Hillsong Young & Free (Feat. Lecrae) – This Is Living

It’s rare to evaluate a Hillsong Young & Free song!  Most of my Hillsong reviews are for the UNITED and Worship variants, including the Christmas songs Seasons and Prince of Heaven.

These, alongside Hillsong Kids, are the cash cows that churn Hillsong’s global dominance in the Christian Music industry.  With a plethora of awards for their works within Hillsong United and Hillsong Worship, their songs are played in congregations around the world.

Lyrics can be found at https://genius.com/Hillsong-young-and-free-this-is-living-lyrics.

Side Note: For the remainder of this review, I’ll refer to Hillsong Young & Free as Hillsong.

Note to new users: This is a different kind of review site!  Read About the Berean Test and Evaluation Criteria prior to reading this review.  I strongly encourage you to consider the potential blessings and dangers of this artist‘s theology by visiting Resources.

1. What message does the song communicate?

Its major theme is about God freeing Hillsong from their former life of darkness.  They live for God with eyes filled with awe, growing in holiness, cherishing God as their most prized possession.  Hillsong’s error is unwasted, willing to die for God if required.

My only criticism is that Verse 1, line 2 states that God makes all Hillsong’s ambitions come alive, which is likely untrue.

Score: 9/10

2. How much of the lyrics line up with Scripture?

Most of it aligns with the Bible, except with the song’s opening lines.  I’m unsure what Verse 2, line 2 means.

[Verse 1]

Lines 1 and 2: Not all dreams come alive.  For example, I dream of a billion dollars so that I could give generously to the poor.  It still hasn’t happened yet.  I doubt all of Hillsong’s dreams came to pass also.  Yet, they give credit to God as the One who made their dreams a reality, answering according to God’s glory (John 14:13).

Lines 3 and 4: Hillsong decided to live a life worthy of their calling (Romans 12:1-2, Ephesians 4:1, Philippians 1:27, Colossians 1:10, 1 Thessalonians 2:12, 1 Thessalonians 4:1-2, 2 Thessalonians 1:11, and 2 Timothy 1:9).

[Verse 2]

Line 1: God lifts Hillsong out of destruction (Psalm 40:2).  In much the same way as the crowd of Jesus was filled with awe and wonder when a paralytic was healed (Luke 5:25-26), so too is Hillsong full of amazement in the Lord working in their lives (Hebrews 12:28).

Line 2: That is, childlike faith (Matthew 18:3 and Mark 10:14-15) for all eternity (John 3:15-16, John 3:36, John 6:40, John 11:25-26, and 1 Timothy 1:15-16).

Line 3: Freedom allows Hillsong to do anything, but untainted freedom informs them that not everything is beneficial (1 Corinthians 10:23).  This is a call to holiness (Leviticus 11:44-45, Leviticus 19:2, Leviticus 20:7, Romans 6:1-14, Ephesians 4:1, Colossians 1:10-14, 1 Peter 1:13-16, and 1 Peter 2:16).

Line 4: God uses the evil thing we do for His good (Genesis 50:20).

[Pre-Chorus]

Lines 1 and 2: God’s light defeat the clouds shrouded in darkness (Psalm 107:10-16, Luke 1:79, John 1:1-13, John 12:46, Ephesians 5:8, Colossians 1:13, and 1 Peter 2:9).  Life takes on color.

Line 3: Hillsong people are new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Line 4: Implied contrasting of Hillsong’s life now with their former spiritual deadness (Romans 6:1-11, Romans 7:4-6, Galatians 2:19-20, 2 Timothy 2:11, and 1 Peter 2:24).

Line 5: Repeats line 4.

[Verse 3]

Line 1: God is Hillsong’s leader (John 15:1-10, 1 Corinthians 11:1-2, 1 Peter 2:21, and 1 John 2:3-6) who is with them (Deuteronomy 31:6-8, Joshua 1:5-9, Psalm 23:4, Psalm 46:1, Psalm 139:7-10, Isaiah 41:10, Jeremiah 23:23-24, Zephaniah 3:17, Matthew 6:25-34, Matthew 28:20, John 14:16-17, Hebrews 13:5, Romans 8:38-39, and Revelation 3:20).

Line 2: God’s love completes Hillsong (1 John 2:5 and 1 John 4:12).

Lines 3 and 4: Everything else compared to knowing God is rubbish (Philippians 3:8), whom Hillsong chooses.

[Chorus]

Lines 1 and 2: By “Higher”, Hillsong means more like God, pointing to sanctification (John 17:19, Romans 8:1, 1 Corinthians 1:2, 1 Corinthians 1:30, 1 Corinthians 6:11, Philippians 3:9, Hebrews 9:12, Hebrews 10:10-14, and Hebrews 13:12).

Line 3: That is, God’s freedom opens the doors to opportunity.  This is not a call to sin all we want, which would have contradicted Verse 2, line 3 and Romans 6:1-2.

Line 4: This implies that Hillsong’s desires are changed to want Him (Psalm 51:10, Jeremiah 24:7, Ezekiel 11:19, Ezekiel 36:26, Romans 2:29, Romans 12:2, 2 Corinthians 5:17, and 2 Corinthians 7:10).  God offers them more than they ask (Ephesians 3:20).

[Verse 4]

Lines 1-3: This raises the question, is the life I am living real?  Based on Pre-Chorus, line 4, the answer is a resounding yes.

Line 4: If love is an ocean, Hillsong will drown in it, pointing to immersion.  This is signified in baptism of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 3:11, Mark 1:8, Luke 3:16, John 1:33, Acts 1:4-5, Acts 2:1-4, Acts 11:15-16, and 1 Corinthians 12:13).

Lines 5 and 6: Hillsong tasted and saw that God is good (Psalm 34:8).

Lines 7-10: In good and bad times, God is Hillsong’s refuge (Genesis 15:1, Deuteronomy 33:29, 2 Samuel 22:3, Psalm 3:3, Psalm 5:11, Psalm 12:5, Psalm 18:1-3, Psalm 20:1, Psalm 27:1-5, Psalm 28:7, Proverbs 30:5, Psalm 33:20, Psalm 34:19, Psalm 46:1-3, Psalm 57:1, Psalms 59:1, Psalm 71:1-6, Psalm 84:11, Psalm 89:18, Psalm 91:1-16, Psalm 115:9, Psalm 121:1-8, Psalm 140:4, Proverbs 14:26, Proverbs 18:10, Isaiah 41:10, 1 Corinthians 10:13, and 2 Thessalonians 3:3) whose plans are good for those who seek Him (Jeremiah 29:11-14).

Lines 11-17: Hillsong trusts Jesus in the new life described in Pre-Chorus, line 3 knowing that they aren’t completely perfect.  They still have areas to grow in holiness (see Chorus, lines 1 and 2).

Lines 18 and 19: Hillsong is prepared to die for their faith (Luke 14:25-33).

Lines 20-26: Essentially repeats lines 13-19.

[Refrain]

Lines 1 and 2: Essentially repeats Verse 4, line 17.

Score: 9/10

3. How would an outsider interpret the song?

Hillsong relies mostly on everyday language to communicate transformation from life apart from God to life with God.  The words “Savior” and “God” point unbelievers towards a religious worldview with a savior and some version of God, possibly to Christianity.  “Forever young in Your love” might be confusing and claiming that God makes all dreams come to life may lead them towards Word of Faith, albeit unlikely.

Score: 8/10

4. What does this song glorify?

Aside from stating all their desires come alive, this song glorifies God by calling us to forsake folly and live for God.

Score: 9/10

Closing Comments

Hillsong Young & Free’s This Is Living is pretty good.  Its message is to proclaim God who lifts us out of darkness, where He is the most important thing and worth dying for.  This glorifies God.  While the song’s opener contains a slight error that God makes all dreams come true, unbelievers should be able to piece together Hillsong’s message.

If the word “all” is removed from Verse 1 and “Forever young in Your love” explained and supported by Scripture, I can recommend it for corporate worship.

Final Score: 9/10

Artist Info

Track: This Is Living (listen to the song)

Artist: Hillsong Young & Free (Feat. Lecrae)

EP: This Is Living

Genre: Pop, Hip Hop/Rap

Release Year: 2015

Duration: 3:31

Agree?  Disagree?  Don’t be shy or have a cow!  Calmly and politely state your case in a comment, below.

Updates:

01/11/2022 – Added commentary on “forever young in your love” based on Dan’s comment.