One And The Same

CeCe Winans' “One And The Same” tries to describe Jesus and admits at the start that words fall short. “How shall I begin to speak about a God that I will never comprehend, so high and mighty and yet closer than a friend,” she asks. The first verse uses paradoxes, “the mystery of His holiness, the wonder of His humanness are one,” and the chorus gives them their title phrase: “I can't do Him justice with any one name.”

The second verse lists pairs that belong to the same person. “A simple servant can be called the great I am,” the “Son of God is still the Son of man,” he is “both the Shepherd and the Lamb,” “the healer and the wounded,” and “Father and the only Son are one.” The chorus returns to “the holy God of heaven and the humble man who bore my shame.” A short bridge names what he gives, “the way that we can come to know the truth that sets us free,” and the life that died and rose again.

The great I am is Jesus' claim in John 8:58, and the Lamb is John 1:29. The way, truth and life language comes from John 14:6.