Who Is The Real Thief?

Singing is an important part of our worship. If the words of the songs we sing mean something, then we have to ask what we are communicating about our God when we sing, “our God has robbed the grave”.

Song Lyrics Matter!

This lyric appears twice in the song Resurrecting, co-written by Steven Furtick of Elevation Worship, released in 2018 and sung in many so-called evangelical churches everywhere. The song made it all the way to #3 on the Hot Christian Songs chart according to Billboard magazine. You can even purchase a Resurrecting rain jacket on the Elevation church website for just $40 that displays this phrase prominently on the back.

Contextually, the phrase is contained in a stanza regarding the tomb where Jesus was buried after the crucifixion:

The tomb where soldiers watched in vain
Was borrowed for three days
His body there, would not remain
Our God has robbed the grave
Our God has robbed the grave

Is Good Song-Writing Dead?

With a song title like ‘Resurrecting’, we expect to sing about the glories of Jesus rising from the dead. Some of the song lyrics definitely point to that. However, according to this song, God is a robber. Definitionally, a robber is a thief; someone who steals; someone who takes things that do not belong to them. This is a violation of one of God’s own commandments, ‘you shall not steal’ (see Exodus 20:15 and Deuteronomy 5:19). This song lyric attaches an attribute to God that does not belong to Him. It also makes Him into a ‘do as I say, not as I do’ sort of celestial being.

Someone may defend this kind of song-writing as employing ‘poetic license’. But I would argue that the Lord hasn’t given anyone the permission to misrepresent Him, including poets. God takes His reputation very seriously. All through the Bible, we find statements of God’s character and His nature (see Exodus 15:11, 34:6-7; Deuteronomy 10:17-18; Psalm 57:10-11; and hundreds of others like them). Nowhere in God’s Word does He call Himself a robber. Furtick and Elevation Worship have not only gone beyond scripture in characterizing God, but they’ve blasphemed His holy name in describing Him in such a demeaning and derogatory way.

A Scriptural Perspective

To get perspective on robbing, thievery and stealing, consider the following passages of scripture:

Deuteronomy 24:7 – If a man is found stealing one of his brothers of the people of Israel, and if he treats him as a slave or sells him, then that thief shall die. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
Matthew 26:55 – At that hour Jesus said to the crowds, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day I sat in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me.
John 10:1 – Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber.
John 10:10 – The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
Ephesians 4:28 – Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.

In no way, shape, manner or form is God to be associated with robbery or stealing.

Objection 1
What about 1 Thessalonians 5:2 and 2 Peter 3:10? Will not the Lord return like a thief in the night?

These are not proof texts that characterize the Lord as someone who steals. To associate the return of Jesus with robbers is to miss the point entirely. The authors of these verses are making the point that the day of the Lord will occur when it is not expected. There will be people who are not prepared for that day, just like there are people who are not prepared if a thief comes to their house at night to break in and steal their things.

Objection 2
Doesn’t Philippians 2:6 say in reference to Jesus, that He ‘thought it not robbery to be equal with God’? That almost sounds like Paul is defending Jesus stealing His own status from God so as to be equal with Him.

This verse is saying exactly the opposite. Jesus did not have to take anything from God, because He WAS God… God in the flesh.

Who is the Real Thief?

Here’s the truth: the grave never owned Jesus. Before the foundations of the world, God ordained that His only Son would die, be buried and then be resurrected so that we might have life. God didn’t have to resort to stealing anything or Anyone. God literally raised Jesus from the dead (Romans 10:9). If there’s any thievery going on here, it’s those who would rob God of His glory by writing and singing such careless, disrespectful and inaccurate words.

To sing this song is to agree with its message. We have to ask ourselves if that would be worshiping God in spirit and truth.