Theological Song Review: More Like Jesus - by David Morrill

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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We've commented on some other articles written by Mr. Morrill. We've found that he seems to have an ax to grind, which colors his writing in a substantial way. He is simply looking for trouble in the "NAR" songs he reviews, and rigs his rating system to ensure they receive bad recommendations.

We recognize that everyone has their own tastes in worship music and in the way worship is conducted when the saints gather, so we have no quibble with Mr. Morrill's tastes. It's only when he attacks and impugns based on some imagined infractions that we draw the line.

Since Mr. Morrill cannot do us the courtesy of supplying the actual lyrics in question, we shall do so ourselves:

You came to the world You created
Trading Your crown for a cross
You willingly died
Your innocent life paid the cost

Counting Your status as nothing
The King of all kings came to serve
Washing my feet
Covering me with Your love

If more of You means less of me, Take ev'rything
Yes, all of You is all I need, Take ev'rything

You are my life and my treasure
The One that I can't live without
Here at Your feet
My desires and dreams I lay down
Here at Your feet
My desires and dreams I lay down

Oh Lord, change me like only You can
Here with my heart in Your hands
Father I pray make me more like Jesus
This world is dying to know who You are
You've shown us the way to Your heart
So Father I pray make me more like Jesus

And sadly, the author cannot be bothered to quote Scripture. He's sprinkled in a few links to Scripture, but if one is going to do a "theological song review," we would think that explaining from Scripture would be a key component.

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Church worship trends in one of two directions. Either it progresses towards higher, God-pleasing, more exclusive worship practice and proclamation, or it moves towards more generalized, ecumenical, and man-pleasing practice. The God of the Bible and his gospel are exclusive, and the more specific the identity, works, and majesty of the Lord, the higher and more God-honoring the worship. While we may experience good feelings and should be edified by our participation, bringing a sacrifice of praise that glorifies the true God for who He truly is must be the main priority of our worship gathering. The material brought into the worship gathering is a prime indicator of the standards, seriousness, and direction of a church’s worship, and (as we’ve discussed before) the visible church’s worship practice continues to suffer from a stage-3, man-focused cancer.

The song More Like Jesus was featured on the 2018 Passion album Whole Heart and was written by Passion City Church pastor Kristian Stanfill, along with Hillsong mainstays Brooke and Scott Ligertwood and fellow Passion leader Brett Younker. Before we start, it should be noted that, logically, there are two ways worshipers seek to be more like Jesus. One is to conform ourselves to Christ. The other is to attempt to conform Christ to us. Sadly, the latter makes an appearance in this song.

Note: For a full explanation of the rubric and a primer on our scoring methodology, click here.

Doctrinal Fidelity and Clarity: The song opens with the line, “You came to the world you created, trading your crown for a cross” – an immediate Christological error. Jesus did not lose his crown of glory or any part of his divine kingship as part of the incarnation (John 10:30, Hebrews 2:9). (Let's quote these Scriptures:

Jn. 10:30 I and the Father are one.

He. 2:9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

This is probably why the author does not quote the Bible. The first isn't relevant to his point, and the second contradicts his assertion. The author of Hebrews is quite clear that Jesus was" made a little lower than the angels" [a human being, Ph. 2:7] but subsequently is crowned with glory. He was crowned because of his obedient sacrificial death:

Ph. 2:8-11 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Jesus' exalted place is as a result of His work on the cross.

The author thinks the lyric means Jesus lost his crown. But the lyric clearly says He traded His crown. This is quite correct. Jesus "made himself nothing" [Ph. 2:7], which of course means, well, nothing. He relinquished His heavenly glory and it was given back when He was exalted.)

This kind of reduction of the worshipped Christ to primarily man ("Primarily?" Perhaps the author could enlighten us to where the line is drawn in the incarnation?)

is a typical fixture of modern worship music, as a dragging down of Christ to the level of the worshiper (??? Why would the songwriters then plead to Jesus to be more like Him if He's been dragged down to their level? This makes no sense.)

opens the door for a self-focused, self-validated lyrical framework (??? The song is titled "More Like Jesus," which necessarily is focused on the songwriters' desire to be more like Jesus.)

and encourages a more emotional, romantic, experience-seeking worship experience. (We direct the reader to the actual lyrics above. Does the reader see any such thing in them?)

The same mischaracterization is seen in the phrase, “counting your status as nothing” (an apparent reference to Philippians 2:6-7), ("Apparent?" The author is doing his best to cast doubt on the plain statements of the song. There is nothing ambiguous about what the songwriters are saying.)

which implies a loss of deity status rather than Christ setting aside his heavenly privileges as part of his sovereign purpose in the incarnation. (Ho-boy. No wonder the author only quotes snippets of the lyrics. The actual lyrics state:

Counting Your status as nothing

The King of all kings came to serve

The author is now embarrassing himself.)

While much of the song is technically correct in terms of doctrine, (The author now walks back everything he previously wrote.)

nearly every lyric requires additional context and explanation to be identifiably Christian. (Yet again we direct the reader to the lyrics. They are not ambiguous, they are clearly Christian.)

The lyric “this world is dying to know who You are” is biblically incorrect, as “dying” for something is a phrase implying a desire for that thing, and scripture teaches that apart from conversion, the world does not desire Jesus (Romans 3:11). (The author infers what isn't implied. 

Personally, when we evaluate song lyrics we tend to extend some poetic license to the songwriters. There are limits to our grace, but in the absence of heresy we would not object to this lyric.

Since we are not inclined to look for bogeyman around every corner, we would offer this alternative: "This world is dying" is an accurate statement regarding the state of sinful man, and "to know who You are" is the remedy for this death.)

Additionally, there is a salvific difference between knowing who Jesus is (Romans 1:19-20) and truly knowing Jesus (John 10:27). 15/25.

Doctrinal Specificity: While the lyrics allude to some scriptural truth (Jesus as a servant, can’t live without Jesus), most of the song bears the typical generic emotionality of wide-appealing worship music. The sin of man and salvation are predictably characterized as Jesus putting the icing on the cake of the believer’s life rather than saving it from judgment and destruction. “Your innocent life paid the cost” gets close to the specific gospel message, although what the cost is remains unidentified. “Change me like only you can” and “You’ve shown us the way to your heart” are similarly vague, leaving worshipers the option of seeing these as referring to salvation, sanctification, or some mishmash of the two. (The author doesn't seem to realize that this is a worship song, not a doctrinal song. There is no requirement to make a theological treatise, especially since worship songs are generally sung by people who are already Christians.)

10/20.

Focus: The focus of the song starts on Christ (although not a faithful description of Him), but quickly shifts to a focus on and elevation of the general, emotionally-framed needs and acts of the worshiper (“covering me with your love,” “my heart in your hands”). The song seems to focus on sanctification (There's no "seems" about it. Again, the title of the song is "More Like Jesus.")

more than salvation (“make me more like Jesus”), but makes no attempt to identify specific scriptural components of sanctification (repentance, obedience, knowing God more through knowledge) (The author seems to think that sanctification is a work of human effort, but it's not:

1Co. 6:11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

1Th. 5:23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

2Th. 2:13 ...from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.

There is certainty an obligation for us to make effort towards sanctification [Ro. 13:12, Ep. 4:24, Col. 3:10, 2Pe. 1:5, 2Pe. 3:14, etc. But it is Spirit-empowered effort and the result of the Spirit's action.

That fact that the song makes only a small effort to explain the mechanics of sanctification is not problematic.)

and instead employs emotional generalities (“take everything,” (We might wonder what the author thinks of "Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe.")

“you’ve shown us the way to Your heart”). (God's heart is clearly accessible: 

Ge. 8:21 The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of man..."

And there is a way to that place: 

He. 10:19-20 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain...

The author is so inured to his biases that they have colored these song reviews.)

10/20.

Association: Passion Conferences have been around since 1997, and it’s safe to say the organization is the progenitor of the modern praise and worship conference scene. The movement was started by Louie Giglio of Passion City Church in Atlanta, a church that has played host to a who’s who parade of false teachers including Francis Chan, Christine Caine, Carl Lentz, and Judah Smith. Giglio’s preaching downplays the eternal consequences of sin and repentance and has long been soft on the biblical teaching on homosexuality and gender. He has partnered with nearly every big name in ecumenical big-market “Christianity,” including Brian Houston, Andy Stanley (his childhood friend), and Steven Furtick (who similarly teaches Giglio’s little gods heresy). (We have no desire to critique two articles at once, but we will say that though some errant pastors have certainly taught a literal "little gods" doctrine, we don't concede that every mention of the divine nature by a pastor is this. There is something worth exploring about the nature of Christ in us and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit:

2Pe. 1:4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.)

The 2022 Passion Conference featured Gateway Church prosperity praise leaders Cody Carnes and Kari Jobe, Christine Caine, Levi Lusko, and wokester David Platt.

Most worshipers likely won’t know about these associations even as the bad doctrine floating around such a hive of scum and villainy seems to have made its way into the song’s doctrine. 10/20.

Musical Value: The slow 6/8 is a good choice for an acoustic guitar-led ballad. The instrumentation and arrangement are formulaic but easy to sing even as the first verse and chorus are an octave down from the rest of the song in order to build energy. These guys are great songwriters in the modern praise-and-worship genre. 15/15.

Total Score: 60/100. The song barely makes it into the PG, Pastoral Guidance Suggested category, and narrowly avoids automatic disqualification in the doctrinal and associational areas. The associational danger is not quite at the same level as Elevation tunes (although churches would be justified in avoiding it on this basis), yet the doctrinal vagueness necessitates strong surrounding context in the worship service (teaching, announcing) to provide clarity. In other words, the song cannot stand on its own. There are better choices out there, of course. (We shall take the liberty to offer our own tastes. We don't particularly like the song ourselves, but for different reasons. The song has a lot of words, which could have been put to better use with perhaps a bit more elegance and profundity. The melody is uninspired, and the arrangement is pedestrian. 

And lastly, had we been involved in the songwriting we would have built on the songwriter's plea to be more like Jesus by adding an affirmation of the faithfulness of God to do it:

Ph. 1:6 ...he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

This would turn the focus to worship and provide the needed resolution to the song's longing.)