In this post, I will break down the lyrics of "The Father's Bargain" and discuss how the song talks about God's grace.
Wolves At The Gate (WATG) is a Christian metal band that, like me, is from the Midwest. Since the band was formed in 2008, they have released multiple EPs and six full length albums (Lost in Translation, their newest album, came out in September).
Image of members of Wolves At The Gate
WATG is known for their heaviness both in their sound and in their lyrics. They don’t hold back when it comes to proclaiming the cost of our sin. And many of their songs convey God's love for us with a powerful mix of music and emotion.
An example of one of these songs is “The Father’s Bargain,” which comes from the band’s 2014 album VxV.
If you haven’t heard this song before, make sure you give it a listen:
The song begins with an intro that’s an excerpt from a 2014 Good Friday sermon by Anthony Zurlo. Since I’m focusing on the lyrics, I’m not going into depth over this intro. But it sets the scene for the rest of the song by showing how God’s love doesn’t make sense by our human standards. Who could continue to selflessly love someone who constantly resists them, curses them, and wants nothing to do with them? Who would choose to give their life for someone who refuses to acknowledge that they exist?
Oh, now my Son
Here is a company of miserable souls
Cold and undone
Searing their conscience with hearts black as coals
Here now they lie
Objects of justice, deserving of wrath
Speak Your reply
What shall be done for them?
Draw out your path
No one can contain the power and depths
Of My abundant love
The majority of this song is set up as a conversation between God and Jesus. In this first verse, God says that humanity is “miserable” from living lives of sin. Because every human has sinned (Romans 3:23 - “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”), we are “objects of justice, deserving of wrath.” This means that because we have broken the commands God gave us, we deserve to be punished.
Yet, as the end of this verse says, nothing can stop “the power and depths of [God’s] abundant love.” Not even our sin can stop God from loving us.
Father, I say, such is My love and my pity for all
There is a way for no condemnation on men to befall
Whoa, such is my love and pity for all
Whoa, no man can pay, I’ll make a way
Whoa, such is my love and pity for all
Whoa, no man can pay, I’ll make a way
No man can pay
Utterly broke and poor to settle their debt
Though all’ve gone their way
I’ll yield a way for their sins to forget
Sins to forget (Sins to forget)
Sins to forget (Sins to forget)
In this verse, Jesus responds by saying that because of His love for us, He will “make a way” for us humans to not have to be eternally separated from God because of our sins. Romans 5:6 says, “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.” The line “utterly broke and poor to settle their debt” reflects us being “powerless.” Ever since Eden, our sin has built up a debt that none of us could pay.
Bring in all their sins
Lay it all on Me
Bring in all their sins
Lay it all on Me
Bring in all their sins
Every last bill that they owe
Lay it all on Me
For what they reap I will sow
Bring in all their sins
Every last bill that they owe
Lay it all on Me
Jesus agreed to bear the price for our sin, even before He came to Earth. Although He Himself never sinned, He knew that sacrificing Himself was the only way to settle the debt we created from our sinful choices. This chorus reflects what 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Through Jesus’s death on the cross, all our sin was laid on Him, so He could bear our punishment for us.
The place these souls have found themselves
Is one of great distress
For even all their righteousness is just a filthy mess
O My Son, You must understand
That if I show mercy
You must reckon to pay
The last bit of My rage
For justice reigns upon this throne;
Perfection without flaw
How can the wicked find their peace
And still have broken every law?
This verse is God’s response, saying that humanity’s debt is great and if Jesus wants to take our place, He will have to bear God’s rage that humanity deserves. Because God is just (“For justice reigns upon this throne”), He can’t let sin go unpunished. So, if He decides to give us grace, someone else will have to pay our debt. The punishment that our sin brings us is death. And nothing that we can do ourselves can pay that debt (“even all their righteousness is just a filthy mess”).
This verse reminded me of Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” For our sin, we deserve death. But Jesus’s choice to give Himself for us cleared our debt and gave us something else instead: life, if we choose to believe in Him.
Let it be so
Charge it on me
For I can bear the weight of sin
So all would be free
Bring in all their sins
Every last bill that they owe
Lay it all on Me
For what they reap I will sow
Bring in all their sins
Lay it all on Me
“Let it be so” just shows how selfless Jesus is. Knowing all the pain He would have to go through – being betrayed and abandoned by His friends, rejected by His people, and experiencing excruciating physical, emotional, and spiritual pain – He still decided to die for us. Philippians 2:8 says of Jesus, “And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross!” He submitted Himself fully to God’s will and agreed to suffer on our behalf.
VxV album cover
Blush O man, let shame hide your face
For one of infinite worth
Has left His throne for His death
Which proves for our salvation
Oh people hear my cries
With all our lusts and all our lies
When the truth’s come face to face
Did we earn such love and grace?
No we haven’t earned a thing
And there is nothing we can bring
To settle this age old rift
And receive this perfect gift
Here, the song shifts and becomes addressed to humanity. This calls back to the intro of the song, saying that we don’t deserve God’s love, yet He loves us anyways, so much so that He died for us. “For one of infinite worth has left His throne for His death” reflects 1 Peter 1:18-19: “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” Our freedom came at a great cost – the blood of God’s Son.
The second half of the bridge echoes Ephesians 2:8-9, “For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift – not from works, so that no one can boast.” God’s grace is a gift for us, not anything we can earn through doing the right thing or being a good person (“No we haven’t earned a thing and there is nothing we can bring”).
If only you knew of the grace
And love that Our God has for all
You’d turn and look into the face
Of Jesus the Savior Who calls
Oh people hear my cries
With all our lusts and all our lies
When the truth’s come face to face
Did we earn such love and grace?
Oh we couldn’t earn a thing
And there is nothing we can bring
So receive this love and grace
Believe His love and grace!
The song ends by urging us to believe God’s love for us and accept His gift of grace. This is a gift that none of us could earn ourselves. And it’s free for us to take!
One of the verses I mentioned at the beginning of this said, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Yet, the verse after it, Romans 3:24, says, “and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” So, yes, Jesus died for our sins, but that is not the end of the story. He was raised to life again, and we also will have life after death if we choose to believe in Him.
Genius Contributors. (n.d.). Wolves At The Gate – The Father’s Bargain. Genius. Retrieved November 26, 2023, from https://genius.com/Wolves-at-the-gate-the-fathers-bargain-lyrics
Solid State Records. (2023). Wolves At The Gate. Retrieved November 26, 2023, from https://www.solidstaterecords.com/wolves-at-the-gate
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