Traded heaven for humanity
Our God eternal who became a man
Who is this God who’d exchange His life?
For the beggar and the dead

I was sitting at my piano one day and playing around with some chords. The phrase “traded heaven for humanity” came to me and that helped in setting the direction for the song I was writing.

As I progressed to coming up with a chorus for the song I had in mind, “this is our God, the Servant King” emerged. This cemented the anthemic sound of the song that I was going for, and it was so clear that I could hear the drumbeat of it.

This is our God, the Servant King
Nailed to the cross but rose again in victory
This is our God, King Jesus
Lamb who was slain, exalted now forever

The verses of the song reflected my own personal Biblical revelation of the paradox of Christ – that He was both a servant and a king. There is actually an old and amazing hymn that is also entitled “The Servant King” so it was encouraging for me to put a modern spin on this compelling concept as well.

King of Heaven humbled to a cross
He knew no sin yet He bore the world’s
Who is this God, who would save my life?
And wash me clean by His blood

And what makes it compelling is the immense contrast that is embedded within – He who is holy and almighty was willing to become a bondservant to serve humanity as the Messiah (Philippians 2:5-8); Jesus washed the feet of His disciples (John 13:1-17). And in that humanity, He gave them and us freedom from any worldly bondage (John 8:36).

The veil was torn at His final breath
And the tomb could not contain His pow’r
Who is this God who defeated death?
He is risen from the grave

Another phrase that reflected this contrast, “God eternal became a man” came in very early in the development of the song. And that encapsulates the audacity of Christ and the gospel, that He willingly became mortal and suffered the extremes of human suffering all because of and for love.

I would give my life
For the cause of Christ
To love like you loved and
To serve like you served

The bridge of the song than moves into a personal response from us as worshippers, a cry from which each of us. I’m imagining this song as a congregational piece as well. A.W. Tozer has a beautiful quote which comes to mind when I think the transformational power corporate worship has to individual worship.

“Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshippers met together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become ‘unity’ conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.”

So as each individual within the congregation declares their desire to be more like Christ, that actually ties them even closer as a community. And that will be how the church is strengthened with each of its members desiring to be servant leaders, simply because their eyes are fixed on the true Servant King.

“Servant King” is a song from Awaken Generation‘s latest album, “Our Light Has Come”, which will be released on October 11, 2018, on all major music platforms.