One of the most important statements that Martin Luther wrote is, Quia isto articulo stante stat Ecclesia, ruente ruit Ecclesia. Most have heard some version of this in translation. “Because if this article (of justification) stands, the church stands; if this article collapses, the church collapses.” Most often, we hear it quoted as asserting that it is on the doctrine of justification that the church either stands or falls. And every evangelical believer must agree with that. This doctrine lies at the very heart of biblical Christianity.
Some think about this in a very careless way, as if this was of little importance. They may say that they already believe this, so they want to “move on to other more important things.” But as in the hymn, “I Love to Tell the Story,” we must respond that we can never grow tired of hearing and thinking about this wonderful truth. “What seems each time I tell it, more wonderfully sweet.” Indeed, should not every worship service include musical texts that proclaim this afresh, and should not every sermon in some way clarify this central truth? For that one person for whom this is their first visit to our church, what is more important that they must hear?
Check out the hymnal (or song collection) that your church uses. How many selections fall under the heading of justification and the related theme of imputation? Hymns like “Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness,” “My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less,” “My Hope Is in the Lord,” and “Arise, My Soul, Arise.” And look not just in that topical section on “justification,” but under other headings, as well, like that of “sovereign grace.” How often are they sung? How well do people know them? Don’t limit your search to hymns of previous centuries. Look also for newer compositions of recent years that do an excellent job of giving musical life to this great truth, hymns like “In Christ Alone,” “Not I, But Christ,” and “All I Have Is Christ.” One of the benefits of such singing is that we’ll wind up singing more about what God has done than about how we feel.
And let’s not forget about the preaching. A good biblical theology will lead the preacher to find the connection to Christ in every passage of Scripture. A sermon that does not tell us about what Jesus has done for us in our justification is not a sermon worth preaching … or hearing. In an 1876 sermon, Charles Spurgeon had this to say. “The motto of all true servants of God must be, ‘We preach Christ, and Him crucified.’ A sermon without Christ in it is like a loaf of bread without any flour in it …. No Christ in your sermon, sir? Then go home, and never preach again until you have something worth preaching.”
There is no better hymn on this topic than “Thy Works, Not Mine, O Christ.” It was written in 1857 by Horatius Bonar (1808-1889), one of Scotland’s most earnest soul-winners and also one of its greatest hymnists. Known to his friends as Horace, he has given us many wonderful hymns, numbering more than 140, including “Blessing and Honor and Glory and Power,” “I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say,” “Go Labor On, Spend and Be Spent,” “Here, O My Lord, I See Thee Face to Face,” “Not What My Hands Have Done,” “I Lay My Sins on Jesus,” and “Thy Way, Not Mine, O Lord.” Just from such titles, one can see a great heart for the Lord in this mighty churchman. And that is wonderfully true in this great hymn, “Thy Works, Not Mine, O Christ.”
The theme of the hymn is the truth that is summarized in “The Five Solas” of the Reformation: that we are justified by grace alone (sola gratia) through faith alone (sola fide) in Christ alone (solus Christus) according to the Scripture alone (sola scriptura) to the glory of God alone (soli Deo gloria). It is the consistent message of the Bible. We need to be saved, but cannot save ourselves. Nothing we have done or can do would ever be able to save us from the just penalty of our sins. One of the passages of Scripture which sets this forth in a very clear and succinct manner is Titus 3:4-5. “But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.”
Hymnologist Ernest Edwin Ryden has written of this man:
In Bonar we behold the strange anomaly of a man with a strong physique and powerful intellect combined with the gentle, sympathetic nature of a woman and the simple, confiding faith of a child. The warmth and sincerity of his personal faith in Christ may be seen reflected in all his hymns. “I try to fill my hymns with the love and light of Christ,” he once said, and certainly he has drawn many souls to the Saviour by the tenderness of their appeal …. Bonar is ever pointing in his hymns to Christ as an all-sufficient Saviour, dwelling in simple language on the blessings of the Atonement and the willingness of God to accept all who come to Him through Christ. In these days of modernistic teachings when practically all stress is placed on ‘living the Christ-life’ while the meritorious work of Christ on behalf of the sinner is largely ignored and forgotten, it would be salutary for the Church to listen anew to such words as these:
And Ryden goes on to point to the Christ-centered lyrics of Bonar’s hymns.
Here is more of the evaluation of Bonar and his work by Ryden in his classic book on hymnody.
Bonar was born in Edinburgh, December 19, 1808. His father was a lawyer, but he came from a long line of eminent Scottish ministers. His mother was a gentle, pious woman, and it was largely through her influence that her three sons, John, Horatius and Andrew, entered the ministry of the Church of Scotland. Andrew became a noted Bible commentator.
After completing his course at the University of Edinburgh, Horatius began mission work in Leith, under Rev. James Lewis. In one of the most squalid parts of the city he conducted services and Sunday school in a hall. The children did not seem to enjoy singing the Psalm paraphrases, which were still exclusively used by the Church of Scotland at that late date, and therefore Bonar decided to write songs of his own. Like Luther, he chose happy tunes familiar to the children, and wrote words to fit them. His first two hymns were “I lay my sins on Jesus” and “The morning, the bright and beautiful morning.” Still others were “I was a wandering sheep” and “A few more years shall roll.” Needless to say, the children sang and enjoyed them.
At this time, also, he wrote his first hymn for adults, “Go, labor on! Spend and be spent!” It was intended to encourage those who were working with him among the poor of his district.
After four years Bonar was ordained as a minister of the Church of Scotland, assuming charge of a new church at Kelso. He was a man of prayer, and his first sermon to his people was an exhortation to prayer. It is said that a young servant in his home was converted by his prayers. Hearing his earnest supplications from his locked study, she thought: “If he needs to pray so much, what will become of me, if I do not pray!”
Many stories are related of his methods of dealing with seeking souls. A young man who was troubled by a grievous sin came to Bonar for help. The latter told him that God was willing to forgive and that the blood of Jesus His Son cleanseth from all sin. The despairing young man seemed unable to believe the gospel message, however, and continually reminded Bonar of the greatness of his transgression. Finally an inspiration came to the pastor. “Tell me,” he demanded, “which is of greater weight in the eyes of God—your sin, black as it is, or the blood of Jesus, shed for sinners?” Light dawned on the soul of the troubled young man, and he cried joyfully, “Oh, I am sure the blood of Jesus weighs more heavily than even my sin!” And so he found peace.
Bonar was a man of boundless energy. When he was not preaching, he was writing hymns or tracts or books. One of his tracts, “Believe and Live,” was printed in more than a million copies, and the late Queen Victoria of England was much blessed by it. His hymns number about 600, and the fact that at least 100 are in common use today is a testimonial to their worth. Dr. Bonar never used his hymns in his own church worship, but when, on a certain occasion near the close of his life, he broke the rule, two of his elders showed their emphatic disapproval by walking out of church.
(Roff: Those were the days of exclusive psalmody in worship.)
Perhaps the finest hymn we have received from his pen, if we except “I lay my sins on Jesus,” is “I heard the voice of Jesus say.” Other familiar hymns are “Thy works, not mine, O Christ,” “Not what my hands have done,” “Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power,” “All that I was, my sin, my guilt,” “Thy way, not mine, O Lord,” and “A few more years shall roll.”
In 1843 Dr. Bonar married Miss Jane Lundie, and for forty years they shared joy and sorrow. She, too, was a gifted writer, and it is she who has given us the beautiful gem, “Fade, fade, each earthly joy.”
Sorrow was one of the means used by the Lord to enrich and mellow the life of Bonar. Five of his children died in early years. It required much of divine grace in such experiences to write lines like these:
Spare not the stroke, do with us as Thou wilt;
Let there be naught unfinished, broken, marred.
Complete Thy purpose, that we may become
Thy perfect image, O our God and Lord.Bonar himself was sorely afflicted during the last two years of his life. He died in 1889, deeply mourned by all Scotland as well as by Christians throughout the world who had come to know him through his tracts and hymns. At his funeral one of his own hymns was sung. It was written on the theme of his family motto, “Heaven at Last.”
After completing his studies at the University of Edinburgh, Bonar was licensed to preach, and became assistant to the Rev. John Lewis, minister of St. James’s, Leith. He was ordained minister of the North Parish, Kelso, on November 30th, 1837, but left the Established Church with other evangelicals at the “Disruption,” in May, 1848, remaining in Kelso as a minister of the Free Church of Scotland. The University of Aberdeen conferred on him the doctor of divinity degree in 1853. In 1866 he was transferred to the Chalmers Memorial Church, the Grange, Edinburgh; and in 1883 he was chosen Moderator of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland. He is best remembered today for his hymns, with close to 100 of them continuing in use in hymnals today.
While only 4 stanzas of “They Works, Not Mine, O Christ” are typically included in modern hymnals, additional stanzas can be found online. As is frequently found, the repeated refrain is the joyful, confident prayer of the believer who is trusting in Christ alone. And the splendid pattern repeated in each stanza is seen as every one begins by ruling out another possibility. Seeing them all listed (including the “extra stanzas”) makes a powerful statement that drives us to Jesus, our only hope.
Thy works, not mine
Thy pains, not mine
Thy cross, not mine
Thy righteousness alone
Thy blood, not mine
Thy death, not mine
Thy tears, not mine
Thy wounds, not mine
The Refrain, as the rest of the hymn, is addressed to the Lord Jesus, Himself. In it, the singer acknowledges that there is no other refuge from sin and its harsh penalty but Jesus alone.
To whom, save Thee, who canst alone for sin atone, Lord, shall I flee.
Stanza 1 calls us to remember Christ’s works: His active obedience (living the life of conformity to God’s will that we should have lived) and His passive obedience (suffering the curse of death on the cross that we should have suffered). Those are things that “speak gladness to this heart,” certainly not my pitiful, sin-stained works. And those works “tell me all is done,” there is nothing left to be paid, as Jesus said from the cross, “It is finished.” Thus my fear departs.
Thy works, not mine, O Christ, speak gladness to this heart;
They tell me all is done; they bid my fear depart.
(refrain)
Stanza 2 calls us to remember Christ’s pains. And how terrible they were, not just the physical pains, dragging the cross through the streets, and the agony of the scourging and torturous hours on the cross, but even worse, the pain of the Father’s wrath suffered in our place. He, instead of us, was the one cursed to hang on the shameful tree (Deuteronomy 21:22-23). That substitutionary sacrifice of our Redeemer “paid the law’s full price and purchased peace for me.”
Thy pains, not mine, O Christ, upon the shameful tree,
Have paid the law’s full price and purchased peace for me.
(refrain)
Stanza 3 calls us to look more closely at the cross and what was accomplished there. When Jesus cried out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” it was not that He did not know the answer. It was because He was bearing “the awful load” of all the sins of all the elect of all ages. No human being can conceive of the enormous weight of such a burden, and certainly “none in heav’n or earth could bear” it; none but God Himself!
Thy cross, not mine, O Christ, has borne the awful load
Of sins that none in heav’n or earth could bear but God.
(refrain)
Stanza 4 calls us to look by faith at what no human eye can see, only the eye of faith: the beautiful, glorious righteousness of Christ. Oh, that we might grasp how spectacular that will be when we see it revealed in heaven’s glory. It’s a phrase that is too easy to speak without full appreciation of its magnificence. It becomes more awesome when we remember that since our best deeds are but filthy rags, in our justification, God imputes that righteousness to our account. He takes away the filthy robes of sin in which we stand, and instead clothes us in the spotless robes of Christ’s righteousness.
Thy righteousness, O Christ, alone can cover me:
No righteousness avails save that which is of Thee.
(refrain)
Here are a few other stanzas (perhaps more modern variations and expansions on the original)
Thy blood, not mine, O Christ, can heal my sinful soul;
Thy wounds, not mine, contain the balm that makes me whole.
Thy death, not mine, O Christ, has paid the ransom due;
ten thousand deaths like mine would have been all too few.
Thy tears, not mine, O Christ, have wept my guilt away;
And turned this night of mine into a blesséd day:
Thy wounds, not mine, O Christ, can heal my bruiséd soul;
Thy stripes, not mine, contain the balm that makes me whole.
Thy righteousness alone can clothe and beautify;
I wrap it round my soul; in this I’ll live and die:
The tune most often used for this text is DARWALL, written in 1770 by John Darwall (1731-1789). The son of a pastor, he attended Oxford and became the curate and later vicar of St. Matthew’s Parish Church in Walsall, where he remained until his death. As a poet and amateur musician, he composed a soprano tune and bass line for each of the 150 Psalm versifications in the 1696 “Tate and Brady New Version of the Psalms of David.” In an organ dedication speech in 1773 he advocated singing the “Psalm tunes in quicker time than common (in order that) six verses might be sung in the same space of time that four generally are.” This DARWALL tune was first sung at the inauguration of that organ in 1773. The DARWALL tune has proven to be a “winner,” as it has been used with a number of different hymn texts, including “Rejoice, the Lod Is King.” He is best known for this tune for his setting of Psalm 148, often named DARWALL’S 148th.
Here is a link to an excellent article about Bonar from Sinclair Ferguson.
While the web does not show a site for this text sung to DARWALL, John Rutter has written a magnificent accompaniment to the tune with the words, “Rejoice the Lord Is King.”