Most of us first heard the name Kayne West back in the early 2000’s when his album, The College Dropout, debuted. It was the first of what is now seven albums, each of them wildly successful. In fact, West has sold more than 140 million albums worldwide. He is easily one of the best-selling music artists of all time.
Despite this success, West has been a subject of much debate. From his inflammatory political comments over the years, to outbursts on stage at music award ceremonies, to his public struggles with addiction and mental illness, West has been unpredictable at best and unstable at worst.
However, in a twist no one saw coming, West reported in September that he had been “born again” and gave his life to Jesus Christ. From that moment, West became an outspoken advocate for Christianity. On the night of his new gospel album release, Jesus is King, he appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Kimmel asked West if he considered himself to be a Christian music artist now, and West responded, “I’m a Christian everything.”
Now, not surprisingly, West’s profession of faith and his release of Jesus is King has been polarizing, especially among Christians. Some have responded with joy, hailing West’s conversion as a public display of the power of the gospel. Others have responded with skepticism; fearful this is a publicity stunt or a religious high that will disappear as quickly as it came.
To be honest, both responses are understandable. On the one hand, Jesus tells us that heaven itself rejoices when one sinner repents (Luke 15:10). At the same time, the Scripture teaches us that true faith produces true fruit (Matthew 3:8) and is confirmed by perseverance to the end (Matthew 24:15; Romans 5:3-5). Both of these realities should be honored whenever someone makes a profession of faith.
In the end, our focus shouldn’t primarily be the heart of the person making the profession but on the God who is Lord of the heart. Truth is, we don’t know anyone’s heart. If we’re honest, we don’t even know our own heart most of the time (see Jeremiah 17:9). Therefore, we must rejoice in and trust God with Kanye West’s profession just as we do for ourselves. For in the end, it’s not your profession of faith that saves you; it’s the God of your profession that saves you. And that’s true whether its Kanye West or you or me.