SONG OF GRACE (Jarod Espy)

PERSONAL TESTIMONY (Daniel): Rarely am I blown away by a song I've never heard before, but "Song of Grace" by Jarod Espy is arguably one of the greatest songs of worship I have ever heard. I'd rate it as high, if not higher, than anything I've listened to over the years from popular, contemporary worship ministries like Hillsong, Elevation, Bethel, Vertical, North Point, Sovereign Grace, etc. It's not just a great song, but a treasured and timeless hymn, and arguably one of the best kept secrets in Christian music to date since being released a few years ago. My prayer is that the love and popularity of this song receives the recognition it deserves and ignites a revival within worship services all across the world, because it encompasses everything we could ever want or need to know about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I pray this personal reflection and songwriter perspective help provide the spark to ignite that fire in the Church of Jesus Christ for the praise and glory of our Almighty King. Therefore, "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer" (Psalm 19:14).

The greatest gifts in life are typically unexpected. After publishing my previous post, Last Word, I challenged those within my inner circle of friends to share their favorite songs for overcoming spiritual warfare in their lives.

I was pleasantly surprised to receive so many great responses, but a trusted friend and fellow worship leader from Florida sent me a link to his "new" favorite song, which inevitably sparked the inspiration for this personal reflection.

Honestly, I had never heard “Song of Grace” before, but the music video immediately captured my attention as I witnessed my extended family in Christ pour their hearts out in genuine praise and worship to God.

Make no mistake, I loved the music arrangement from start to finish, but the beauty and richness of the lyrics, saturated in Biblical truth, pierced my heart to the point where I could not stop listening to this track over and over again. Like my brother in Christ, I too had succumbed to the Spirit's conviction that this was not just another worship song.

Its spiritual roots ran far deeper than most songs written today, articulating the Gospel from a poetic, hymn-perspective which, in my opinion, echoed the beauty of prayers I've treasured from the Valley of Vision. Therefore, I consider it an honor and blessing to share the same unexpected gift I received from my friend with those who would be willing to open their hearts and minds to the power of this song and its prophetic words.

What makes this particular reflection/devotion so unique is the inclusion of personal testimony from the singer/songwriter, Jarod Espy. Typically when I use a song as inspiration for a devotion post, I research online to find background information on the meaning behind the lyrics. However, none could be found in this instance.

Therefore, I decided to step out in faith and personally reach out to Jarod to gain perspective, if he was willing to share. Within a couple hours, he responded with genuine excitement and interest to partner with me on creating a devotional experience that would draw people closer to the Lord and His Word through our collective effort.

I must confess it is a tremendous blessing for me to share how the Spirit inspired and spoke through Jarod to compose this masterpiece, because this song and reflection/devotion are intended to bring glory to God alone, not man. In other words, "But now, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand" (Isaiah 64:8).

Make no mistake, the Holy Spirit inspired this beautiful hymn to bring honor and glory to the only One who is worthy of praise, Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. I am tremendously encouraged though knowing how prayerfully considered this song was in its revelation, which should be a huge affirmation to the church universal due to the amount of discernment Jarod gave during the 3 months it took to compose Song of Grace.

Jarod's Perspective: Approaching lyrics on a song like this comes with much prayer. When writing songs for the Church, I believe there is a great responsibility to be a good steward of the lyrics. We are literally writing words that people will be singing to God. I don’t take that lightly. With God’s grace, I want to make sure the things I write are coming from a flowing river of what God is doing in my life today and not a stagnant pond. In other words, I need to be actively walking with the Lord and hungering for His Word. His Word is the source and the Spirit is the guide. I happened to be going through a difficult season in my life during the time of writing this song, and God’s grace was something I needed to hear.

The beauty of true, Biblical worship is that it transcends our fleshly senses and aligns our soul with the Creator of the universe. For the born-again believer, true worship exposes the arrogance of our pride, magnifies our sin and need of redemption, focuses our attention on God's saving provision, and unites us eternally with Jesus Christ through His death, burial and resurrection.

Therefore, when we reflect upon who we are as sinful human beings and compare that to the beauty and majesty of our holy and sovereign Creator, we cannot help but proclaim unending praise and thanksgiving for what He has done on our behalf to save our souls from eternal damnation.

"For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation" (Romans 5:6–11).

LYRICS: "Lord I come, O Sovereign King, all my hope is in Your hands. From creation's majesty, You ordained redemption's plan."

I believe it is imperative worship begins with recognizing our human fragility compared to almighty God, Himself. Paul put it this way: "He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:30), because acknowledging Christ as Lord and King is crucial to understanding the magnitude of grace God bestows on His children.

Only God alone is sovereign (supreme, ultimate and absolute). Therefore, placing hope and trust in anyone or anything other than His sovereignty is foolishness, for the Lord declares, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end" (Revelation 22:13).

Moreover, God cannot be defined from the humanistic confines of our time continuum, because He created it and even transcends our understanding of it.

"But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" (2 Peter 3:8).

Therefore, we are wise to worship God for the majesty, splendor and glory of His Creation, while also understanding that His redemptive plan of salvation required Him to sacrifice His beloved Son to ransom our lives from hell itself. This He foreknew and ordained before the creation of the world to ensure we had ample opportunity to choose salvation over death, because the hope of eternal life rests in the palm of His hands.

LYRICS: "For Your glory's renown and Your greatness displayed, mercy came and ransomed my life from the Fall. Mercy came and ransomed my heart."

How could anyone gaze upon the majesty of creation and boldly declare there is no God? It is hard to fathom, yet millions have suppressed the truth of God for a lie without realizing what is truly at stake. 

"For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse" (Romans 1:19–20).

Without a doubt, the greatness of God is immeasurable and His glory famous, yet how many of us truly grasp the enormity of His mercy? Regrettably, far too often we fall victim to minimizing God's mercy in favor of grace, yet both are critical aspects of His love which satisfy one another.

While grace is the unmerited favor of God, blessing us with what we don't deserve (i.e. salvation through Jesus' blood), mercy is God intentionally pardoning us for we do deserve (i.e. the sins of mankind), therefore enabling grace. 

Make no mistake, mercy came through the power of the cross to ransom and redeem our souls for no other reason but the unconditional and eternal love of our heavenly Father. But why? Perhaps the prophetic lyrics of In Christ Alone can give us a clue:

“In Christ alone who took on flesh, fullness of God in helpless babe. This gift of love and righteousness, scorned by the ones He came to save. Till on that cross as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied. For every sin on Him was laid, here in the death of Christ I live.”

Even though God is rich in mercy, his wrath upon sin must be satisfied (Romans 5:9). That is where His grace comes to fruition full circle—pouring out His wrath upon Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins. However, we must choose whether we'll accept that free gift of salvation before our time on earth comes to an end, lest we fall from the throne of grace forever without Jesus to stand in our place at judgment when God's wrath is revealed.

For those who have made the decision to surrender allegiance to Christ, forsaking all others, the outpouring of praise from our hearts cannot be quenched. Therefore we sing, "I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever. Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable" (Psalm 145:1–3).

Jarod's Perspective: Verse #1 speaks to God’s sovereignty and His plan of grace from the beginning of time. Jesus is "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8). "He chose us in Him (Christ) before the foundation of the world" (Ephesians 1:4). This can be a hard concept to wrap the mind around, but there is great security in it. It establishes the song on a place of God's sovereignty. I can trust Him because He has planned my redemption from the beginning of time. “Lord I come, O Sovereign King, all my hope is in Your hands...” because... “from creation’s majesty, You ordained redemption’s plan.” But I also wanted to make sure it spoke to God’s Glory in our redemption. We are saved "to the praise of His glory"(Ephesians 1:6), because "all things were created by Him, through Him and FOR Him" (Colossians 3:16–17). This keeps God as the focus and the inspiration for the lyric: “For Your glory’s renown and Your greatness displayed.”

LYRICS: "All the righteousness in me shows my desperate need of grace, for my purest thoughts and deeds stand to justify the grave."

Simply put, WOW! The more I wash my heart and mind with the convicting reality of this verse, the more I realize how foolish I am to ever consider righteousness as dependent upon my own strength and ability.

"We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away" (Isaiah 64:6).

Think about it. Everything within us which we proudly consider pure and righteous, only testifies to the desperation of our eternal plight if we stake our hope in self-preservation rather than submission and surrender to Christ.

Plainly stated, our absolute best, not simply our worst, testifies to how desperately we need the Lord. That is why Paul confessed, "Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith"(Philippians 3:8–9). 

LYRICS: "But the Christ intervened through the power of the cross. In His death, I am freed from the wages of sin. In His death, I am sealed by His blood." 

Only through the power of the cross are we freed from the bondage of sin. From death comes life—it doesn't logically make sense, but perhaps that is the point! Logically, we should receive the just wrath and punishment for our sins.

However, God ordained an escape clause in the eternal contract (mercy) which allows us to not only avoid permanent separation from Him in favor of continual torment, anguish and regret in hell, but a priceless inheritance in heaven reserved for those who simply accept His free gift of grace.

It just sounds too good to be true—AND IT IS! Therefore, we should be overwhelmingly thankful because we are saved by grace through the atoning blood of Jesus, the good shepherd, for the forgiveness of sins. "I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep" (John 10:14–15).

Jarod's Perspective: I came across an old Martin Luther hymn called, “Out of the depths I cry to Thee,” written 500 years ago. I had never seen this one, but there was a lyric on the page that immediately struck me: “Thy Sovereign Grace and boundless love show me, O Lord, forgiving; My purest thoughts and deeds but prove sin in my heart is living.” I had to read over it several times. The message here was, “Lord, forgive me, for even my very best proves that I am a sinner.” Wow! That is deep. “My righteousness is filthy rags.” This became the idea that inspired Song of Grace. Whether our sin is blatant and easy to identify, or not so obvious and even oblivious to us, we are all in need of His grace. None of us can earn it. Not even our best is good enough to earn it. We are all in desperate need of a Savior. Paul said, "My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me" (1 Corinthians 1:4).

LYRICS: "My soul will sing Your unfailing love. My heart will bless Your name. Forever my life will rest in Your grace. My soul will bless Your name."

What then is our response? PRAISE. Praise is simply the overflow of joy and thanksgiving from our hearts to God, pouring out like a waterfall upon the rocky landscape of trials and tribulations in our lives. It overcomes spiritual warfare because it testifies to the saving power of Jesus Christ, affirms our faith, and strengthens our trust and resolve in the Lord's will for our lives despite the difficult circumstances we may face.

Let us be clear though: Praise does NOT eliminate our trials. Rather, it shifts our focus off temporary trials and directs our attention on the permanency of salvation and God's sovereign provision, which elicits a response of thanksgiving for those who are saved by grace alone.

"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast" (Ephesians 2:8–9). 

Sadly, many people reject the gift of saving grace because it forces them to reconcile whether God is real and His Word is trustworthy. Scripture reminds us, "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall" (Proverbs 16:18), and many who reject God altogether do so because they view Him through the lens of legalistic religion vs. pure and vulnerable faith.

Jesus said, "Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few" (Matthew 7:13–14). Consequently, the call and response between what Jesus promises to those who trust in Him and the chorus of this song is beautiful.

For when we place our hope and trust in Christ, choosing to enter eternity by the narrow gate, our hearts have no choice but to sing of His unfailing love and bless His name for the sheer honor and privilege of resting in His grace and mercy.

Jarod's Perspective: Then we go to God’s intervention, the cross, and the power to free us from the wages of sin. This is the victory of every believer and this is where the song starts to turn to praise, leading to the refrain. The chorus is simply our response to His grace—what we’ve just sung in the verses. Because the verses are so heavy, I wanted to keep the chorus simple. So I thought of songs like, How Great Thou Art: “Then sings my soul!” Then Scripture came to mind: "Bless the LORD, O my soul, And all that is within me, bless His holy name!" (Psalm 103:1). The chorus is based off that inspiration. When I think about His grace, it overwhelms me. My soul knows its Savior, and simply wants to respond as that Psalm proclaims: “Bless His name!”

LYRICS: "Now my life is not my own. Jesus, use me as You please. Gladly I will share Your pain just to know the lasting peace." 

It is interesting that the "ownership" aspect of faith in Christ is a tremendous burden to reconcile for many who are lost yet searching for answers. They simply cannot fathom how spiritual freedom results from surrendering one's heart to the Lord.

What they fail to realize is that obedience and submission to Christ is liberation, not bondage, because lasting peace comes from knowing and applying the absolute truth of God's Holy Word in our lives. 

Jesus said, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28–30).

When we place our trust in Christ, we begin to cast off fleshly tendencies which perpetuate our love of self. In turn, we embrace our "born-again" identity and endure trial, pain and persecution for His name sake. Why? Because the mark of a true Christian is love—for what we have been given, we willingly share with our neighbor AND our enemy for His name sake, even if it results in trial, pain or persecution. 

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:34–35).

Unfortunately, over the last 2,000 years wolves in sheep's clothing have sought to manipulate the minds of the weak and exploit their spiritual immaturity for selfish gain, which Jesus sternly rebuked in His seven woes to the scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 23).

"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves" (Matthew 7:15). 

Make no mistake, Jesus came to abolish man-made religion as a means to salvation, because we are saved by grace through faith alone and not by works (Ephesians 2:8–9). The Bible clearly warns, "Everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin" (John 8:34), thus accepting slavery in the form of self-exaltation and self-preservation is futile thinking.

We will never be good enough to earn our way to heaven.  However, Jesus offers a far different and unique perspective for eternal reconciliation with God: Marriage.

"Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish" (Ephesians 5:25–27).

LYRICS: "So I give You my life that the whole world might see. There is hope in the power of Your saving grace. There is hope in the power of Your name." 

Keep in mind, "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). Consequently, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:31–32).

Because Jesus is the manifestation of absolute truth, we can rest in the eternal assurance that surrendering our lives to Him is not slavery which binds us, but marital covenant which frees us.

Marriage begins with a public proclamation of unity, forsaking all others until death due us part—and that is exactly the eternal promise Jesus made to His bride, the Church, when He gave His life unto death for her. That is why hope is not merely an aspiration, desire or wish for a future outcome, but a realistic expectation of eternity based upon the power of saving grace.

As Will Reagan famously wrote, "There is power in the name of Jesus to break every chain," and we are wise to heed that advice, grounded in the truth of God's Word which testifies to His glory and majesty. "Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:9–11).

Jarod's Perspective: Living in His grace. Now that we have received His grace, it doesn’t just end there. How do we live in it? We share it with the world. “Now my life is not my own...” (1 Corinthians 6:20; Galatians 2:20; Colossians 3:3). “Gladly I will share Your pain...” (Philippians 1:29; Colossians 1:24; 1 Peter 4:13). The Bible speaks so much on rejoicing in suffering, but this is the idea: Am I willing to do whatever it takes to reach the world with the grace I have found? Often times, worship songs today speak on the idea of suffering as to how God will deliver us and help us. There's certainly nothing wrong with that, but it can almost lend itself toward seeking momentary satisfaction from God. I wanted to approach this song not focused on my personal wants and needs, but actually with a willingness to suffer and be glad in it for His sake because I have all I need in Him, knowing that “lasting peace” is something which transcends our circumstances and even our lives. It is our eternal inheritance, not just momentary. "For this momentary light affliction is preparing for you an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison" (2 Corinthians 4:17).

LYRICS: "On that day before the throne when I'm standing as Your bride, there my heart is welcomed home in the open arms of Christ. I will join the redeemed in the anthem of grace: Praise the Lamb who purchased His bride from the grave! Praise the Lamb who purchased my heart!"

Words cannot describe how glorious it will be when we stand blameless and without blemish before the throne of grace ALL BECAUSE OF JESUS!

I realize many will still reject Jesus as Lord and Savior for whatever reason, but even the great French mathematician, physicist and inventor, Blaise Pascal, once said, "If I believe in God and life after death and you do not, and if there is no God, we both lose when we die. However, if there is a God, you still lose and I gain everything."

What then have we to lose by accepting Christ? Simply, our pride. Jesus said, "I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance" (Luke 15:7).

Heaven awaits those who place their eternal trust in the Lord. It's as simple as that. As a result, if we have accepted Christ's death on the cross for the forgiveness of sins and turned from our sin in submission to His will, we can rest assured the Father will welcome us home with open arms and declare, "Let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found" (Luke 15:23–24).

Therefore, let us join the redeemed in the anthem of grace and glorify the name of the Lord who is worthy to be praised. "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things. Blessed be his glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with his glory! Amen and Amen!" (Psalm 72:18–19).

Jarod's Perspective: Finally, in traditional hymn fashion, the heaven verse. I wanted this verse to come from the perspective of the Church as the Bride of Christ. That you and I are part of a Bride from every generation, whom Christ purchased with His blood. I love that imagery. And that one day, we would join the other saints who have gone before, all gathered as His bride, praising Him as it says in Revelation: "Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready" (Revelation 19:7). "Worthy are You...for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation" (Revelation 5:9). What an eternal perspective! What a day! With this thought, I wanted the song to culminate in a great point of exultation, which leads back to the chorus “my soul will sing...”

POST REFLECTION: It has been a tremendous honor working with Jarod on this post and understanding the heart of this song and how the Spirit inspired it. I pray those who listen to Song of Grace are blessed beyond measure and would encourage their local church communities to include it in their worship sets. 

For more information, please visit [http://jarodespy.com/] to access FREE worship resources including sheet music, loops, chord charts, and instrumental video tutorials which he has prepared to help equip and train the local church.

My sincere thanks to Jarod for his sincerity, humility and willingness to share his personal testimony in writing Song of Grace, and allowing me to publicly share that perspective with others. To God be the glory forever!