Jesus Paid It All

If you do a Google search for the story behind this hymn, you’ll come across some 30 million results. You might be surprised to learn that I read all of them. No. “Ain’t nobody got time for that.” Some hymns, like “Fairest Lord Jesus,” come from an unknown author, making the true history hard to trace. This hymn is young enough, at just shy of 160 years old, that there is strong historical evidence of its inspiration. That story is well told and repeated across a vast array of authors and historians.

Author Elvina Hall was inspired in the choir loft of Monument Street Methodist Church, in 1865, during either a sermon on the crucifixion or a long-winded prayer following said sermon. She wrote the 4 stanzas quickly and fluidly. Excited she showed them to her pastor, George Shrick, who remembered the organist, John Grape, had brought a song with no lyrics to his attention the week before.

In God’s providence, the lyrics and music matched with only a refrain needed, that Hall wrote to complete the hymn. What we have in this hymn is the unedited version and it has remained that way ever since, apart from those who’ve added various choruses or mashups in the last few decades.

I hear the Savior say,
“Thy strength indeed is small,
Child of weakness, watch and pray,
Find in Me thine all in all.”

Matthew 11:28: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

Refrain:
Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.

Mark 10:45: “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Lord, now indeed I find
Thy pow’r and Thine alone,
Can change the leper’s spots
And melt the heart of stone. [Refrain]

Matthew 8:2-3: “And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.”

For nothing good have I
Where-by Thy grace to claim;
I’ll wash my garments white
In the blood of Calv’ry’s Lamb. [Refrain]

Isaiah 1:18: “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.”

And when, before the throne,
I stand in Him complete,
“Jesus died my soul to save,”
My lips shall still repeat. [Refrain]

John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

The final stanza refers to standing before the throne. The same throne from which great destructive power comes to the world of unbelievers. The same throne that is the seat of judgment, and of whom none is worthy to approach. None. With one exception.

In Revelation 7:9-17, John sees ‘…a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.’

Continuing in verse 13, ‘Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” I said to him, “Sir, you know.”  And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”‘

Side-stepping the topic of whether tribulation is the insanity within which we’ve already lived or the super-bad scary stuff yet to come, we get a glimpse of what heaven will look like for us in verses 15-17. “Therefore, they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

“Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe.”

As a closing thought, I leave you with the words of a different hymn from none other than Isaac Watts. “Alas! And Did My Savior Die” has in its 5th stanza the following words.

But drops of tears can ne’er repay
the debt of love I owe.
Here, Lord, I give myself away;
’tis all that I can do.