One of the ways a Christian’s funeral service can testify to the promise of the gospel is through the hymns that are selected for congregational singing. If we choose to do so, every one of us has the ability to testify to our faith in the Lord by meeting with our pastor and family members to plan our funeral service ahead of time. That would include not only the location and leadership, and the scriptures to be read and persons to speak and the theme of the message, but also the hymns to be sung. The best choices will not merely be songs that have been our favorites, but songs that best communicate the faith that has sustained us on our journey toward glory, hymns that are valuable, not because of their sentimental value, but because of the glorious truths we want everyone to remember, and especially that communicate the gospel that unbelievers need to hear.
Tim Keller did that in the spring of 2023 before he died from pancreatic cancer. Knowing that death was approaching, he and his wife, Kathy, worked from his hospital bed at the National Institutes of Health to do just that. He had become internationally known from his books and sermons and conferences as the C. S. Lewis of our generation. The Tuesday afternoon memorial service was attended by 2500 invited guests, and broadcast in a live simulcast from the immense St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, the city where Tim had been the pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church. As he and Kathy selected 6 hymns to be sung, they also chose them in a certain order to convey the heart of the gospel, and he dictated to her the rubrics he wanted spoken before each hymn. Tim said, “Let’s sing six hymns in a particular order, because they tell the whole story of Christian faith and God’s care for us.” The hymns he and Kathy chose were these.
- Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise (1867)
- And Can It Be That I Should Gain (1738)
- How Firm a Foundation (1787)
- Jesus Lives and So Shall I (1757)
- Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken (1779)
- For All the Saints (1864)
Kathy added one more at the conclusion of the service, “There Is a Redeemer” (1981).
One of those hymns may not have been as familiar to people as the others, but a powerful statement is contained in its text, and even in just the opening line, “Jesus Lives, and So Shall I.” Hymnals usually include it in the section of Easter hymns to celebrate the fact that “Jesus Lives.” But how wonderful also to focus on the next phrase, “And so shall I!” That’s where we’re directing our attention in this hymn study. And that’s what makes it such an excellent congregational song at a Christian funeral or memorial service, as a testimony of the one who has passed through death’s gates into the glory of the presence of the risen Savior. It’s like the words from Psalm 116:5-9, that resound as the testimony of the one who has now been called home to be with the Lord. We should imagine that person’s voice speaking (or singing) these words.
Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; our God is merciful.
The Lord preserves the simple; when I was brought low, He saved me.
Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.
For You have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling;
I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.
That is especially evident in the concluding phrase repeated at the end of each of the first five stanzas of this hymn, “Jesus is my hope and trust,” and then in slightly different wording on the final stanza, “Jesus is the Christian’s trust.”
“Jesus Lives, and So Shall I” was written either in 1751 or 1757 (not long after the death of Johann Sebastian Bach in 1750) by Christian Fürchtegott Gellert (1715-1769). The hymn reflects the joyful confidence of 1 Corinthians 15:55, “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” He was the son of Christian Gellert, pastor at Hainichen in Saxony, near Freiberg, Germany, where this hymn writer was born on July 4, 1715. In 1734 he entered the University of Leipzig as a student of theology, and after completing his course, acted for some time as assistant to his father. But at that time, sermons preached from manuscript were not tolerated in the Lutheran Church, and as his memory was undependable, he found himself compelled to aim for some other profession.
In 1739 he became domestic tutor to the sons of Herr von Lüttichau, near Dresden, and in 1741 returned to Leipzig to superintend the studies of a nephew at the University, where he also resumed his own studies. He graduated M.A. 1744; became in 1745 private tutor or lecturer in the philosophical faculty; and was in 1751 appointed extraordinary professor of philosophy, lecturing on poetry and rhetoric, and then on moral philosophy. He was very popular as a professor. He refused an ordinary professorship offered to him in 1761, as he did not feel strong enough to fulfil its duties, having dealt with delicate health from childhood, and after 1752 suffered very greatly from hypochondria. He died at Leipzig on December 13, 1769 at the age of 54.
As a hymnwriter, he also marks a new era, with the revival of the more emotionally expressive hymns of the Rationalistic period of 1760 to 1820. He prepared himself by prayer for their composition, and selected the moments when his mental horizon was most unclouded. He was distinguished by deep and sincere piety, blameless life, and regularity in attendance on the services of the Lutheran Church. His hymns have been described by one historian as “the utterances of a sincere Christian morality, not very elevated or enthusiastic, but genuine expressions of his own feelings and experiences; and what in them he preached he also put in practice in his daily life. Many are too didactic in tone, reading like versifications of portions of his lectures on morals, and are only suited for private use. But in regard to his best hymns, it may safely be said that their rational piety and good taste, combined with a certain earnestness and pathos, entitle them to a place among the classics of German hymnody. They exactly met the requirements of the time, won universal admiration, and speedily passed into the hymnbooks in use over all Germany, Roman Catholic as well as Lutheran.”
In 1746, Gellert began producing a book of popular “Tales and Fables,” which was finished in 1748, and which went through many printings and translations. This won him acclaim as a German classicist. A collection of 54 of his own hymns, “Getistlichen Oden und Lieder” (Spiritual Odes and Songs), including “Jesus Lives, and So Shall I,” was published in 1757 and became immediately successful. The English translation used in most of our books was made by John Dunmore Lang (1799-1878). He was a Scottish-born Presbyterian minister who served in New South Wales, Australia from 1823 until his death. He was very active and influential in politics as well as in the church. His translation of Gellert’s hymn was completed aboard the prison ship Medway while he was on his way back to Australia from his second trip to England and published at Sydney, Australia, in his 1826 “Aurora Australis.” Another rather well-known translation was made by Frances Elizabeth Cox (1812-1897). It was first published in her 1841 “Sacred Hymns from the German.” The American arrangement of Lang’s translation, perhaps using some of Cox’s phraseology as well, was apparently done by the great church historian Philip Schaff (1819-1893). It was first published in Henry Ward Beecher’s 1855 “Plymouth Collection.”
The song emphasizes the blessings that come to us because Jesus arose from the dead. Having been written not too many years after the terrible Thirty Years’ War, which took the lives of half of the population of Germany, the reality of death was very real on the minds of people. Germans of all ages died in combat on battlefields, from disease spread from the rotting corpses, and due to starvation as food supplies and crops were burned by retreating armies. Encouraging and comforting texts like these are found in many of the chorales of this period of history. The testimony of those who persevere through the trials and sufferings of this age, sing the theme in which we will join, “Jesus is my hope and trust.”
Stanza 1 affirms that Christ’s resurrection takes away the sting of death. It also severs the bands of death. There is real sadness when death approaches and then steals away a loved one, but because of Jesus’ victory, that sadness is only temporary, as we are assured that He will raise us with the just, or as some translations render it, “raise me from the dust.”
Jesus lives, and so shall I; Death, thy sting is gone forever!
He who deigned for me to die lives, the bands of death to sever.
He shall raise me with the just: Jesus is my Hope and Trust.
Stanza 2 affirms that Christ’s resurrection celebrates the establishment of His reign. The Gospels tell us that like John the Baptist, Jesus came preaching the kingdom of God. By His resurrection and ascension, He has been enthroned to reign supreme over a kingdom that will never end. How do we know that for sure? “God has promised: be it must.” And “I shall also be with Him.”
Jesus lives, and reigns supreme, and, His kingdom still remaining,
I shall also be with Him, ever living, ever reigning.
God has promised: be it must: Jesus is my Hope and Trust.
Stanza 3 affirms that Christ’s resurrection enables Him to extend “grace to every returning sinner.” This “returning” is the repentance which turns us away from our sins to turn instead to Christ. The text rightly labels us as rebels, and though we deserve God’s eternal wrath and punishment, we are instead received “as friends” and exalted “to highest honor.” Once again, how can be sure of this”? It is because God is both true and just. He has accepted Jesus’ death as full payment for our sin, so He is both just and justifier (Romans 3:26).
Jesus lives, and God extends grace to each returning sinner;
rebels He receives as friends and exalts to highest honor.
God is True as He is Just; Jesus is my Hope and Trust.
Stanza 4 affirms that Christ’s resurrection gives us victory over sin. What great news is that! This is true ultimately in that sin will not have conquered us on the day of judgment. Jesus “raises from the dust.” But more than that, though we all struggle with sin, victory is possible … not to the point of sinless perfectionism … but certainly to the point of increasing holiness, regularly and repeatedly cleansing our hearts. It’s because Jesus is alive that He is able to dwell within us by His Holy Spirit and strengthen us in resisting temptation.
Jesus lives, and by His grace, vict’ry o’er my passions giving,
I will cleanse my heart and ways, ever to His glory living.
Me He raises from the dust; Jesus is my Hope and Trust.
Stanza 5 affirms that Christ’s resurrection is God’s guarantee of His protection over us. Here we think immediately of Romans 8:38-39, where Paul assures us that nothing in all of creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ, neither “life nor death nor pow’rs of hell, joy nor grief.” And we recall Jesus’ promise in John 10:27-29 that none of His sheep will be lost.
Jesus lives! I know full well nought from Him my heart can sever,
life nor death nor pow’rs of hell, joy nor grief, henceforth forever.
None of all His saints is lost; Jesus is my Hope and Trust.
Stanza 6 affirms that Christ’s resurrection provides us an entrance into glory. Here is the testimony of the believer at death’s door, standing firm and singing with confidence, not overcome with fear at the prospect of dying but filled with anticipation at the joy and the crown of life that lies beyond. We approach death, whether our own or that of a friend or relative, saying as Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14, that “we grieve, but not as those who have no hope.” It is then that we will most certainly find that our “hopes were just; Jesus is the Christian’s Trust.”
Jesus lives, and death is now but my entrance into glory.
Courage, then, my soul, for thou hast a crown of life before thee;
thou shalt find thy hopes were just; Jesus is the Christian’s Trust.
Sometimes many modern people think that these older hymns have no meaning for believers today, so now we have misnamed newer “praise songs,” many of which have only an ounce of scripture and a pound of emotion. Certainly there is nothing wrong with expressions of worship in song using contemporary language and style, but since truth is timeless we ought not to think that hymnwriters of former days have nothing to say to us. As we grow older and realize more and more from experience that “the outward man perishes,” how good it is to remember that “Jesus Lives, and So Shall I.”
The tune, JESUS, MEINE ZUVERSICHT, is usually attributed to Johann Crüger (1598-1662). It appeared anonymously in his 1653 “Praxis Pietatis Melica” (The Practice of Piety in Song), which he edited, the most widely used Lutheran hymnal of the 17th century. In the 1668 edition, the initials “J. C.” (for Crüger) are used with it. It may have been based on an older melody that Crüger adapted, or it may be an original work of his. The modern harmonization was made for the concluding part of the cantata “So du mit deinem Munde bekennst” (So Confess with Your Mouth), based on Romans 10:9 by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750).
Crüger was born in Groß Breesen (now part of Guben) as the son of an innkeeper, Georg Crüger. He was an ethnic Sorb, baptized as Jan Krygar. After years of study in several locales, in 1615 he traveled to Berlin, where he studied theology. From 1620 he studied theology at the University of Wittenberg and trained himself further in music through private study. From 1622 to his death, a period of 40 years, he was simultaneously a teacher at the gymnasium Zum Grauen Kloster and cantor of the Nikolaikirche in Berlin. Among the hymns for which he composed music are Martin Rinkart’s “Now Thank We All Our God” and Johann Franck’s “Jesus, Priceless Treasure,” which Bach used for a motet of the same name.
In 1628, Crüger married the widow of a city councilman. During the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648), he and his family endured many hardships, including hunger. He fell ill with the plague and almost died of that disease, losing five children, and his wife in 1636. In 1637, having recovered from the disease, he got married a second time, to the 17-year-old daughter of an innkeeper, with whom he had fourteen children, most of whom died at a young age. One of his daughters married the court painter Michael Conrad Hirt, who made a portrait of Crüger in 1663. Crüger died in Berlin at the age of 64, having left the church a marvelous heritage of worship music.
Returning to the hymn as sung at Tim Keller’s memorial service (and as you sing it today), here are the words he wanted spoken about it.
This hymn gives us the hope for life after death. It should not be sung at too slow a pace, or it will sound like a dirge. So keep it brisk, and remember it’s describing our hope for the future. There’s nothing that can happen here that can’t make you better. It says at the beginning of the last verse: Jesus lives, and death is now but my entrance into glory.
Here you can hear the hymn sung with all the exuberance that the text demands!