Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. (Romans 12:1 NASB)
A living and holy sacrifice. Why would we offer ourselves in such a way? Why would we, as it were, climb onto the altar and present everything in service to God?
“Everything And Nothing Less” explores the act of surrender to God and why it is the only appropriate response to what Christ has done for us. To start understanding why giving all is necessary, we must first understand our story as sinners.
It is as though we were born into tombs. We were dead to delighting in God’s glory, the glory He clearly displayed throughout His creation. We opened our eyes only to darkness and hardened our hearts to the only one worthy of our highest affections. As fools, we spent all of who we were and everything we had in worship of created things, as if they could somehow satisfy an eternal soul.
It was a miserable existence and its end held but one thing: death.
But God—He looked at this earth and knew there was a people He loved. Jealous for our affections, for our hearts, for our worship, He sent His Son to pay our great debt of sin against Himself. Because of His great mercy, we were bought out of our slavery, with our hearts softened and our mouths opened in song to our Creator.
Though we had been dead, He made us alive together with Christ. It was His gift to a people He desired to be His. He wanted us for Himself.
Now humbly we stand before Him and ask ourselves, “In light of these mercies, what could I give to you, Lord?” The more we think about His mercy we realize the question really ought to be, “What would I ever withhold from You?” Is there anything we would not offer to the God who sent His Son to the lowest depths so that we might be His?
He is worthy of everything and nothing less.
We bring to Him not only all that we have, but all of who we are. We offer Him our song, our minutes, our dollars. We pledge to Him our thoughts, our hearts, our lives, our worship. “Everything And Nothing Less” is a declaration of a heart made alive in Christ and a life now lived in service to Christ.
Having exchanged what is worthless for what is worthy, we offer everything to God and surrender ourselves to His will. We do so in trust that the life lived in worship of God and obedience to His will is never wasted.
While this song is a declaration, it is also a prayer. In our souls we long to be faithful and holy, offering ourselves only to Him, and yet, in this life, we fail. We return to our idols and pay them our affections and our worship day after day. Our deceptive hearts continue to whisper that maybe this time there will be some lasting pleasure to be found there.
Written into this song, therefore, is a reminder that the day is coming soon when Christ will return and these lies will be silenced forevermore. We sing, “Everything and nothing less, forever,” with the hope that God will soon make these words true. We ask Him to hasten the day when we are gathered around His throne, faithful to give Him all of who we are and all that we have for eternity.
