Professor or Possessor?

This is the most frightening question on the album, and I wrote it pointed at myself. Professor or possessor, which one are you? A professor has the words. He studies, he defends, he can recite the doctrine and hold his status in the camp. A possessor has Christ. And the terror of Matthew 7 - I never knew you - is that the two can look identical from the outside. You can profess flawlessly and possess nothing.

I have to sit under this one. I am a man of words and doctrine; if anyone is in danger of mistaking the map for the country, it is me. The song will not let me hide behind how much I know. Not just a mind that knows His name, but a heart set free. It pushes past the talking points to the only thing that matters - is Christ actually within, or do I only have the rumor of Him?

But hear how verse three ends, because it changes everything. After asking which one will you be for the whole song, it does not say to choose better or try to be more sincere. It says the choice is God's. Possession was never something you could manufacture by examining yourself hard enough. It is His gift, His doing, sovereign grace that transforms and anoints. Which means even here, at the scariest question on the record, the answer is the same as the rest of the album: nothing in my hands. If I possess Him, He possessed me first.