One Thing Remains by Jesus Culture

Why study what we sing?

When I worship through music, it is very helpful to me to look into how the Bible lines up to what I'm singing. This knowledge makes a superficial singing of the words much more difficult for me, and I hope that sharing this will help you to focus better on what you are singing and who you are singing to. The newest song that we’ve sung as a congregation is “One Thing Remains,” by Jesus Culture:

The lyrics to the song:

Verse 1
Higher than the mountains that I face,
Stronger than the power of the grave,
Constant in the trial and the change,
One thing remains.

Chorus
Your love never fails
Never gives up
It never runs out on me!
Your love!

Verse 2
On and on and on and on it goes.
It overwhelms and satisfies my soul.
And I never ever have to be afraid:
One thing remains.

BRIDGE
In death. in life I’m confident and
Covered by the power of Your great love.
My debt is paid there’s nothing that
Can separate my heart from Your great love.

CCLI Song # 5508444
Brian Johnson | Christa Black | Jeremy Riddle
© 2010 Bethel Music (Admin. by Bethel Music Publishing)
Mercy / Vineyard Publishing (Admin. by Music Services, Inc.)
ChristaJoy Music Publishing (Admin. by Bethel Music Publishing)

Scriptural Backup:

There are allusions in this song to many different scriptures. The chorus echoes the sentiment of Psalm 136 and many other places, saying, "His love endures forever!" This Psalm praises both who God is and what He has done throughout the history of Israel, repeating "His love endures forever" after each phrase. The repetition of the song’s Chorus in the same way speaks about who God is and what He has done in our lives and the chorus proclaims that "your love never fails, never gives up" (which is also in 1 Corinthians 13)--that it endures forever.

Romans 8:31-39 is also reflected in this song. Paul expresses in Romans 8 that no matter what may come against us and no matter what is in our way "we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us." The chapter speaks of how God, who gave up His own Son for us, will surely give us all things and bring us through all things.

Hebrews 9:15 says, "For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant." Our debt has been paid by Him and only Him.

In Hosea 13:14 the prophet declares that the Lord "will deliver this people from the power of the grave...will redeem them from death." The song proclaims that our God has shown His power over the grave through both Jesus’ resurrection and His bringing every Christian to life out of the death and the destruction of sin.

In the second verse of the song we sing "and I never have to be afraid." 1 John 4:18-19 says, "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because He first loved us."

What is this song really saying?

What this worship song is really saying is that we go through a lot of things in this life, and sometimes we may feel that we are at the end of ourselves and that there is no way out. But when there is absolutely nothing left of our own strength, our own energy, our own willpower...there is One Thing that Remains! Jesus Christ was sent to earth to die as a ransom for us, to pay our debt of sin, to redeem us from the grave. Because of this, there is an unspeakable joy that we are always trying to capture with worship songs. This song is another
expression to God that we are constantly trying to come to the end of ourselves and acknowledge that He is the One Thing that Remains.

Here is a youtube video of the song (not our church worship team):