What Kanye West’s Salvation Teaches Us About Ourselves
By Autumn Miles, Contributing Writer
“Restore to me the joy of my salvation.” – Psalm 51:12.
Like most, I’ve spent some time in the last few days listening to Kanye West’s new album “Jesus Is King.” While I haven’t historically been a Kanye fan, I was intrigued by the hype surrounding his latest record. As the music played, tears filled my eyes. I heard scriptural truth being sung from a man who just a few short years ago declared that he was God.
Kanye West has always been surrounded by controversy, and his latest endeavor is no different. However, much of the criticism is coming from Christians who are scoffing at his claims of conversion to faith in Jesus Christ. They don’t believe someone like Kanye West, who once reveled in his sin, could have made such an abrupt change.
It’s not about whether we believe Kanye West; it’s about whether we believe the Gospel has the power to save.
Are we so quick to forget the grace that saved us when we were yet sinners? Didn’t we all need this grace at some point in our lives, just like Kanye? Maybe our life before Christ wasn’t played out in the spotlight like Kanye, but certainly we were just as dead in our sins.
It’s a good thing Christians don’t determine who gets into heaven, because I certainly wouldn’t make it.
Christians, remember the joy of your salvation when you first converted. Allow Kanye’s newfound zeal for the Lord take you back to the memory of where you were when God found you. What was your life like? Have you so profoundly lost the passion for the Lord that you would judge a man who just found it?
I have watched Kanye’s video interviews and the joy with which he talks about his salvation. In an interview with Zane Lowe, Kanye juxtaposes his life before Christ, saying he’s free now. Any believer in Jesus should resonate with that statement. We’re all free from the bondage of sin, no longer “dead men walking,” as Kanye described in an interview with James Cordon.
This is the Gospel – that Jesus can take what was dead and breathe life into it. The Gospel is powerful. Powerful enough that Kanye is risking pushback from the secular world that doesn’t understand and Christians who look at him through plank-stabbed eyes. The Gospel is powerful enough to change the “chief of sinners.” It’s powerful enough that through the centuries, thousands of men and women have put their lives on the line, martyred for His name. The Gospel is powerful enough to change anyone, cleanse anything and make everything we hold dear seem frivolous and meaningless in light of his marvelous grace.
When is the last time you spoke of your conversion with such excitement? Maybe instead of criticizing the finer points of Kanye’s theology, we should be asking God to “restore to me the joy of [your] salvation.”
So, thank you, Kanye for your refreshing and tangible reminder of how incredibly powerful the cross of Jesus Christ is. I am celebrating your salvation, along with Heaven. Welcome to the family.