This week’s featured song story comes to us from MercyMe. We’re excited to share with you the story behind their new single “Grace Got You (feat. John Reuben).”
Grace Got You’ is just a song that makes me smile. The whole idea that once you realize that God’s grace has you…no matter what comes your way, you can live your life as if you’ve already read the last page of the book and know how the whole thing turns out. Our eternity is set! On your worst day, Christ is OK with you. He adores you. He’s pleased with you. How is that possible? No clue, but it is. That’s the most amazing news of all!When we originally made the album, we wanted to have someone rap, but we didn’t know who we were going to get. Our paths crossed with a guy who used to be on Gotee Records named John Reuben – who we had done stuff early on with when we were all new together – and we asked him if he’d come out of retirement to rap on the song. It turned out so fun, and totally matched the vibe of the song. – Bart Millard (MercyMe)
Click on the video below to hear MercyMe share the story. Scroll down to listen and read the full lyrics of the song.
From the album Lifer.
“Grace Got You (feat. John Reuben)” Lyrics
Have you ever met those who
Keep humming when the song’s through
It’s like
They’re living life to a whole different tune
Have you ever met those that
Keep hoping when it’s hopeless
It’s like
They’ve figured out what the rest haven’t yet
The second you realize
What you have inside
It’s only just a matter of time
Until you
Sing
So the back row hears you
Glide
‘Cuz walking just won’t do
Dance
You don’t have to know how to
Ever since ever since
Grace got you
Laugh
‘Til your whole side’s hurting
Smile
Like you just got away with something
Why
‘Cuz you just got away with something
Ever since ever since
Grace got you
So when you’re standing in the rain again
You might as well be dancin’
Why
‘Cuz there ain’t no storm that can change how this ends
So next time when you feel blue
Don’t let that smile leave you
Why
‘Cuz you have every reason just to
Got away with something
Bubbling inside of you
Spilling over cause your life is full
How incredible
Undeniable, monumental like the Eiffel
Uncontrollable let the joy flow through
Ha ha!
Giddy over pity, pretty please
Let me see your hands in the air with you out your seats
Warm it up
Let go
Shout it out
Celebrate
When you can’t articulate, just say amazing grace
I so enjoy this song whenever I hear it! But I do have a question about it: can someone help explain the line that says why? Cause you just got away with something.“ ? What are they referring to that we have “gotten away with” because of grace? The first thing that comes to my mind is sin, but surely, surely that’s NOT what Mercyme is trying to sing about and celebrate!!! So can anyone help me see a more biblical understanding of that line so I can fully enjoy this song like I want to?! ☺️☺️☺️ Thanks in advance!!!
Getting away with something doesn’t always mean it’s bad. For example, I once wanted to give a family member an expensive gift. The family member did not want to receive it because they thought it was too expensive. I got it anyway and surprised them with it. It made me feel so good and brought a smile to my face when I saw their reaction to the gift. It’s the same thing when God give us His grace. At times we don’t want to accept it because we don’t think we are worthy and we don’t deserve it. (Which we never are. ) He gives it to us anyway even when we don’t expect it. I’m sure He smiles when we accept it. Just my thought.
That’s what Grace is…us getting away with the fact that we have a sinful nature and are still saved. Don’t forget that there is never anything that we can do to earn God’s Grace. No matter how good we “think” we are, ALL have sinned and fallen short of God’s standard. So by accepting the Grace that He freely gave us through Christ’s punishment for OUR sins and His resserrection defeating OUR death, we got away with a lot! Praise Jesus!
ABS,
I totally agree with you. It’s a nice catchy tune with a good meaning but like you I can’t get past that same line. What are they talking about? That’s how I came across your comment because I was searching for the same answer. Hope someone can shed some light on this.
I rather imagine, it’s like when you know something that others around you don’t , say the next 2 or 3 moves in a chess game when you know you are about to win the match. The smile is one of confidence in that knowledge of that soon to be victory. What we have inside is God’s Holy Spirit because Jesus is our Lord and Savior and we know as the first verse says, we’ve “…figured out what the rest haven’t yet.” Regardless of what life throws at us, “there ain’t no storm that can change how this ends.” That makes me smile. It also makes me not want to keep it inside but to tell others all about it so they can keep humming long “after [this] song’s through.”😊
Wow! I hope someone from MercyMe sees our comments because I came searching for the same thing because I LOVE this song but wondered about this line as well. Glad to see I’m not the only one!
You can have no idea what this song has meant to me the past couple of weeks since my daughter introduced me to it. I’m a cancer patient, and was on the way to a chemo infusion when she played it for me. I wished with my whole heart that we could stop the car in the middle of the freeway and get out and dance! Now you might not think that’s all that, but it is when you consider that the church I grew up in would be shocked beyond belief that this is the song that keeps my faith strong right now. Dancing was definitely frowned upon, and moving my old body to this incredible beat with those WORDS!!!!! Just WOW! I’m 70 years old, and your song makes me feel 20 again. I totally get “Got away with something”, and it makes me smile so big I think my cheeks just might crack. Thank you, and thank God for you and your beautiful song. Don’t stop now!
Thank you, Karen for your response and thank You, Father for the inspiration to and through this woman. Best answer I’ve encountered so far. Starts to chip away at this tiny stick in this awesome song. Still I’d love to see additional thoughts. Praying for you. -robin (also taking chemo these days… )
We deserve the wrath of God because of our sin nature. The Lord is Holy! Jesus came and paid the price. He satisfied the wrath of God. Yes, by excepting Jesus as Lord and Savior, we ‘have gotten away with something!’
Amen!
Except we haven’t. The idiom ‘get away with’ doesn’t refer to things like judicial pardon, but to someone either escaping arrest, escaping punishment, or getting less than a just sentence.
https://www.learn-english-have-fun.com/idiom-get-away-with-something.html
https://funkyenglish.com/idiom-get-away/
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/get-away-with-sth
A criminal being *forgiven* of a crime is a very different scenario than a criminal escaping judgement for the crime. The criminal WAS judged, but the pardon was part of the justice. It’s God’s mercy that allows us a pardon for the sake of Christ. God’s grace then gives us the imputed righteousness of Christ.
Furthermore, did *we* succeed in avoiding punishment? No, *Christ* succeeded in providing a way for us to avoid our punishment. Not to mention, we have to die to sin. We neither escape judgement for our former sin (God just judges us righteous for the sake of Christ) nor do we get to keep being slaves to sin.
Yet Christ seems to be left entirely out of this song, as does repentance or acknowledgement of our crime.
“Smile like you just got away with something
Why? Cause you just got away with something
Ever since, ever since Grace got you.”
The whole song reads like grace is the getaway driver helping us escape the law, or that ‘grace’ picked the wrong man to punish.
We should smile in humility and joy, because we are forgiven an impossible debt. Smile, because we are counted Holy before God. Smile, because Christ won the victory over sin.
Smile because we got away with something? No. We got away with nothing. We were justly condemned to death. God had compassion and sent His Son to provide a way for us to be forgiven. He laid down His life as our kinsman redeemer to purchase us from sin with His blood. It was Christ who, as Passover lamb, shed His blood to cover us from the wrath of God. It is Christ who, as scapegoat, who ‘got away’ with our sins and took them far from us.
Hi comrades! it’s my fav song in this season too!!! I smile because I have every reason to take an offence at something someone said or did and yet I received Grace and so I give it…(it’s like getting away with sneaking a cookie or something and taking 2 to share with a friend). Now that’s not my first nature usually, however, it is becoming more first nature as I practice it daily…NOW, to learn to give it to the ones’ closer and deeper in my heart…and who reside in my intimate household…geesh…prayers please…
The tune of this song is so catchy, and the words are great….except for that line. It makes me feel a little better to see that others are questioning this.
I went to a Mercy Me concert last week, and I sat during this song and listened to the people singing this song at the top of their lungs. I feel that sometimes people just blindly sing along, not really knowing what they’re singing. I just can’t. As much as the rest of the song speaks to me, this line catches in my throat. I simply cannot compare or describe the grace of my God as getting away with something. I can’t!
I feel like it cheapens what my Jesus did on the cross for me! I smile when I think about what I have inside, and it makes me sing to know that my sins are washed clean. But I can never describe it as getting away with something.
I agree that this line is uncomfortable and seems to make light of the sacrifice for our sin. Glad to see other folks are troubled by it as well.
I felt a bit odd, too, like it was telling me that I just did something bad and got away with it. But I still totally get it and I LOVE this song.
I think we feel bad about the line because we think it is telling us we did something bad on purpose, knowing we would be forgiven anyway and would thus “get away with it”; whereas we are all striving to be patient and kind and loving and honest and hard working, and we would never do anything bad on purpose. But we do all sin, even if we didn’t mean to, and as hard as we try not to. Even the apostle Paul who went through miraculous conversion still had trouble not sinning. The penalty for sin is death, but because of the grace of God we do get away with it, because Jesus paid the penalty for us. So we got away with it, even though we deserved to die for it.
Maybe the word “just” in there makes it a little more irksome, because we can’t particularly think of any sin we “just” committed, but I think it is still applicable because we inherited sin from Adam and deserve to die every day. It is only grace that saves us and covers us each day. The way I look at the “just got away with something” is that we were forgiven for everything wrong that we have done, plus the inherent sin, when we accepted God’s grace – “ever since grace got you”.
Paul also said it: “…But where sin increased, grace increased all the more.” (Romans 5:20). “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” (Romans 6:1-2). Just as Paul said that we shouldn’t sin just so that we can get more grace, the song isn’t saying we should sin because we can get away with it. The song is saying that we all DID sin, and we did “get away with it”, because God forgave us.
So, yes, I can happily say every day that I just got away with somethin’. And that makes me want to sing and glide and dance and laugh and smile, and share it with others.
It’s hard while driving to’ just’ sit & steer my van going (usually) 65+ on the freeway when this Awesome song starts playing! Makes you want to pull over, get out & dance…..not so easy on side of road.!!!
Just love reading all the comments from so many different views…ALL LOVING & GIVING GOD THE GLORY! WAHOO FOR GRACE! 😂
This song is something very special and does something very special to me every single time I hear it. The songs of the groups MercyMe and Casting Crowns, among others, helped me get through a horrible time a few years ago when my precious husband went to heaven. So many of my loved ones had already passed and my husband helped me through so many sad times. We both knew we would be together always. And then he was gone. At the time I felt I died inside and would always be on autopilot for the rest of my life. I was like a robot going through the motions of living for the sake of my children. Although I was saved and baptized many years before, I felt all alone and deserted. By the Grace of God I had recently become friends with a co-worker who was the biggest cheerleader for God that I had ever met. She helped me through those dark times even when I just wanted to be left alone. And of course my children gave me reason to go on. My love for them, like God’s love for us, His children, overcame the darkness and depression. Now I get to live with the joy of having grandchildren, who are truly Gifts from God just like the Bible says in Psalms. Thank you to all who read this very long comment. May God Bless You All.
I love this dialogue and I LOVE that some of you are asking these questions! YES, you got away with something: your LIFE!! How can we NOT shout and celebrate?!?! I understand that there is the necessary component of grief over Jesus’s shed blood and the poignant depth of his sacrifice … but what is abundantly living if not also recognizing the JOY of his resurrection – that he made that substitute for us?!?! Jesus came that our joy may be full!! This song is my life testimony! Its not just the catchy music that makes me want to dance – it is the understanding that he did what he did FOR ME! It’s good to question these things and apply them personally ( and factor in that we are all different: quiet, reverent music is how some hearts respond in worship, and buoyant, energetic praise is the door to the Holy Spirit for others) And btw? If you see a crazy woman who doesn’t pull over to dance but gets down at 65 mph, that’d be me … 🤣😎🤗
That line really bothers me, too, and did the first time I heard it. The song is fun and catchy, but a little weak biblically. It seems to be missing what Jesus did to make grace possible. When our sins are forgiven through the grace of God, we’re not getting away with something, we’re getting something someone else paid for, and we would not have it otherwise. The reason we can sing and dance with joy is because Jesus suffered a horrific death by crucifixion on the cross, not because we’re getting away with something. I’m a contemporary Christian music lover,and like Mercy Me music, but I am careful not to get my theology from a song, no matter how catchy it is.