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.

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.

Lord, I believe were sinners more

Than sands upon the ocean shore,

Thou hast for all a ransom paid,

For all a full atonement made.

NICOLAUS VON ZINZENDORF (1700–1760)

Translated by John Wesley (1703–1791)

COUNT NICOLAUS VON ZINZENDORF was one of the most remarkable persons in church history. He was born into a wealthy family in Saxony, Germany, educated at the best universities, and named counselor of the State of Saxony, but he chose to be associated with the Moravians, devout believers who had been exiled from Austria.

Of the two thousand hymns he wrote, this is perhaps the best known. His hymns were personal because he was a passionate promoter of what he called “Christianity of the heart.” They were also Christ centered because his life motto was, “I have but one passion, and that is He and only He.”

You know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.

1 Peter 1:18-19