…teaching…one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs….
(Colossians 3:16)
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
—From the hymn My Hope Is Built
If we’re teaching each other when we sing hymns—and scripture says we are—it can’t hurt to spend a little time understanding exactly what the words of hymns mean, can it? So I’m looking a little closer at the first two lines of this common hymn by Edward Mote, two lines that teach us gospel truth.
My hope is built
Edward Mote uses the word hope the way the Bible does, which is not exactly the way we usually use it. We use it to express our desire for something to happen in the future, and as long as there’s even the slightest possibility that it will happen, we can still say we hope for it. But biblical hope is not just wishing for something that may or may not happen. There is an assurance in biblical hope. Those who hope, as the Bible uses the term, confidently expect the good things promised to them because what they have been promised is certain to happen.
One indication that Edward Mote is using the word hope in this more assured sense is that he tells us that his hope is built. The hope he has is hope that is established hope. It is hope that stands as firm as the foundation it is grounded on.
On nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness
And the foundation or grounds for our hope for good things in the future is Jesus’ blood and righteousness. What does this expression mean? It’s Christian-speak for two aspects of the work Christ did for us.
The phrase Jesus’ blood refers to Christ’s death on the cross, which is the basis for God forgiving our sins. Our sins were placed on Jesus Christ when he died, and he endured the penalty for our sin in our place. As a result, the penalty or curse for our sin is removed from us. Our forgiveness, then, comes to us through Christ’s death or, to use the phrase from this hymn, Jesus’ blood. His death takes away our curse, the curse that comes to those who disobey God.
What about the phrase Jesus’ righteousness? It refers to Christ’s perfect life. Christ, living here as one of us, kept the whole law completely. He was the only perfectly righteous human being. Just as his death was done in our place and is counted as our death, his righteous life was lived in our place and is counted as our own righteous life. In our justification (and that’s what this is), Christ not only erases our sinful record by his death, he also writes a righteous record—the record of his perfectly obedient life—to become our own record. The promised inheritance or blessing that comes to the obedient comes to us not through our own obedience, since none of us is perfectly obedient, but through Christ’s obedience counted as our own.
Our justification, then, has two aspects: the negative and the positive. On the negative side, our disobedience to the law and the curse that comes to us as a result is removed from us. On the positive side, Christ’s life of obedience to the law and the blessing that results from it is given to us.
We hear a lot about what the blood of Christ accomplishes in our justification, but not so much about the what the righteousness of Christ does. Some Christians don’t believe that Christ’s righteousness is counted as our righteousness, believing instead that our own faith counts as our righteousness. (But wouldn’t the faith counted as righteousness have to be perfect faith? Who of us has perfect faith?) This disagreement among believers may be part of the reason that the second half of the blood and righteousness equation isn’t taught as much as the first.
Well, I believe that Christ’s righteousness is counted as ours, and so, it seems, did Edward Mote. I believe it, first of all, because I see it taught in the Bible. And goodness knows, I need someone else’s perfect righteousness counted as mine, because I have no hope of producing my own perfectly righteous record. If I didn’t understand what Christ accomplished on my behalf by his obedient life, I think I would be afraid of dying. When I see my God face to face, it matters a whole lot to me that I will stand before him forgiven of my sin and clothed in the righteousness of Christ. What a wonderful thing it is that I am, in Christ, not only forgiven but also seen as perfectly righteous!
Like J. Gresham Machen, whose last recorded words were, “I am so thankful for [the] active obedience of Christ. No hope without it.,” my confidence in my future inheritance comes because I am, you might say, doubly covered by Jesus’ blood and righteousness. My hope is built on nothing less.
Learn more about the righteous life and substitutionary death of Christ as the grounds for our justification, including a few of the reason I think it is taught in the Bible, in this post on the active and passive obedience of Christ in our justification.