Pastoral Ponderings ~ Tim Hughes: “Here I Am to Worship” ~ Take 2

          From the first time I heard it, the song, “Here I am to Worship,” has been a very helpful encouragement to put the praise of my heart into expressions of word and song.[1] Only problem is, I can never sing the bridge.        

          Part of the difficulty is that I have an aversion to unnecessary repetition.[2] However, the other part is that I don’t agree with the words, and therefore cannot sing them from my new heart, with a feeling of spirit and truth worship.[3]

          The words of the bridge go like this:

I’ll never know how much it cost to see my sin upon that cross.

I’ll never know how much it cost to see my sin upon that cross.

I’ll never know how much it cost to see my sin upon that cross.

I’ll never know how much it cost to see my sin upon that cross.

          Now don’t get me wrong, I do understand the sentiment, the desire to express the childlike wonder that cannot comprehend the immense cost for Jesus Christ to become sin for us, to become a curse for us, for the righteous one to become so unrighteous in carrying our sin that the Father turned his face away and left the Son feeling utterly forsaken. I get that.

          However, I still think that the words for the bridge are not true. It is fair to say that, in this earthly life, where we are still surrounded by the world, and confronted with the furious activity of the devil and his relentless forces of evil in the spiritual realm, and where we are constantly attacked and criticized by our own flesh seeking to draw us away from life in our new nature in Jesus Christ, that we will never fully know how great a price Jesus paid.

          But the words, “I’ll never know,” don’t seem to apply to the everlasting. In fact, there is one verse that pops up in challenge of the words of this bridge as though declaring that there is something better, a truth of Scripture that would lift our hearts into even greater wonder than not knowing.

          Older Brother Paul wrote, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”[4] Here Paul identifies what we all know to be true, that “now” we see things as “in a mirror dimly.” Sometimes it seems as though the mirror is so covered with dust, and grime, and childish little finger prints, that the thought of every seeing anything clearly is a distant hope.

          In fact, a mirror in Paul’s day would have been whatever metal could be polished up the most brightly. Everyone knew that the reflection was a dim representation of the reality. We would all echo our agreement that now we know in part. Many have admitted that the closer we seem to get in knowing God the more we recognize how little we actually do know him. This is part of the wonder that stirs us to worship.

          The thing that needs to be expressed in our worship is the “then face to face” part. In this earthly life of the dim mirror, we will never know how much it cost for Jesus to bear our sins upon the cross.

          However, Paul speaks of something that will happen to us “then”, when we see Jesus face to face. He describes it as, “I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” Jesus said that eternal life is to “know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”[5]The apostle John later said that when we are taken up into the presence of Jesus and see him in the face-to-face way Paul presents, “we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”[6]

          Jesus has saved us into an eternal life that is all about knowing God. Paul clarifies that, in this lifetime, knowing God will be like seeing in a mirror dimly, but the next life, the full experience of our inheritance in Jesus Christ is described quite differently.        

          That final, everlasting experience of God’s grand plan of creation and redemption promises every believer in Jesus Christ that we “shall know fully.” And, if we aren’t sure what the measure of “know fully” actually looks like, Paul states it in very clear, understandable words, breathed-out by God as Paul was carried along by the Holy Spirit.[7] The measure of our knowing fully is “as I have been fully known.”

          What in the world does that mean? It means that God’s people have been foreknown by the perfect knowledge and love of God. It means that we who believe in Jesus Christ are the people God has known before the foundation of the world. It means that the perfection of God who is exalted outside of space, time and matter has known and loved his people with an everlasting love.

          In other words, it is telling us to think upon this, that God’s children “have been fully known.” The measure for how we will “know fully” is the way God himself has timelessly “fully known” us.

          As mind-boggling as this is, those are the words that God breathed-out through the apostle Paul. It fits beautifully with the words God breathed–out through the apostle John that when we see Jesus we shall be like him. If we are “like” Jesus, will we not know fully even as he has fully known us?[8]

          My contention is quite simple. We need words to the bridge that enable us to express both our earthbound wonder that we are presently unable to know what it cost Jesus Christ to become sin for us, and we need words that will express this other spectrum of wonder that one day we will know what it cost Jesus to become sin for us because we will know as he knows. We will be like him in knowing. One day the wonder that fills our hearts at things we cannot know and understand will be replaced by a greater wonder when we suddenly do know and understand what Jesus did for us.

          Okay, enough said. Let me make my suggestion for what the bridge could express so that it avoids the repetition, and invites us into the revelation of God’s word that we are one day going to know as fully as God has fully known us. I suggest that the bridge go like this:

On earth I’ll never comprehend

How much you suffered for my sin

But heaven will reveal to me

The price you paid to set me free

All earthly things to me are loss

Compared to what salvation cost

And one day I will fully know

As even now I’m fully known[9]

          At the very least, these are some of the thoughts that come to my heart and mind when I want to tell God that I am here to worship. I share it with the awareness that all these thoughts and feelings will pale in comparison to the pure-hearted worship we will experience in the heavenly throne room of God. Until that day, I prefer what this bridge expresses. Perhaps you would like to sing it with me?

© 2014 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)

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[1] “Here I am to Worship” written by Tim Hughes, © 2001, Thankyou Music (KWY) (PRS) (admin. EMI Christian Music Publishing). All rights reserved. International copyright secured. Used by permission.

[2] Yes, I know that feelings about repetition in songs is somewhat subjective.

[3] John 4:23-24

[4] I Corinthians 13:12

[5] John 17:3

[6] I John 3:2

[7] II Timothy 3:16-17; II Peter 1:21

[8] I’m not claiming that our knowledge will be equal  to Jesus’ knowledge, but that we will have a sense of knowing that is likened to the way the Father has known us.

[9] © 2014 Monte Vigh