Help Me Help A Brother

From my email:

Do you know of some old hymns that speak directly to penal substitution? I saw one on your blog but do you know of others?

That Christ’s death was penal substitution means that “his death bore the just penalty of God for our sins as a substitute for us.” (Definition taken from the glossary of Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology.)

The hymn refered to that I posted was Hallelujah! What a Savior, which says, “in my place condemned he stood.”  Can you think of other hymns with phrases like this, hymns that clearly teach that Christ’s death was penal substitution?

Comments

[jen elslager]

Fountain of Never Ceasing Grace by Augustus Toplady

[Staci at Writing and Living]

How about "I Cannot Tell"? It's sung to the tune of "Danny Boy" (or Londonderry Air).

When I Googled, I discovered that my church hymnal contains different lyrics than what seems to be most common (or most easily Googled).

Here are the words as I know them.

It might not be quite as plain as what he is hoping for. The lines I was thinking of where:

I cannot tell why He, the Joy of Heaven,
Should give Himself to suffer for my sin,
Why Holy God should love me in my shamefulness,
Why He should die to draw my soul to Him.

[Terry Stauffer]

I was thinking, "Arise, My Soul, Arise," but upon reflection, that song would work with other views of the atonement (I sing it with my Reformed presuppositions firmly in place).

[rebecca]

Yes, it's easy to read the hymns with our own reformed presuppositions (which, BTW, the author probably had, too) and see our own view of the atonement when it may not be there explicitly. This brother needs them to be explicit for reasons I won't go into here.

[rebecca]

Jen,

That one has it all--double imputation and everything. Wow!

[ellen b]

Does "And Can it be" qualify?
And can it be that I should gain
an interest in the Savior's blood!
Died he for me? who caused his pain!
For me? who him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be
that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
Amazing love! How can it be
that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

[rebecca]

Does "And Can it be" qualify?

I'll let him decide whether they are explicit enough or not...

[jen elslager]

Being yet a mere babe regarding reformed theology, I had to go look up 'double imputation'. LOL I found that I already knew and agreed with the concept, but just didn't know the terminology. *sigh* So much to learn...

[rebecca]

I found that I already knew and agreed with the concept, but just didn't know the terminology.

Hey! I'll do that for my next theological term of the week.

[David Kjos]

I'll be posting one on Sunday from Toplady. I haven't seen it anywhere but in the Complete Works. It's under Petitionary Hymns as Poem V For the evening. If you can't wait for Sunday, you can probably Google the first line: "God of love, whose truth and grace".

[David Kjos]

The fifth stanza:

All my sins imputed were
To my dear, incarnate God;
Bury’d in his grave they are,
Drown’d in his atoning blood:
My thou wilt not now condemn,
Righteous and complete in him.

[rebecca]

Thanks David. I found it here at a page of poems by Toplady with this interesting title: POEMS ON SACRED SUBJECTS WHEREIN THE FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES OF CHRISTIANITY WITH MANY OTHER INTERESTING POINTS, ARE OCCASIONALLY INTRODUCED WRITTEN BETWEEN FIFTEEN AND EIGHTEEN YEARS OF AGE.

So there you have it. He was under the age of 19 when he wrote that poem.

[David Kjos]

I love those titles. For example, Edwards' "The Freedom of the Will" is actually titled “An Inquiry into the Modern Prevailing Notions of the Freedom of the Will which is Supposed to be Essential to Moral Agency, Virtue and Vice, Reward and Punishment, Praise and Blame.” You're not left wondering, "Hmm, I wonder what this is about..."

[jen]

Faith Reviving (Augustus Toplady)
Before the Throne of God (Charities Lees Bancroft)
A Debtor to Mercy Alone (Isaac Watts)