- "Sinners Jesus will receive: Sound this word of grace to all Who the heav'nly pathway leave, All who linger, all who fall! [Refrain]
- "Come: and He will give you rest; Trust Him: for His word is plain; He will take the sinfullest: Christ receiveth sinful men. [Refrain]
- "Now my heart condemns me not, Pure before the law I stand; He Who cleansed me from all spot, Satisfied its last demand. [Refrain]
- "Christ receiveth sinful men, Even me with all my sin; Purged from ev'ry spot and stain, Heav'n with Him I enter in."
(Original Words by Erdmann Neumeister; Translated to English by Emma F. Bevan; Music by James McGranahan)
Once again, as we begin with our Prime Directive "checkoff list", we can see that this is a psalm of praise to God giving high praise for His character and His work as well as a hymn teaching about His willingness to bless.
This song, in its modern form, took 165 years to come together. It was initially written in 1718 by Herr Erdmann Neumeister (originally in German), based on a sermon he gave which began "Jesus nimmt die Sünder an! Saget döch dies Trostwort allen" (which translates in English, according to my iTranslate app, "Jesus takes the sinner! Tell ye all these words of consolation."). Originally it consisted of eight verses, six lines in each, all closing with the phrase "Jesus nimmt die Sünder an."
It was translated into English by Mrs Emma F. Bevan for Songs of Eternal Life, a hymn book she wrote and published in London, England, in 1858. Interestingly enough, she produced two versions of the translation. The first one translated all eight verses and remained somewhat true to Herr Neumeister's original work (although some have criticized her translation for using some English hyperbole that would not have originated in German; some of this can be read in the article "'Sinners Jesus Will Receive' - the British Reception of Neumeister's Hymn" by John S. Andrews in The Evangelical Quarterly, 4th Quarter, 1983 [pp 223-230] along with a comparison of the original in German and both of Bevan's translations). The second version she produced is the one we typically sing today, condensed to four verses, four lines for each, and an additional refrain.
The tune as we know it today was written in 1883 by James McGranahan for The Gospel Male Choir song book, published by the John Church Company, Cincinatti, OH.
So now that we are better acquainted with the history behind this song, let's see if it maintains Scriptural integrity:
The first verse (and the refrain, for that matter) basically give a command: "Sound this word of grace to all Who the heavenly pathway leave, All who linger, all who fall." The refrain continues by entreating us, "Sing it o'er and o'er again:" and "Make the message clear and plain:" What is this word of grace we are to sound? What are we singing over and over? What is the message we are to clarify? "Sinners Jesus will receive" according to the first verse, and "Christ receiveth sinful men" according to the refrain. So while there's nothing wrong in and of itself with making a clarion call per se, at least we know the message is sound as we see plenty of examples where Jesus did in fact receive sinners (Matthew 10:9-13; Mark 2:17; Luke 15:2-7).
In the second verse, it says, "Come and He will give you rest." Jesus even told us so in Matthew 11:28-30: "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." The verse continues, "Trust Him for His word is plain." A good definition of "plain" would be "clear to the mind; evident; manifest or obvious" (from dictionary.com) and there are many points in God's Word where it's made obvious how evident (plain) His Word is (John 16:25; Romans 1:19; 1 Corinthians 15:27). Continuing, "He will take the sinfullest." If we take the Apostle Paul at his word, then we know that the Lord will in fact "take the sinfullest" since He did take one who referred to himself as "the foremost" of sinners (some versions even say "chief")(1 Timothy 1:15).
If I may throw a slight editorial content here, I'm certain there are many who can read what Paul said in 1 Timothy 1:15 and say that the things they have done would make them the foremost of sinners. But think about what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 7 when it's difficult for one to remove a splinter from somebody else's eye when there's a huge two-by-four plank in your own eye. Personally, I have always wondered how much hyperbole this is; after all, many have made the case that all sin is sin in God's sight, so what if both people in the parable each have simply a splinter in one of their eyes? Why would one see it as a beam in his own eye?
This song, in its modern form, took 165 years to come together. It was initially written in 1718 by Herr Erdmann Neumeister (originally in German), based on a sermon he gave which began "Jesus nimmt die Sünder an! Saget döch dies Trostwort allen" (which translates in English, according to my iTranslate app, "Jesus takes the sinner! Tell ye all these words of consolation."). Originally it consisted of eight verses, six lines in each, all closing with the phrase "Jesus nimmt die Sünder an."
It was translated into English by Mrs Emma F. Bevan for Songs of Eternal Life, a hymn book she wrote and published in London, England, in 1858. Interestingly enough, she produced two versions of the translation. The first one translated all eight verses and remained somewhat true to Herr Neumeister's original work (although some have criticized her translation for using some English hyperbole that would not have originated in German; some of this can be read in the article "'Sinners Jesus Will Receive' - the British Reception of Neumeister's Hymn" by John S. Andrews in The Evangelical Quarterly, 4th Quarter, 1983 [pp 223-230] along with a comparison of the original in German and both of Bevan's translations). The second version she produced is the one we typically sing today, condensed to four verses, four lines for each, and an additional refrain.
The tune as we know it today was written in 1883 by James McGranahan for The Gospel Male Choir song book, published by the John Church Company, Cincinatti, OH.
So now that we are better acquainted with the history behind this song, let's see if it maintains Scriptural integrity:
The first verse (and the refrain, for that matter) basically give a command: "Sound this word of grace to all Who the heavenly pathway leave, All who linger, all who fall." The refrain continues by entreating us, "Sing it o'er and o'er again:" and "Make the message clear and plain:" What is this word of grace we are to sound? What are we singing over and over? What is the message we are to clarify? "Sinners Jesus will receive" according to the first verse, and "Christ receiveth sinful men" according to the refrain. So while there's nothing wrong in and of itself with making a clarion call per se, at least we know the message is sound as we see plenty of examples where Jesus did in fact receive sinners (Matthew 10:9-13; Mark 2:17; Luke 15:2-7).
In the second verse, it says, "Come and He will give you rest." Jesus even told us so in Matthew 11:28-30: "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." The verse continues, "Trust Him for His word is plain." A good definition of "plain" would be "clear to the mind; evident; manifest or obvious" (from dictionary.com) and there are many points in God's Word where it's made obvious how evident (plain) His Word is (John 16:25; Romans 1:19; 1 Corinthians 15:27). Continuing, "He will take the sinfullest." If we take the Apostle Paul at his word, then we know that the Lord will in fact "take the sinfullest" since He did take one who referred to himself as "the foremost" of sinners (some versions even say "chief")(1 Timothy 1:15).
If I may throw a slight editorial content here, I'm certain there are many who can read what Paul said in 1 Timothy 1:15 and say that the things they have done would make them the foremost of sinners. But think about what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 7 when it's difficult for one to remove a splinter from somebody else's eye when there's a huge two-by-four plank in your own eye. Personally, I have always wondered how much hyperbole this is; after all, many have made the case that all sin is sin in God's sight, so what if both people in the parable each have simply a splinter in one of their eyes? Why would one see it as a beam in his own eye?
If we were in an actual lecture hall setting this could be easy to demonstrate, but try to follow me on this one: picture if you will me standing in front of all of you in the lecture hall setting and I ask all of you to hold up your pens. As I hold up my own, we can all generally agree that our writing tools are very similar in size to each other. Now I instruct you to hold your pen up to your eye (in a safe manner, of course); now the question is which pen looks bigger? Yours or mine? The point is the pens are virtually the same size. It's a matter of perspective in this instance (regardless, before either one of us tries to get the splinter out of the other's eye, we better get the stuff out of our own first).
The third verse begins, "Now my heart condemns me not." And why should our hearts condemn us, when "[t]here is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1)." "Pure before the law I stand. He Who cleansed me from all spot satisfied its last demand."It is the blood of Jesus that cleanses us from sin (1 John 1:7). And since forgiveness of sins can only be achieved by shedding blood (Hebrews 9:22), it is Jesus Who, when He shed His blood for us on the cross, satisfied the final demand of the law (Hebrews 9:11-14)!
The final verse becomes a possible testimony one could give along the lines of this song: "Christ receiveth sinful men, Even me with all my sin;" again this seems to parallel Paul's statement of being the foremost of sinners. As the verse concludes, "Purged from every spot and stain, Heaven with Him I enter in." As we know that Christ's blood cleanses us from sin (1John 1:7), it is through Christ that we obtain eternal life (1John 5:11-15)!
Such is a message to "sing...o'er and o'er again, to "make...clear and plain"! Let us be certain to "sound this word of grace to all!"
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