“Stronger”. Even one of the writers of this song admits that he weighed in his own mind if this was the correct word for the song. Reuben Morgan and Ben Fielding evidently thought of the God-man being stronger in a spiritual sense, while conversely, He was willing to take a physical beating ending in death. In that sense He’s rather like the obviously weaker, small boy named David taking on the larger and much more imposing Goliath (see here the 19th Century artwork of Osmar Schindler), an amazing historical episode (1 Samuel 17) that provides a physical metaphor for this battle that Jesus would unexpectedly win centuries later. Could it be that Reuben and Ben were also reading and considering what a 1st Century writer had to say on the matter of God turning upside down the conventional thinking about His death by execution? See what you think makes someone ‘stronger’, as Reuben and Ben describe it.
A broadcast interview of the native Australians Reuben Morgan and Ben Fielding (evidently not too long after they co-wrote ‘Stronger’ in 2007) revealed that the two friends hewed the song’s foundation over the telephone, though they did get together in person to fashion other parts of the song. It happened quite spontaneously, as they shared with the interviewer that the ‘stronger’ focus emerged in this telephonic exchange. Reuben wondered if another word – perhaps ‘greater’ or ‘higher’ -- should instead be emphasized; could that be how one of these two alternate words made its way into the song’s chorus, in which Christ’s name is ‘lifted higher’? Were Reuben and Ben also influenced by something they had read? ‘Stronger’ is a crucial word that the great apostle Paul uses in writing to some 1st Century Christians (1 Corinthians 1:25) – God’s power and wisdom in the cross of Christ might have seemed like ‘foolishness’ compared to ‘human wisdom’, but His weakness exceeds human strength. And, He chose His method to ‘nullify’ our human standards, so that we’d ‘boast’ in Him alone (vv. 28-31). His being, His way, and His sacrifice are stronger, able to break ‘shame and sinfulness’ (‘Stronger’, v.1), transporting us through ‘storm and fire’ (v.2). Reuben and Ben may have been trying individually to write some meaningful lyrics that day before they spoke on the phone, but they arrived at the same conclusion as they shared with each other: ‘Stronger’ clicked and flowed so effortlessly, that they just went with where they were being led. Sounds kinda like what Paul was telling the people of his time; go with the One who’s proven He’s ‘stronger’.
Reuben and Ben also wrote some key words in a third verse to describe this ‘stronger’ being, and what He’s done. ‘No beginning and no end’ – that’s my God. Therein is His strength, a bulwark for my ‘hope’ and ‘defense’, a Being not content to leave me condemned, but to ‘save’ me through a ‘cross’ where He paid my debt. He’s always been, and always will be, so what other power can contest that? I can visit the gym and body-build to overtake others, win medals, and testify to others about my physique. But, just a few months and years later, my muscles become flab. Just ask Arnold Schwarzenegger. God doesn’t have to show me His six-pack abs or awesome biceps. He made them! And, He made me. He’s got a perpetual nature, one that I need to access in order to go where He’s living. There’s no way around that. He’s holding out His ageless, unwrinkled, eternal hand. You gonna take it?
See here for a link to the song’s story: https://www.worshiptogether.com/songs/stronger-hillsong-worship/
See here for brief biography of one of the authors: https://hymnary.org/person/Morgan_R
See biography of one author here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reuben_Morgan
See biography of one author here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Fielding
See here for information about the album on which the song appears: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Is_Our_God
