Great Hymns of Easter — “Jesus Paid it All”

Text: Ephesians 2:1-10

Theme: A grace hymn on the penal substitutionary atonement for sin through the shedding of Christ’s blood on the cross.

Has your mind ever wandered during a worship service? (If so, I know it must have been at another church, and not this one). If your mind should ever wander during a worship service, who knows, maybe God will lead you to write a hymn! That’s what happened to Elvina Hall.

Jesus Paid it All is one of a group of hymns often referred to as Grace Hymns. Grace, of course, is theme of the Christian Church, and biblical preaching since the founding of the Church. Grace is at the core of the Gospel. Christians have experienced it, lived it, preached it, taught it, shared it, written about it and sung it. This morning we want to look at this great Easter Hymn and what it teaches us about grace.

The hymn’s lyrics were written by a lay woman named Elvina Hall, a 47-year-old widow. She wrote the words one Sunday morning, in 1865, while seated in the choir loft of the Monument Street Methodist Church of Baltimore, Maryland. She was supposedly listening to her pastor, the Rev. George Schrick, give his pastoral prayer. It was a very long prayer. As he droned on and on her mind began to wander, and she began scribbling the words of a poem in the flyleaf of her hymnal. After church she showed the poem to her pastor.

The title of her poem was “Jesus Paid it All.”

Coincidentally, (if you believe in such coincidences), John Grape, the church organist, had earlier that week composed a tune he called All To Him I Owe and given it to the pastor.

The pastor of Monument Street Methodist Church, took Elvina Hall’s poem into his office and laid it next to John Grape’s musical score. He thought that they were a perfect fit. At the pastor's urging, Elvina and John tweaked the words and the music and called it “Jesus Paid it All, All to Him I Owe” and sent it to a Christian publishing company. A few months later it was published in a music periodical Sabbath Carols. The hymn quickly became a favorite of Methodists and Baptists.

The hymn teaches the penal substitutionary atonement for sin through the shedding of Christ’s blood on the cross. This is why it is one of the “great” hymns of Easter.

The hymn appeared in The Baptist Hymn and Praise Book of 1904, and has been in every Baptist Hymnal since.

I marvel at the workings of God on our behalf. An obscure widow woman scribbles a poem in the flyleaf of her hymnal, an amateur church musician unknowingly creates a matching tune, an unknown pastor provides encouragement to both and another great hymn of the faith is born. It is a hymn that has found an important place in our church hymnals and it has ministered spiritual challenge and blessing to countless numbers of people for one hundred and twenty years.

The message of the hymn speaks of the incredible grace that was poured out on Calvary for lost sinners.

I. GRACE REMINDS US THAT OUR STRENGTH INDEED IS SMALL — WE ARE DEAD IN SIN

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

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” (Ephesians 2:1–3, ESV)

1. Paul reminds the believers at Ephesus — and us — that we were all once dead in transgressions and sins

a. well that’s a downer, isn’t it?

b. in other words, there is nothing we can do to change our spiritual condition because dead men have no strength — no ability to rectify their sin problem

1) our strength to save ourselves is not just small it’s non-existent

ILLUS. A children's nursery rhyme reminds us of man's spiritual condition outside of Christ. You all know the it ...

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;

All the king's horses

And all the king's men

Couldn't put Humpty together again

3. mankind has had a great fall in his life

a. it took place in a garden called Eden

b. the evidence of the great fall is the havoc sin produces in our lives and in our world

4. like Humpty Dumpty we, too, are helpless in putting ourselves back together again

a. if the lost person will listen, they will hear the voice of the Savior saying, “Thy strength indeed is small ...”

A. WITHOUT CHRIST A MAN IS SPIRITUALLY DEAD AND ETERNALLY DOOMED

1. in v. 1 Paul reminds his readers that there was a time, not to far in the distant past, that they were dead in trespasses and sin

2. they may have felt very much alive, and may have been in perfect physical health, but they were actually in a state of prolonged death

a. until a lost person understands their spiritual deadness they can’t be saved

ILLUS. On April 10th 1912 the RMS Titanic set sail from Southhampton, England bound for New York City. There were 2,224 passengers and crew on board. Five days latter the Titanic was lying on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean and 1,500 had drowned. It remains the deadliest peacetime sinking of an ocean liner. If you’d talked to any of those 1,500 people on April 10th non of them would have perceived that they were living in a state of prolonged death. The Titanic was unsinkable. Everyone knew that. The ship had advanced safety features, such as watertight compartments and remotely activated watertight doors, which contributed to its reputation as "unsinkable".

At 11:40PM on April 14 the ship struck an iceberg that buckled the hull allowing sea water to rush in. The situation was reported to Captain Edward Smith who was dumbfounded. The Titanic was “unsinkable”. The command was given to abandon ship. Passengers and crew were dumbfounded. The Titanic was “unsinkable”. Passengers were told to put on life vests. They were dumfounded. The Titanic was, after all, “unsinkable”. The command was given to load the lifeboats and lower them to the sea. Passengers and crew were dumbfounded. The ship was now actually sinking, but the Titanic was “unsinkable” and many passengers refused to believe the obvious. So sure were the majority of passengers and crew that the ship was unsinkable that every single lifeboat lowered was only partially filled — another 500 people could have been saved. Imminent death was staring people in the face and many still chose to believe that the ship would not sink.

3. these people were dead and doomed, but were not aware of it

a. it’s very difficult to rescue somebody it they don’t know the peril they are in

b. you can’t be rescued unless you know you need to be rescued

ILLUS. Humanism is a worldview that says everybody is really OK. Deep down everyone you meet is a decent human being. Given the right circumstances all people are perfectible. The Christian doctrine of sin, they insist, needs to be jettisoned from the human conscience because it’s such a downer. Just put people in the right environment. Give them the right education. Treat them with dignity and all will be fine. For the Humanist, utopia is always just one well-funded government program away. And if, by some chance you are a bad person, a violent person, an evil person, it’s not your fault — you’re a victim. You were raised bad, you weren’t properly educated, and you’re not sufficiently paid.

c. the bible is more blunt about the reality of your condition

1) Paul says that you are dead in trespasses and sins

4. the lost person sails along through life innocently, unaware of the need for a safe port unaware that they are sinking and in need of rescue

a. and even if they are aware that they’re foundering they frequently convince themselves, “But this is the Titanic and I’m unsinkable”

b. and they believe that until they crash and the founder

B. REMEMBERING WHAT WE WERE HELPS US APPRECIATE WHAT WE'VE BECOME

“among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” (Ephesians 2:3, ESV)

1. in v. 3, Paul reminds his readers what they once were spiritually and what they now are by the grace of God

2. because they were dead in their transgressions and their sins, their way of life was characterized by evil, ungodliness, and unrighteous attitudes and action

a. Paul says that we were by nature objects of wrath

1) double downer!

b. while it is true that — by worldly standards — many people live moral and respectable lives outwardly, the wicked, sinful nature is still there

c. it may be held in check by training, teaching, laws, folkways or social mores, but the wicked, depraved nature of fallen mankind resides in the heart of every man

1) if given opportunity, it will spring into action like a lion who has been stalking his prey

d. the reason the lost man's life is characterized by ungodliness is because he ...

1) follows the ways of the world

2) his allegiance is to the ruler of the kingdom of the air — that is, the Devil

ILLUS. Outwardly, the Pharisees were considered the pinnacle of moral and spiritual excellence in 1st - century Jewish society. They were patriotic, family-oriented, in synagogue-every-time-the-doors-are-open, tithing Jews. Yet, Jesus told the Pharisees that they were “children of the devil.”

3) everyone, outside of a faith relationship with Jesus, is a child of the devil

3. because we were dead in our transgressions and our sins we are unable to rise above our disobedience and live a holy life

ILLUS. Unfortunately, even most Christians don’t take sin seriously. Certainly not as serious as God does. We look at our neighbors, our friends, our family and think, “These people are trying to be decent. Most people are trying to be loving, they’re trying to be compassionate, they’re trying their very best to live decent lives.” The idea of being dead in sin seems to be overblown. It seems to be exaggerated. It seems to be over-sensationalized. It seems to be tabloid theology.

a. but every once in a while the tabloids get a story right

1) that phrase all of us in v. 3 reminds us that the believer should never be smug in the grace he or she has received

b. Why? because according to Paul there was a time when, we too, were lost; living among the lost, gratifying the desires of our baser nature and doing whatever we felt like and thought about

4. because we were dead in our transgressions and our sins we were the objects of wrath

a. here is why the saving grace of God is such a supreme blessing

1) disobedience, following the ways of the world, and giving our allegiance to Satan makes the lost man the object of God's wrath

2) on the other hand, obedience, following the ways of God and giving allegiance to Christ make the saved man an object of grace

ILLUS. In his book Lincoln, Gore Vidal tells about the day when the president's cabinet came together to discuss what would happen after the Civil War was over. How should the Union treat the rebellious southerners. Every member of Lincoln’s Cabinet wanted to punish the South as a vanquished enemy. When they asked Lincoln how he planned to deal with the South, Lincoln said, "I will treat them as if they never left."

3) God's grace is that way — it treats us as if we had never left Eden

II. GRACE REMINDS US THAT HIS POWER ALONE CAN MELT THE HEART OF STONE — GOD, IS RICH IN MERCY

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

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—” (Ephesians 2:4–5, ESV)

1. God's judgment reveals who we are

2. God's mercy reveals who God is

ILLUS. In 1978 Velma Barfield, was charged with 1st degree murder. As she was booked, no one could have surmised the effect her life and death would have upon so many people. She was arrested for murdering four people, including her mother and her fiancé. She later confessed to two more murders for a total of six. She was one of America’s first known women serial killers. She never denied her guilt, but told the chilling story of sexual abuse as a child, and a drug-dazed life.

After she admitted her guilt, she was taken to prison and confined in a cell by herself. Desperate and alone in her cell, Velma heard the words of an prison chaplain as he spoke to another prisoner. The gospel penetrated her heart, and she committed her life to Jesus Christ. Her life began to change. She would write, "I had been in and out of churches all my life and I could explain all about God. But I had never understood before that Jesus had died for me."

Her conversion was genuine. For six years on death row she ministered to many of her cell mates. The outside world began to hear about Velma Barfield as the story of her remarkable rehabilitation became known. Even Billy Graham praised her ministry to other death row inmates. God turned her cell into a most unusual pulpit. Barfield's involvement in Christian ministry was extensive enough that an effort was made to commute her death sentence to life imprisonment. Before the final decision, Velma wrote: "If I am executed on August 31, I know the Lord will give me dying grace, just as He gave me saving grace, and has given me living grace."

Velma Barfield died Nov. 2, 1984. She was the first woman in twenty-two years to be executed in the United States. She walked through the valley of the shadow for many years and at her memorial service the Reverend Hugh Hoyle said, "She died with dignity and she died with purpose. Velma is a living demonstration of "by the grace of God you shall be saved.'"

2. the reason God is rich in mercy is because of His great love

A. GOD'S MERCY HAS MADE US ALIVE WITH CHRIST

“even when we were dead in our trespasses, God made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—” (Ephesians 2:5, ESV)

1. the KJV uses the term quickened

a. it is an interesting word

b. it means that God has taken something that was dead and infused life into it by joining it together with something that was alive

c. this is what God has done for us — He has joined us together in Christ, replacing the heart of stone with a heart of flesh, and we are now alive in Christ

2. this verse teaches us one of the greatest, but most misunderstood truths of the Scriptures

a. God did not send His son into the world to make bad people good

b. God sent His only begotten son into the world to make dead people live

B. GOD'S MERCY HAS RAISED US UP IN CHRIST

“and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,” (Ephesians 2:6, ESV)

1. in vs. 5 Paul describes the reason for God's grace

a. it is to take that which was dead and make it alive

2. in vs. 6 he reveals the goal of God's grace

a. it is to resurrect us in Christ and establish our rule with Christ in the heavenlies

C. GOD'S MERCY IS A JUSTIFICATION OF HIS INCOMPARABLE GRACE

“so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:7, ESV)

1. no man will be able to stand before God and accuse Him of being unfair in the distribution of His grace and mercy

2. for us, the best is yet to come

3. that’s what the 4th stanza of Hall’s hymn sings about — And when, before the throne, I stand in Him complete, “Jesus died my soul to save,” My lips shall still repeat.

III. GRACE REMINDS US THAT WE STAND IN HIM COMPLETE — WE ARE SAVED

"For nothing good have I whereby they grace to claim; I'll wash my garment white in the blood of Calvary's Lamb"

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8–9, ESV)

1. all that is necessary for the justification of the sinner is given by God

a. as a lost sinner, nothing good have I whereby they grace to claim

b. my only hope was to plead the blood of Calvary’s Lamb

c. when I did that, Jesus washed the garment of my life white

2. salvation is not our achievement by good behavior — it is God’s gift — no number of good deeds can merit it

ILLUS. Another grace hymn says, “My hope is built on nothing less, than Jesus blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name. On Christ the Solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand!”

a. even the faith necessary to receive grace is a gift from God

b. there will be no room for bragging in God’s Kingdom

1) when it comes to salvation, God gets all the glory

c. in salvation, men who deserve hell obtain heaven

1) this cannot be explained apart from God’s grace

ILLUS. Every conversion in Scripture is an example of God’s grace. When Paul (Saul) met the Lord on the Damascus Road, Paul was a persecutor of the church. Yet, God turned the church’s primary persecutor into the church’s primary preacher.

d. another hymn of the faith asks,"What can wash away my sin?"

1) the refrain echoes back, "Nothing but the blood of Jesus!"

2) the fourth stanza rings out, "This is all my righteousness, nothing but the blood of Jesus."

3) a man's own efforts at goodness and right-living can never earn him a declaration of righteousness from God

4) simple trust in the Son of God can

3. grace means we lack nothing

a. we don’t have to go around wondering, Is there some good work I’ve left undone that may keep me out of heaven?

b. grace lets us stand in Him complete

A. SALVATION IS BOTH A GIFT AND A DEMAND

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10, ESV)

1. this last verse in our passage reminds us that we are not saved by good works, but we are saved for good works

a. the moment God saves us by His grace He has a plan of good works for our lives

2. God does not save us to inactivity

“Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”” (John 20:21, ESV)

Jesus paid it all, All to Him I owe; Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow. This hymn harkens to the ultimate sacrifice made by Jesus through his crucifixion. Elvina Hall, inspired by her gratitude of our salvation through Jesus, wrote this hymn as a reminder of the price paid to resolve us of our sins. God had a plan to fix our brokenness and mistakes and redeem us. That plan was sending a perfect substitute to pay the price of our sin — his name is Jesus. “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” – Romans 5:8, NIV