Hymns of the Faith
“Jesus, Thy Blood and
Righteousness”
A Presentation of First Presbyterian Church
Jackson,
Mississippi
With
Dr. Ligon Duncan, Dr. Derek Thomas, and
Dr. Bill Wymond
Dr. Wymond:
Good morning! This is “Hymns of the Faith,” brought to you by Jackson’s
First Presbyterian Church. The minister of the First Presbyterian Church is
Dr. Ligon Duncan.
Dr.
Duncan: Thank you, BillWymond!
This is LigonDuncan, and it’s a joy to be with
you, Bill, and with you, Derek, and with you, our listening audience, to talk
about “Hymns of the Faith.”
For a couple of years now we have
been working through some of the greatest hymns written in the history of the
Christian church and sung in the English-speaking world for the last 400-500
years, and today we have come to another jewel. This is one of my favorite
hymns. It’s a hymn that speaks, Derek, of
the doctrine of justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ
alone as well as any hymn on that subject speaks. Actually, there are some
very good hymns on this particular theme but this one comes to us,
interestingly, not from an English speaker (although it comes to us through a
very famous English speaker). It comes to
us through John Wesley…no one less prominent than JohnWesley,
who translated this back in the
eighteenth century.
But it originates from a German,
from a Moravian who was one of the major sponsors of the Pietist movement which
had so much to do about the initial world mission movement at the end of the
eighteenth century-early nineteenth century —
Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf. And it’s his great hymn, Jesus, Thy
Blood and Righteousness, which we sing…and I don’t know the history of what
this song has been sung to, but we sing it to a tune called GERMANY, and it’s a good
sturdy long-meter tune. Maybe that won’t be ringing in all of your ears right
now, so,
Bill, why don’t you play GERMANY for us and see if it
pulls up anything? [Dr. Wymond
plays.]
Dr. Thomas:
Sounds like Beethoven.
Dr. Wymond:
I must tell you I really do love this melody, and I think it’s so
well suited for this text. The melody of course is not a hard melody, but it has
a beautiful creativity to me. What I like about it is that the hymn builds all
the way to the very end. It starts out rather low… [plays]
…and it makes statements about Jesus
and His blood and righteousness, but then it talks in more dramatic terms about
“ ‘midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed, with joy shall I lift up my head.”
And as it says that, it starts going up the melodic scale [plays]…and the melody and the harmonies have a very emotional
intensity about them. That’s kind of a long phrase there musically, but I think
it just fits the words so well.
This particular melody is entitled (tune-wise)
GERMANY, as you said, and so it’s just a
German tune that probably has folk origins to it, but it was collected by
William Gardner in a book that was called
Sacred Melodies.
Dr. Duncan:
And so would you assume then that the tune would have long
pre-existed that particular time, Bill?
Is that the case? In other words, this has been like some of the other
collections that you’ve told us about…these people would go out looking for
tunes that were circulating and they would gather them in a collection and
transcribe them. Is that how that came about?
Dr. Wymond:
I think definitely, because Gardner had several other tunes…one
which we use called O Worship the King
(LYONS)
that was also in this collection, and several other tunes that are used.
So I always think that you would predate a publication like this by at least a
hundred years or more. So it’s at least early eighteenth century.
Dr. Duncan:
And so would he have given it that name, GERMANY?
I mean probably it was a German tune, a Moravian tune, and so he just stuck the
name GERMANY
on it?
Dr. Wymond:
Yes, in his collection that’s what he did. I tell you, this is one of
my favorite tunes because it’s just a beautiful tune standing alone, but I’ve
always loved it with this particular set of words.
Dr.
Duncan: Yes, it
really is associated in my mind with this set of words. And this is a song I’ve
been singing since I was a child out of the old Southern Presbyterian hymnbook,
and it’s one that…I didn’t realize this until I was reading the material leading
up to the program today…that Wesley translated it a year after it was written.
And Wesley was keyed into the Moravians. The piety, I
think, of in the Wesleyan movement and the so-called Methodist movement in those
days was very much indebted to the piety of the Moravians.
Dr. Thomas:
Right. The It was written and translated 1739-40, right at the heart
of the Great Awakening period.
Dr. Duncan:
And
Zinzendorf was a prolific hymn writer. He wrote a
couple of thousand hymns that his followers utilized in their worship. So there
was a real commitment to the theology and being worked out into the piety of the
church. And this one, Derek, is just a
great, great text on justification, so why don’t you walk us through the flow of
argument and these beautiful assertions that Zinzendorf
has translated for us by JohnWesley.
Dr. Thomas:
It begins with a very bold statement that is peculiarly appropriate right
now:
“Jesus,
Thy blood and righteousness
my beauty are, my glorious dress;
‘midst flaming worlds, in these
arrayed,
with joy shall I lift up my
head.”
Now, Ligon, we can understand “Jesus, Thy blood,” and the
blood speaks of the forgiveness of sins. Jesus
went to the cross, died and shed His blood to forgive us our sins. But why “Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness”? What’s
going on here?
Dr. Duncan:
The language there undoubtedly is meant to capture what theologians
call both the active and the passive
obedience of Christ. It’s not just that Jesus on the cross…and
passive, by the way, there doesn’t
mean that He was only acting in a receptive and static sort of way; that
passive refers to the bearing of
the passion, the pain, the cross, the sorrow of the crucifixion and of all
the events that surrounded it.
But the idea of the active and
passive obedience of Christ is that Jesus
not only bore the penalty due for our sins, but
He lived the life of righteousness that we could not live. And so it
is that He both perceptively obeyed the totality of God’s law in a way that none
of us could have obeyed it and have obeyed it (because of our sin we have not
obeyed it; because of the desires and inclinations of our heart we’ve not obeyed
it), but He also, having lived that life perfectly, bore the penalty for
breaking that law. And it is not only that our sin is imputed to Him and He
bears the penalty for that sin, it is that He has lived the life of
righteousness on our behalf. And not only His bearing sin on our behalf, but His
living the fullness of life perfectly in His Father is imputed to us (is
credited to us).
Dr. Thomas:
Now there are fairly strident voices in our time and in our circles —
evangelical and Reformed, and Presbyterian and Baptist circles — that are
denying the concept of the active obedience of Christ
and what you’ve touched on, the imputation of righteousness. Which, I
take it, is what it means when it goes on to speak of “my glorious dress.” Now
what’s going on here with the …what’s at stake with the denial of the active
obedience of Jesus
and the imputation of His righteousness?
Dr. Duncan:
Yes, that’s good, Derek. I
mean, what’s at stake is, the only thing that’s at stake is heaven. That’s all.
And if you’re ready to dispense with eternal life, that’s fine. Dispense with
those. But what do we need in order to fellowship with God forever?
We need righteousness. We don’t need a status. We don’t need
a justification that’s based on our whole life lived. Our whole life lived is
filthy rags. We need righteousness, and we can’t get it for ourselves.
Dr. Thomas:
But some will say (as they’re saying right now) that you can’t impute
someone else’s righteousness.
Dr. Duncan:
Then we’re still in our sins. That’s fine. If you can’t do that,
that’s fine. We’re still in our sins. But the whole of the testimony of
Paul
in the New Testament is that God does indeed impute to sinners righteousness,
that because of His obedience we are counted righteous. That’s
Pauline
language for counted righteous in Christ, and the
whole point of that is that the basis of our being counted righteous is not in
us, it’s in Christ. It’s Christ’s
righteousness. That’s the basis of our being counted righteous, and that most
certainly can be transferred.
Dr. Thomas:
When
Paul says in a very, very important
passage in II Corinthians 5,
“God made Him [namely Jesus] to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might
be reckoned [or counted] the righteousness of God in Him,”
what’s he saying? What’s this “being reckoned the
righteousness of God”? What’s that mean?
Dr. Duncan:
Well, the point of it is that in and of ourselves we are all
unrighteousness, and that if we are going to be reconciled there has to be some
way for us to contract righteousness that we ourselves are incapable of
producing. And the Apostle Paul tells us that this happens by Jesus both bearing
the penalty due to our unrighteousness and by His living the life that we have
not and cannot live, and by that being credited to us, counted to us, imputed to
us in God’s loving grace and purposes so that we are dressed, we are clothed in
the glorious garment not of our own righteousness, but of His righteousness.
And this is, by the way, a theme
that’s rooted in the Old Testament. It’s not a New Testament idea, it’s an Old
Testament idea. And one of the most striking passages of course is out of a book
that I’ve heard you preach from before, and the story of
Zechariah
the priest standing before God dressed in these dirty garments, and he mourns
because he can’t minister in a state of uncleanness before God. And God takes
away the dirty garments and gives him garments of righteousness so that he can
carry out these administrations. And the whole picture here is of precisely
that, except in this case our high priest is clean. He’s clothed in the garments
of His own perfect righteousness and He says to you and me, “Derek, I’m going to take your dirty garments on Me for
you.” And then He does that. And we’re saying, “No, Lord. Don’t take that
dirtiness on yourself.” And what does He do? He cleans up our dirtiness, having
taken it upon himself both by the way that He has lived and by the penalty that
He bears. And then He gives that garment back, and He says, ‘Here’s your
garment, Derek, and it’s perfect, it’s
spotless, it’s clean.’ And what does that mean for you? It means that you can
fellowship with God forever, because otherwise you can’t fellowship with God
with your dirty garments. Even Jesus’ stories of those being invited to the
feasts in the Gospels, they can’t come in their own clothes — they have to be
given wedding garments so that they can come — press home this particular truth:
If you’re going to fellowship with God, you’ve got to have righteousness. You
don’t have righteousness. How are you going to get it? You’ve got to get it from
Jesus. And it’s not enough for your sins to be forgiven; you’ve
got to be righteous. Where’s that going to come from? It’s going to come from
Jesus. So “Jesus’ blood
and righteousness, my beauty are, my glorious rest.” And you really are…what you
say is true. These are stunning words. The very opening words, “Jesus,
Your blood and righteousness, my beauty are, my glorious dress,” those are bold
statements.
Dr. Thomas:
In a previous century the Presbyterians would have asked the
question, “Are you wearing the robe of Christ?” The
language here is almost apocalyptic now: “’Midst flaming worlds, with these
arrayed, with joy shall I lift up my head.” Describe that …
Dr. Duncan:
Isn’t that Petrine? Isn’t that Peter,
and the world being consumed by this purifying fire? And with the whole world
being consumed by fire, he’s saying, ‘I can lift up my head in joy, if I’m
dressed in that dress.”
Dr. Thomas:
And perhaps also the idea of the last Judgment.
Dr.
Duncan: Yes, clearly
connected.
Dr. Thomas:
With these…with the blood of Christ and
the righteousness of Christ, and wearing the garments
of Christ, at the Day of Judgment I can lift up my head with
joy.
Dr. Duncan:
Absolutely.
Dr. Thomas:
That’s a very powerful way to begin…
Dr. Duncan:
Well, and don’t you see the connection between that and these people,
these Moravians, being willing to go out and die on the fields of mission? I
mean, if you believe that, what are you not ready to take on in this world? If
you believe that because of the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ
you will, in the midst of flaming worlds, be able to lift up your head in joy,
you’re ready to go to the West Indies and die
of disease and to be martyred by the natives — which is precisely what these
Moravians did. They were amazing in their bravery in going out into the world to
tell people about the gospel. And not only that, you want to go out and tell
people about this. You want them to enjoy the assurance and the forgiveness, and
the confidence that you enjoy in Christ.
Dr. Thomas:
But
Satan comes to you and whispers in your ear, “You
hypocrite, you! You’re a sinner still. Shall I tell you your sins now, as you’re
saying all this?”
And what’s the second stanza?
Dr. Duncan:
And so he answers that accusation:
“Bold shall I stand in Thy great
day;
for who aught to my charge shall
lay?
[That is, who anything against me shall lay as a charge, as
a condemnation.]
“Fully absolved through these I
am…
[What are these?
Thy blood and righteousness.]
“Fully absolved through these I am
from sin and fear, from guilt and
shame.”
Period.
Dr.
Thomas: You know, folks say that
you should preach the gospel to yourself every day (and sometimes I hear that as
though that was something that came to us in the last ten years),
but here is this hymn saying precisely the same thing —
that against all the accusations of Satan you go back
to the cross, you go back to the finished work of Christ,
His active and passive obedience, which is preaching the gospel to yourself.
Dr. Duncan:
Right. Which is why our friend Ian Murray (I think, rightly) has
wanted to draw attention to the fact that in the foundations of piety in the
early Methodist movement and in the Puritan movement and amongst Scottish
Presbyterians and in the second generation of the Reformation there is a
theological kinship of the piety that existed, because there is a theological
commonality on which that piety was based. And you’re right. It’s based right
here. It’s based out of not just a doctrine of justification, but a doctrine of
what justification is based on. It’s based on God’s action for us in
Christ. It’s based on Christ’s active and
passive obedience. It’s based on God’s imputing to us, crediting to our account,
counting to us, reckoning to us the righteousness of Christ.
So it’s not just justification, it’s the superstructure that goes along with
that that’s the whole basis of a way of living life. And by the way, it’s not a
way of life that leads you to self-preoccupation, individualism, selfishness,
and indolence. It’s one that energizes you to serve the world. As the Wesleyans
did, as the early Methodists did, as the Moravians did, as those that went out
like William Carey and others on the great expeditions of mission in the wake of
the writing of this hymn, and within sixty years the world missions movement is
exploding in Protestantism because of this kind of theology, not in spite of it.
Dr. Thomas:
Stanza three takes us right to the Day of Judgment itself and the day of
resurrection:
“When from the dust of death I rise
to claim my mansion in the skies,
ev’n then this shall be all my
plea…”
Dr. Duncan:
What? “Jesus hath lived,
hath died, for me.”
And once again you see the
combination of Jesus’ life, Jesus’ death. You remember two things about this. One,
this truth is echoed in
AugustusToplady’s famous hymn,
A Debtor to Mercy Alone, and also in
another hymn that he wrote, Rock of Ages,
Cleft for Me. What does he say? “When I soar to worlds unknown, see Thee on
Thy judgment throne,” what’s going to be my word? “Rock of ages, cleft for me,
let me hide myself in Thee.” So even when we’re totally transformed and
glorified and purified from all our sin, our one plea is going to be “Rock of
ages, cleft for me.” And so this truth is being driven home here as well.
Dr. Thomas:
Let me ask you about this: “Jesus
hath lived, hath died for me.” It’s the same thing, isn’t it, again? Active and
passive obedience, only just reversed now. It’s not
blood and righteousness, as much as
righteousness and blood. I heard on a tape recently DonMcLeod
(the Principal of the Free Church College in Edinburgh). He was
being asked the question, if he was forced to say what is the gospel…he said if
he is forced to say that in the minimum amount of words, he says, “It’s for me.
He loved me and gave himself for me.” It’s the idea of substitution.. It’s here
Jesus hath lived and died for me, in my
place, as my substitute, because that brings out so much of “it’s nothing of me,
and it’s all of Him.” He has provided it all. It’s a gift. Just those simple
prepositions…for me. Not
with me; not partly Him and partly me…
Dr. Duncan:
Yes. Not as an example to me, but
for me. And that’s beautifully stated.
He has lived and has died for me.
Dr.
Thomas: Now there’s only one
response after all of that, and that is glorious praise and worship.
Dr.
Duncan:
“Jesus,
be endless praise to Thee,
whose boundless mercy hath for
me…”
[There’s that for me
again.]
“for me a full atonement made,
an everlasting ransom paid.”
Dr. Thomas:
Now there may well be some buzz terminology in the expression “full
atonement” in the context of the eighteenth century. What do you think that
might be? Why “full atonement”?
Dr.
Duncan: Without speculating
on Wesley’s translation of that and not having the German in front of me, I
don’t know. But let’s just put it this way. Calvinists certainly believe in a
full atonement. I think we could argue above all a full atonement; that is, that
Jesus’ death is not something that God accepted in the place of
what we owed Him, it is what we owed Him but could not pay. So
the atonement is not a substitute for
what we owed, it is precisely what we owed, so that in the language of JohnMurray,
Jesus does not cancel our debts in His
atonement, He liquidates them. And I think that’s vital for us to understand,
again for our assurance because we know our sin, to know that our sins have been
dealt with as they ought to have been dealt with in Christ.
Well, Derek, we hardly have time to even say the final stanza before we
hear this great hymn by Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf, translated by John
Wesley, sung by Protestants for over a quarter of a millennium now in
celebration of what Jesus has done for us in His atoning death,
Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness.
Let’s listen to it.
“Jesus,
Thy blood and righteousness
my beauty are, my glorious dress;
‘midst flaming worlds, in these
arrayed,
with joy shall I lift up my head.
“Bold shall I stand in Thy great
day;
for who aught to my charge shall
lay?
Fully absolved through these I am
from sin and fear, from guilt and
shame.
“When from the dust of death I
rise
to claim my mansion in the skies,
ev’n then this shall be all my
plea,
Jesus
hath lived, hath died, for me.
“Jesus,
be endless praise to Thee,
whose boundless mercy hath for
me–
for me a full atonement made,
an everlasting ransom paid.
“O let the dead now hear Thy
voice;
now bid Thy banished ones
rejoice;
their beauty this, their glorious
dress,
Jesus,
Thy blood and righteousness.”
Dr. Wymond:
Singing for us this morning was Genesa Case. This has been “Hymns of
the Faith,” brought to you by Jackson’s First Presbyterian
Church.