These friends did what friends with a common interest so often do, when they are together. Matt Maher and Jason Ingram remember, years later, that it happened one time when they were in Fresno, California (see the flag for Fresno here), and as they were apparently improvising with an unrehearsed song fragment, a message to “Jesus, Son of God” emerged. It was an experience, perhaps one that these two didn’t even really expect. But it must have stuck with them, because they evidently relayed to a third friend, Chris Tomlin, what had risen to the surface from that episode. The finished product was the work of Matt, Jason, and Chris, but certainly they’d be quick to admit that another was present throughout the song’s development. What happened during this whole process underscores one more time that a Spirit – in this case, known as the Counselor, or even better, the Breath of the Spirit of Life – is the creative X-factor when a song that speaks about God comes to life.
To hear Matt, Chris, and Jason relate the evolutionary process of ‘Jesus, Son of God’ is to hear these fellows describe what happens when songwriters understand intimately that scripture is still active today. In the short space of a couple of minutes, Matt and Chris shared ideas from three parts of His word as they reflected on the song in a video in 2016 (see the YouTube link below). Matt said that what happened (at least four years earlier, in 2012) was that the chorus arose during a tour stop that he and Jason made in Fresno; that the words ‘on the altar of your praise…’ and the song’s title formed the embryo of what would later be the completed body of the song. It was the two of them being ‘…iron sharpening iron’ (Proverbs 27:17), as Matt recalled, to give voice to the initial words. And then, at a crucial point, ‘God breath(ed) fresh air’ upon what the two of them were doing, so Matt and Jason must have really felt personally that He is a Spirit with a Breath of Life, not unlike when God created living beings (Gen. 1:30; 2:7; 7:22). Perhaps they sensed Him as the Counselor also (John 14:26), the Being who was there to teach and guide their music-making. Chris further shared that the verse with the words ‘…crown of thorns…forgiveness…upon your face’ were his favorite in the entire song, because they recalled for him what one writer said about the necessity of shed blood in the courtroom of God’s justice and forgiveness (Hebrews 9:22). God required a blood sacrifice in the Old Testament law, and that’s a principle that Jesus could not ignore as He went about inaugurating a New Way; in these few song lyrics, Chris and his friends reemphasize for us that Jesus was not only honoring God’s ancient law -- by wearing the crown of thorns, He shed even more of His blood from His scalp -- but also that He was demonstrating a ‘love…the world had never known’.
To call Him ‘Jesus, Son of God’ might seem pretty simple. It’s just four short words. But, at the root of what Matt, Chris, and Jason have written here is the revolutionary impact on everyone who’s ever lived when those four short words, or their equivalent, are uttered. Just check out how His identity, when shared with others, stirred the passions of those He faced (like in Mark 14:61-63). Surely, these three contemporary songwriters knew what they were proclaiming with their lyrics – something pretty unsettling, for some. He came to bring a sword (Matthew 10:34), but He wasn’t averse to that sword’s effect on Himself. That’s courage, even if the peril that your identity forces upon you makes you sweat blood (Luke 22:44), even before you are offered as a sacrifice for everyone who’s ever inhabited or will inhabit this planet. What a yoke for anyone to bear! He just had to be Divine, to endure all this.
See the songwriters discuss the song’s genesis here: Jesus, Son of God, Matt Maher, Jason Ingram, Chris Tomlin (youtube.com) (YouTube video of an Essential Worship late night artist spotlight [at the Experience Conference in Orlando] on 10/8/2016)
See information on the Fresno flag here: File:Flag of Fresno, California.svg - Wikimedia Commons. This work was created by a government unit (including state, county, city, and municipal government agencies) that derives its powers from the laws of the State of California and is subject to disclosure under the California Public Records Act (Government Code § 6250 et seq.). It is a public record that was not created by an agency which state law has allowed to claim copyright, and is therefore in the public domain in the United States.
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