And Can It Be?

And can it be that I should gain
An interest in the Saviour's blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain—
For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

’Tis mystery all: th’Immortal dies:
Who can explore His strange design?
In vain the firstborn seraph tries
To sound the depths of love divine.
’Tis mercy all! Let earth adore;
Let angel minds inquire no more.

He left His Father’s throne above
So free, so infinite His grace—
Emptied Himself of all but love,
And bled for Adam’s helpless race:
’Tis mercy all, immense and free,
For O my God, it found out me!

Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray—
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.

Still the small inward voice I hear,
That whispers all my sins forgiven;
Still the atoning blood is near,
That quenched the wrath of hostile Heaven.
I feel the life His wounds impart;
I feel the Saviour in my heart.

No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him, is mine;
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach th’eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.

Charles Wesley 1738

In then most familiar paths there are often unseen or unknown treasures that we fail to pay attention to.  I would not dare to count how many times I’ve sung this hymn since coming to Christ (though i do know how many times I’ve sung it since coming to New Zealand – namely NONE!).  Saying that though, I have never sung the fifth verse that Wesley penned.

I can sort of see why it has been left unsung – it speaks of feeling the Saviour ‘in my heart’ which would seem to reduce Jesus to some pietistic existential experience BUT the lines prior to it surely cure that ‘sentiment’ and make it an expression of hope filled grace?  To sing of the blood atoning of Christ, quenching the wrath of hostile heaven would be a breath of fresh air from the past into Christian gatherings which sing of Christ’s thought on the cross being ‘of me above all’.

Our thoughts in worship should be well taught and transformed hearts in the face of the staggering reality that YES, YES, YES – it can be that we might know God through the atoning blood of Christ, in the power of the Spirit and thus approaching the Father with great confidence. Confidence not born of ourselves but as we the twice-born children of God come to Him, by His Promise, according to His Word for the praise of His Glory!

“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” Hebrews 10:19-25

Young Men and Maidens, Raise

Young men and maidens, raise
Your tuneful voices high;
Old men and children, praise
The Lord of earth and sky;
Him Three in One and One in Three,
Extol to all eternity.

The universal King
Let all the world proclaim;
Let every creature sing
His attributes and Name!
Him Three in One and One in Three,
Extol to all eternity.

In His great Name alone
All excellencies meet,
Who sits upon the throne,
And shall forever sit;
Him Three in One and One in Three,
Extol to all eternity.

Glory to God belongs;
Glory to God be given,
Above the noblest songs
Of all in earth or heaven!
Him Three in One and One in Three,
Extol to all eternity.

When did you last sing of the Trinity? Not implied or assumed, but sung of Him who is Three in One and One in Three?  When did you last sing a song which has, as it’s main aim, to extol other Christians to think on and revel in the Glory of God?

So many songs of today are about MY response to ‘God’.  These songs stir the heart and many of them could be sung by any old theist – you don’t have to believe in the Father, Son and Spirit to sing them, you don’t have to be in relationship to God in Three Persons: Diverse and One.

Wesley’s hymn stirs the heart alright – a clarion call to consider who God is, as He is.  The Great Mystery revealed supremely in the Son of Man, made plain as the Father of All Peoples and the Spirit of Creation.  This is our God.  He is worthy of our praise – not because of what He has done for us, but rather for who He is. His gracious action for us, His invitation to us, makes His glory all the more plain to our dim eyes.

“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counsellor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” Romans 11:33-36

O That I Could Repent

O that I could repent!
O that I could believe!
Thou by Thy voice the marble rent,
Thou by Thy voice the marble rent,
The rock in sunder cleave!

Thou, by Thy two-edged sword,
My soul and spirit part,
Strike with the hammer of Thy Word,
Strike with the hammer of Thy Word,
And break my stubborn heart!

Saviour, and Prince of Peace,
The double grace bestow;
Unloose the bands of wickedness,
Unloose the bands of wickedness,
And let the captive go:

Grant me my sins to feel,
And then the load remove:
Wound, and pour in, my wounds to heal,
Wound, and pour in, my wounds to heal,
The balm of pardoning love.

For Thy own mercy’s sake
The cursèd thing remove;
And into Thy protection take
And into Thy protection take
The prisoner of Thy love:

In every trying hour
Stand by my feeble soul;
And screen me from my nature’s power,
And screen me from my nature’s power,
Till Thou hast made me whole.

This is Thy will, I know,
That I should holy be,
Should let my sin this moment go,
Should let my sin this moment go,
This moment turn to Thee:

O might I now embrace
Thy all-sufficient power;
And never more to sin give place,
And never more to sin give place,
And never grieve Thee more!

Charles Wesley 1749

I don’t know about you but these words capture my experience of the Christian life – knowing that under the surface of my turning away from all wrongdoing there needs to be a more fundamental sea change.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (German Pastor & Theologian, co-conspirator in the failed plot to kill Hitler and perhaps Christian Martyr) spoke of repentance as the most acute form of pain anyone can face – for it is to face oneself as we are: in God’s sight rather than our own.  To repent therefore is a God-given thing – it is a work of God in our lives.  Here, in this hymn, Wesley captures it well – essentially ‘bring me to brokenness of seeing me as I am and then heal me as I am that I may know you’.

What better song is there to sing?  I don’t mean this hymn, but the Christian heart crying out to be wounded, cleft in two even, for the sake of knowing Christ better?

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.  Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. Romans 7:21-25

What Shall I Render to My God?

What shall I render to my God
For all His mercy’s store?
I’ll take the gifts He hath bestowed,
And humbly ask for more.

The sacred cup of saving grace
I will with thanks receive,
And all His promises embrace,
And to His glory live.

My vows I will to His great Name
Before His people pay,
And all I have, and all I am,
Upon His altar lay.

Thy lawful servant, Lord, I owe
To Thee whate’er is mine,
Born in Thy family below,
And by redemption thine.

Thy hands created me, Thy hands
From sin have set me free,
The mercy that hath loosed my bands
Hath bound me fast to Thee.

The God of all redeeming grace
My God I will proclaim,
Offer the sacrifice of praise,
And call upon His Name.

Praise Him, ye saints, the God of love,
Who hath my sins forgiven,
Till, gathered to the church above,
We sing the songs of Heaven.

Charles Wesley

“What is enough? How do I know if I’m doing enough?” was a question a good friend asked me over coffee and a cake toward the end of last year.  It’s a natural question.  When we look at how much God has done for us, the question arises ‘what can i do in return?’

There is nothing that we can do – nothing! – to repay what God has done for us. In essence that very thought is the source of all sin: what can I do to take the place of God?  We are sinful creatures to our core, even in accepting God’s Grace, so as we display our sin we also all the more give evidence of the lavishness of God’s Glory in His redeeming Grace.

We can do nothing – not words, deeds, motivations; not in sacrificing belongings, ambitions or even our lives – that would be a fit price to repay God so that he must accept us.  That which is a correct response is a life of gratitude and humility.  That life is neatly summed up in this hymn – our response to grace is to take it more and more and in doing so look forward to the Great Day of Salvation when we will sing to God, by His Grace, of His great Glory.

“With what shall I come before the Lord,
and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?

Micah 6:6-7

Love Divine, All Loves Excelling

Love divine, all loves excelling,
Joy of heaven to earth come down;
Fix in us thy humble dwelling;
All thy faithful mercies crown!
Jesus, Thou art all compassion,
Pure unbounded love Thou art;
Visit us with Thy salvation;
Enter every trembling heart.

Breathe, O breathe Thy loving Spirit,
Into every troubled breast!
Let us all in Thee inherit;
Let us find that second rest.
Take away our bent to sinning;
Alpha and Omega be;
End of faith, as its Beginning,
Set our hearts at liberty.

Come, Almighty to deliver,
Let us all Thy life receive;
Suddenly return and never,
Never more Thy temples leave.
Thee we would be always blessing,
Serve Thee as Thy hosts above,
Pray and praise Thee without ceasing,
Glory in Thy perfect love.

Finish, then, Thy new creation;
Pure and spotless let us be.
Let us see Thy great salvation
Perfectly restored in Thee;
Changed from glory into glory,
Till in heaven we take our place,
Till we cast our crowns before Thee,
Lost in wonder, love, and praise.

Charles Wesley  1747

Charles Wesley had a dislike of people changing his lyrics (he passionately disliked the ‘mending’ of his verse by others to suit their own theological pedantries or tastes).  Above is the original text of a well known and much sung hymn.  I think though that the moving of some of the text into a more commonly recognised vernacular strengthens some hymns in their ‘transportation’ through time.  What is most striking here though, is not the minor changes in words, but the vast and powerful resonance with the present reality of living as a Christian – of how we experience and know Jesus through faith.

I love many of the new songs that come to the people of God each year from all around the globe – but we lose too much when we shed the treasures of past corporate worship when we throw them over simply for the sake of novelty and ‘keeping fresh’.  Sometimes the very reason that we are singing songs 250 years on is precisely BECAUSE they hold treasure and help us to treasure that which is most valuable in the Christian life.

In this hymn, Charles Wesley helps us to see and treasure Christ as the Loving Saviour of the unloving and undeserving – causing us to treasure Jesus all the more. Jesus will come one day and complete in those who love Him the perfection of His love: truly transforming us into the image of His likeness for all eternity.

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.” 1 John 4:7-12

Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus

Come, Thou long expected Jesus
Born to set Thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us,
Let us find our rest in Thee.
Israel’s Strength and Consolation,
Hope of all the earth Thou art;
Dear Desire of every nation,
Joy of every longing heart.

Born Thy people to deliver,
Born a child and yet a King,
Born to reign in us forever,
Now Thy gracious kingdom bring.
By Thine own eternal Spirit
Rule in all our hearts alone;
By Thine all sufficient merit,
Raise us to Thy glorious throne.

Charles Wesley

The centrality of Jesus in the Christian hope is so obvious that it is barely worth restating in words and deeds.  It is for this very reason that we need to assert it anew, each day, each week, each year – if we don’t, if we allow our hearts and minds to settle for what we think is most obvious and then ‘move on’ to less obvious things then we will become easily blinded to that which is most important.

This two verse hymn from Wesley is most often sung at Christmas. The last two lines speak powerfully of what is most important at the heart of Christian hope.  Jesus’ merit – His perfection in every way, but ultimately as the sinless sacrifice atoning for sin – is what grants us a saving relationship with God.

I love the profundity and simplicity of these two verses from Wesley.  I love that they make it possible to proclaim simply the depth of our hope.  They make it clear that our hope rests not on ourselves, not in our respectability or contemporaneous appeal, not in our moral fibre or our social standing. We do not hope in ourselves, our hope is in Jesus.

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it — the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Romans 3:23-26

O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing

O for a thousand tongues to sing
My great Redeemer’s praise,
The glories of my God and King,
The triumphs of His grace!

My gracious Master and my God,
Assist me to proclaim,
To spread through all the earth abroad
The honours of Thy name.

Jesus! the name that charms our fears,
That bids our sorrows cease;
’Tis music in the sinner’s ears,
’Tis life, and health, and peace.

He breaks the power of cancelled sin,
He sets the prisoner free;
His blood can make the foulest clean,
His blood availed for me.

He speaks, and, listening to His voice,
New life the dead receive,
The mournful, broken hearts rejoice,
The humble poor believe.

Hear Him, ye deaf; His praise, ye dumb,
Your loosened tongues employ;
Ye blind, behold your Saviour come,
And leap, ye lame, for joy.

In Christ your Head, you then shall know,
Shall feel your sins forgiven;
Anticipate your heaven below,
And own that love is heaven.

Glory to God, and praise and love
Be ever, ever given,
By saints below and saints above,
The church in earth and heaven.

On this glad day the glorious Sun
Of Righteousness arose;
On my benighted soul He shone
And filled it with repose.

Sudden expired the legal strife,
’Twas then I ceased to grieve;
My second, real, living life
I then began to live.

Then with my heart I first believed,
Believed with faith divine,
Power with the Holy Ghost received
To call the Saviour mine.

I felt my Lord’s atoning blood
Close to my soul applied;
Me, me He loved, the Son of God,
For me, for me He died!

I found and owned His promise true,
Ascertained of my part,
My pardon passed in heaven I knew
When written on my heart.

Look unto Him, ye nations, own
Your God, ye fallen race;
Look, and be saved through faith alone,
Be justified by grace.

See all your sins on Jesus laid:
The Lamb of God was slain,
His soul was once an offering made
For every soul of man.

Awake from guilty nature’s sleep,
And Christ shall give you light,
Cast all your sins into the deep,
And wash the Æthiop white.

Harlots and publicans and thieves
In holy triumph join!
Saved is the sinner that believes
From crimes as great as mine.

Murderers and all ye hellish crew
In holy triumph join!
Believe the Saviour died for you;
For me the Saviour died.

With me, your chief, ye then shall know,
Shall feel your sins forgiven;
Anticipate your heaven below,
And own that love is heaven.

Charles Wesley 1739

It is an amazing coincidence that this well sung hymn was written in commemoration of Wesley’s first anniversary of coming to know Jesus for himself.  It’s a coincidence because John Newton wrote the hymn we now know as Amazing Grace as his first anniversary hymn.  I love the move from the universal truth (that God’s praise could not be exhausted by a thousand languages because of the person and work of Christ Jesus) to personal reflection (that as a sinner set free the praise of God is our appropriate and essential occupation) and onto a general appeal to all (encompassing even the dregs of society – harlots, publicans, theieves, murderers and the rest of the ‘hellish’ crew) as a sinner saved, and not as a pharisee judging (with me your chief) to discover the delight of knowing salvation.

It makes me smile to feel the joy and hear the appeal that Charles Wesley gave.  It humbles me to see the sombre joy with which he wrote – really free, not frivolously freed, and thus truly joy-filled worship.  This hymn has led to me post a series of Wesleyan hymns in the coming week.

[Jesus] also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” Luke 8:9-14