw Jesus walking by the water where he was baptizing he said, “Behold the Lamb of God. Who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29) We know Him as our sacrifice and because of that we can be forgiven our sin. But once forgiven, what then? Augustine said “He endured death as a lamb.” Over and over the scriptures depict this image and make it clear who He is.

But the image of Christ as the lamb stops short of the whole story. A sacrificial lamb is just that, sacrificed. Its dead, powerless, spilled out and gone. The finality of Jesus’ death can’t be ignored. It was closure, an ending. It was the fulfilment of the payment for the penalty of the sin of the world. He said as he gave his life, “It is finished.”(John 19:30) He was dead! His heart stopped and with it the future hope of the disciples. If we don’t recognize that He died a complete and full death, we leave the door open for sin to have a debt we still owe. That door is closed, He paid it all.

The rest of the story and the ending of Augustine’s quote is what struck me so clearly with this song. He said, “He endured death as a lamb; he devoured it as a lion.” WOW!! The story isn’t just the lamb sacrificing all for us, but the Lion bursting forth with power and might. He isn’t just some mindless, helpless little lamb caught in the struggle of eternal power, He is the King of Beasts! The greatest power and most ferocious force in the jungle. From head to toe he is muscle and might. He not only rose from being dead, He DEVOURED it! It is defeated and crushed and death now is powerless to dictate our lives here or eternally.

Revelation 5:5 “Then one of the elders said to me, ‘Do not weep. See the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and the seven seals.'”

My Jesus is not dead, not powerless, not weak, not beaten, and never cowers to any threat. He is a LION and I say with the song that brought me to this, “Let the Lion ROAR”

Thank you Elevation Worship for this raw and honest anthem. To hear the song and hopefully feel the image of His power as strongly as I did here is the link.