No, in all these things [tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword] we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:37-39

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Philippians 3:7-11

This song is a beautiful way to proclaim the biblical promises of the Deep Love of Jesus from Romans 8, and the desire to know Jesus from Philippians 3, and to allow those truths to “sink deep.” God spared nothing when He sent Jesus to earth to die on the cross. He gave up His son so that His name would be glorified and the nations would tremble before Him because of His greatness and power. We must not forget that. The greatness poured out on the cross, crushed our Savior in order to defeat sin and death and also show the great love that God has for His creation. We saw the love of God physically in the person of Jesus Christ.

The verses tell of the greatness and sovereignty of God and the chorus lays out a great picture of what it looks like to experience the presence of God. “I’m wide awake.” Wide awake to what? To the realities of the verses. To God’s relentless grace, His perfect love, His peaceful embrace, His mercies as deep and vast as the sea, His glorious pursuit of us, His beauty, His protection. The verses are opening our eyes so that we can be “wide awake.” This shows the natural response to expanding knowledge of God – eyes wide open and partaking in reverent worship. The chorus helps us see that we are to be attentive to the ways of God and the bridge brings us into an active time of praise. When we have experienced the presence of God there is nothing more to do except fall on our faces and declare the goodness and greatness of all that He is.

There is nothing that can separate us from the love of God. We must only receive it and continue to strive for knowledge of Him. As Paul says in Philippians, “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”