Sunday's Hymn: Justification

We’ve worked our way clear through the reader’s choice hymns, so it’s my turn to pick the Sunday Hymn for a while. Here’e the plan: I’m going to feature a particular doctrine, mostly likely one I’ve already written about here, and chose a hymn  related in some way to that truth.

 

You do know, don’t you, that Paul tells us to teach “one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” (Colossians 3:19 NASB)? That’s the primary reason I think the majority of the songs we sing in our churches should be song that teach us, and teach us right. The songs we sing together are supposed to be teaching tools.

 

This week’s doctrine taught in song is the doctrine of justification.

Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness

 

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.

The holy, meek, unspotted Lamb,
Who from the Father’s bosom came,
Who died for me, e’en me to atone,
Now for my Lord and God I own.

Lord, I believe Thy precious blood,
Which, at the mercy seat of God,
Forever doth for sinners plead,
For me, e’en for my soul, was shed.

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.

This spotless robe the same appears,
When ruined nature sinks in years;
No age can change its glorious hue,
The robe of Christ is ever new.

Jesus, the 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.

—-Nikolaus Ludwig von Zin­zen­dorf,translated into English by Charles Wesley. (Listen.)

I’ve posted a few things on justification recently.

• Christ’s Active and Passive Obedience in Our Justification
  
• Quiz: Justification, with answers to questions 1, 2 and 3, 4, 5 and 6.
• Westminster Larger Catechism, Questions 70, 71, 72, 73, 77
  
• Richard Hooker on Justification

---

Other hymns, worship songs, etc. posted today:

• On Our Way Rejoicing at Above the Clouds
  
• My Soul, How Lovely Is the Place at joythruChrist
• The Collect for the Nineteenth Sunday After Trinity at Magic Statistics
• The Beautiful Garden of Prayer at The Happy Wonderer
• Lord’s Day 41, 2007 at The Thirsty Theologian
  
• Sing, O Sing of My Redeemer at Hiraeth
• Trust and Obey at Seasoning of the Heart
• Christ is Made the Sure Foundation at Lux Venit
• Update: Dependence at Thoughts from the Teahouse
  

Have you posted a hymn this Sunday and I missed it? Let me know by leaving a link in the comments or by emailing me at the address in the sidebar and I’ll add your post to the list.

Update on Tuesday, October 16, 2007 at 10:10AM by rebecca

Isn’t this something? Ann B posted this as her Sunday Hymn, too. (See comments.) She says her dad wants this hymn sung at his funeral. I love that!

Favorite Things: Toy Truck

I’ve run out of scanned old photos and the thought of digging out another one, scanning it and posting it, makes my brain hurt. (Can you tell today was busy?) Instead of a Saturday’s Old Photo, let’s post a Favorite Things photo, because I already have a couple of those.

This is a toy truck made by my husband. I think it’s made of oak, but what do I know?

He made several of these. Both sons have one, a couple of friends have them, and maybe a cousin or two. This one is an extra, so it’s never been used. I suppose you could say it’s our display model.

The ones the boys have are not nearly so pristine, but it’s hard to haul loads of  building material for wooden block houses without getting a chip or two. This truck is versatile, too: Take the racks off the back and you’ve got flat bed, in case you need to haul a toy car or boat.

How KJV-Onlyism Is Incompatible with Sola Scriptura

I’m working on moving some of the posts from my old blog over to this one, so I may occasionally repost a re-editted one. And that’s what this is—an editted old post.

 

What I’m hoping to show in this piece is that adherents of KJV-Onlyism, while claiming to be faithful to the principle that the Bible should the final arbitrator of faith and practice, in reality use things other than scripture as the final arbitrator of faith and practice when it come to the issue of acceptable texts and translations of the scripture. First, let me explain that in this post I’m not referring to people who prefer to use the King James Version of the Bible, or even those who prefer to use only the King James Version of the Bible, but with the strain of KJV-Onlyism that teaches that the King James Version of the Bible is the only true word of God in the English language. (This last category is the only catergory that I would lable KJV-Onlyist. The first two categories I call KJV preferred.)

Click to read more ...