I’ve been exploring some of the very modern worship songs as an old guy 😀. But now, I’ve decided to alternate between very modern hymns, old hymns, and in-between hymns, namely the worship songs from the 60s to the 90s that feature in hymnbooks such as Mission Praise. Today it’s the turn of the very modern hymns.
Today’s song is Famous One from 2002.
The title sounds strange. It sounds like you’re complimenting God for being famous 😀. But another way of looking at it is that we’re delighting in the fact that Jesus, who is both human and God incarnate, is known throughout the earth.
But is the song about Jesus, the Father, or God as all three persons in the Trinity? Either way, Jesus reveals God as He is. So we delight in the fact that the true God is known rather than gods that humans invent. Even if you believe in one God, your picture of Him could be so distorted that He only remotely resembles the God of Scripture. And even those of us who love the Scripture can develop unbalanced views of God. Some might believe so much in His love that they dismiss verses about Him punishing sin. Others might do the opposite.
I feel privileged to have grown up in a society where Jesus was prominent – or famous. There were some things in Roman Catholicism that I rejected when I investigated them in the light of Scripture, but I never rejected Scripture or Jesus Himself. I do remember going through a phase in my teens where I wondered if Jesus was one of several incarnations of God, but that didn’t last very long. It’s clear from the New Testament that Jesus is the exclusive way to God.
John 14:6
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Acts 4:12
Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”
So, I’m pleased that Jesus had such a prominent place in my society. But I wonder how I’d fare if I lived in a different time and a different place. In the New Testament era, I would have been in a position to meet people who witnessed the miracles and even the resurrection. In 1 Corinthians, Paul mentions those who witnessed the resurrection, and many were still alive when Paul wrote the epistle.
1 Corinthians 15:6
6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.
I don’t have the opportunity to meet direct witnesses nowadays, but I have the New Testament, the Holy Spirit, and I can see His effect on history. Even the very year is a witness to that – 2026 years since what? And even among other religions, though they might not share the Christian view on Jesus, many see Him as being from God.
I sometimes wonder how I’d react if I lived in Ireland at the time of Saint Patrick. Patrick would be telling me about some obscure person that lived in another part of the world and claimed to be the Son of God. Why would I believe that? Well, Patrick was successful, however it happened. Even when Jesus isn’t culturally famous, the Holy Spirit can still operate internally through giving us an appetite to believe and externally through visions, dreams and miracles. I’ve sometimes heard people who have no interest in Pentecostalist claims, declare that God sometimes does miracles in situations where a community is hearing the gospel for the first time. This is similar to what happened in the New Testament era.
But where Jesus is known about, we can delight that He is famous and that people have the opportunity to come to personal faith in Him. Sometimes people are too quick to think that it’s all about putting confidence in the church. They hear bad things about a denomination, so they “throw the baby out with the bath water” and become atheists or agnostics. But its Jesus Himself that we put our faith in. I go to church to fellowship with others. I try to find churches that are made up of people who love Jesus and the Bible. I’m inevitably going to encounter people that I don’t get on with. And of course, you’ll get scandals and bad behavior in any human institution. But none of that stops me from believing in Jesus.
Here are some other versions of today’s hymn – and an interview with Chris Tomlin:
Hibernia Gospel 