Story Behind the Song – Jesus Paid it All
I have several books that unpack the stories behind well-known hymns. I love reading and sharing them with you! Some of the stories are extraordinary accounts of faith in the midst of tragedy (It Is Well with My Soul), while others are a little more ordinary.
The story behind the song Jesus Paid It All began in circumstances I probably wouldn't recommend… The story goes that a young woman named Elvina Hall was sitting in church during a sermon when she became distracted and began writing a poem. Rather than taking sermon notes, she found herself putting words to paper that would eventually become one of the most loved hymns we sing today. We can argue that it was a gift she didn't take sermon notes and wrote those words was a better option, please don't. Write sermon notes! You can get into your poetry at home (I'd love to read them if you do).
The original poem reads
I hear the Saviour say, Thy strength indeed is small,
Thou has naught My debt to pay, Find in Me thy all in all.
Yea, nothing good have I, Whereby Thy grace to claim;
I'll wash my garments white, In the blood of Calvary's Lamb.
And now complete in Him, My robe His righteousness,
Close sheltered 'neath His side, I am divinely blest.
When from my dying bed, My ransomed soul shall rise,
Jesus paid it all, Shall rend the vaulted skies.
We have since modernised some of the words we sing today, but the original truths remain just as powerful: Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe; Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.
What a wonderful summary of the gospel!
These words remind us that we have nothing to offer God in order to earn our salvation. We cannot pay our own debt, make ourselves righteous or wash away our sin. As Romans 3:23–24 reminds us, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus."
Our sin leaves us stained, but God, in his mercy, has provided a way for us to be made clean. Isaiah 1:18 gives us this beautiful promise, "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool."
And how is this possible? Not through anything we have done, but through the finished work of Jesus. This is the wonderful truth at the heart of Jesus Paid It All. We bring nothing to earn our salvation. We don't add to Jesus' work or make up for what we lack. He has done it all!
And so, when we sing these words, we are reminded that our hope is not in how good we are, how hard we try or how well we have lived. Our hope is entirely in Jesus, His perfect life, His sacrificial death and His victorious resurrection.
In response to this truth, we can echo the bridge of this song: O Praise the One who paid my debt and raised this life up from the dead!
In Grace, Emma
