By JJT (written for ThinkChristian.net)

Borrowing from Romans 8, Lecrae offers a meditation on the way grace confounds and delivers us.

Biblically literate hip hop fans will immediately recognize that the title of Lecrae’s latest project, All Things Work Together, comes from Romans 8:28. Others might notice the significant number of collaborations with mainstream artists and assume that this is the “working together” he’s talking about. The record actually functions on both levels. It is a deeply theological, while still highly relatable, meditation on the bizarre way grace confounds us and delivers us.

Longtime fans of Lecrae might be surprised by the intensity of the social consciousness that comes through on these tracks. “Always Knew” jumps right into his feelings about being black in today’s America, police violence, and more. “Facts” keeps the momentum going with some of the most intense social-justice flow he has ever offered. The song, which functions in several movements, sees Lecrae tackling his own public persona and personal journey with amazing swagger.

Sustaining all of this is his consideration of Romans 8. In that passage, the Apostle Paul promises that all things—the bad and the good, the beautiful and the ugly, the failures and the victories—work together to accomplish good things in the lives of those who have offered themselves as living sacrifices to God. C.S. Lewis explored this in The Great Divorce: “Both good and evil, when they are full grown, become retrospective. …That is what mortals misunderstand. They say of some temporary suffering, ‘No future bliss can make up for it,’ not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory.” All Things Work Togethermaintains that theme throughout its 14 tracks. Lecrae, in his most personal and transparent work yet, reflects on challenges, blessings, persecution, adulation, opportunity, and frustration—all with a sense that it’s part of a plan.

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