Chris Tomlin - Is He Worthy? Lyrics

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Chris Tomlin - Is He Worthy? (Live)

Meaning & Inspiration

I’m standing in the back of the room, arms crossed, watching the lights go down. Chris Tomlin’s "Is He Worthy?" starts up, and the crowd immediately settles into that practiced rhythm of call-and-response. It’s catchy. It’s communal. But it’s also the kind of thing that makes me nervous. When a whole room shouts back "We do!" or "It is!" in perfect unison, it feels like we’re reciting a script rather than wrestling with the weight of the questions being asked.

The song asks, "Do you feel the world is broken?" and "Do you feel the shadows deepen?"

My gut reaction? You have no idea.

If you’re sitting in an office on a Tuesday morning after getting a layoff notice, or staring at a hospital ceiling at 3:00 a.m. while the silence of a house you’re now living in alone screams at you, those aren't just lyrical prompts. They are gut-punches. When the song hits these lines, it wants to be an anthem of solidarity. But there is a danger of "Cheap Grace" here—the temptation to treat the world’s brokenness as a mere talking point, a setup for a quick theological resolution. It’s easy to sing "It is" when the lights are bright and the band is clicking, but it’s a lot harder to say that when the darkness feels like it’s actually winning.

The lyrics pivot to the Revelation 5 imagery: "Is anyone worthy? Is anyone whole?"

This is the real conflict. We live in a culture obsessed with individual worth—what we produce, how we perform, how much we can handle. We aren't whole. We’re fractured, tired, and honestly, mostly just trying to keep our heads above water. The song points toward the "Lion of Judah" and "the Lamb who died to ransom the slave," pulling straight from the apocalyptic vision of John. It’s a classic image, but it lands differently depending on the day. On the good days, it’s comforting. On the days when the grief is fresh and the "new creation" seems like a mythic fairy tale for people who don't have to deal with the grit of reality, it sounds almost dismissive.

Yet, I can't look away from it. If the answer to the brokenness is actually the Lamb who was slain, then the "worth" being discussed isn't something we manufacture. It’s external. It’s a claim made on us.

If this song is just a mood booster for a Sunday morning, it fails. It’s too loud and too easy. But if we actually sit with the question—if we stare at the scroll that no human has the strength or the moral standing to open—then the "He is" becomes something else. It stops being a chant and starts being an anchor.

I’m still crossing my arms. I’m still waiting for the other shoe to drop. But when the music fades, the question remains: if I’m not whole, and the world is definitely broken, is there actually a foundation that holds? The song claims there is. I’m not always sure I believe it, but God, I hope it’s true.