Not What These Hands Have Done

Not what these hands have done

Can save this guilty soul;

Not what this toiling flesh has borne

Can make my spirit whole.

Not what I feel or do

Can give me peace with God;

Not all my prayers and sighs and tears

Can bear my awful load.

Thy work alone, O Christ,

Can ease this weight of sin;

Thy blood alone, O Lamb of God,

Can give me peace within.

Thy grace alone, O God,

To me can pardon speak;

Thy power alone, O Son of God,

Can this sore bondage break.

I bless the Christ of God,

I rest on love divine,

And with unfaltering lip and heart,

I call this Savior mine.

HORATIUS BONAR (1808–1889)

WHEN HORATIUS BONAR was called to lead the great Chambers Memorial Church in Edinburgh, people wondered if he would change his style. But he didn’t. A visitor to his church once wrote, “His voice was low, quiet, and impressive. Once he paused and addressed the Sunday school children who sat by themselves on one side of the pulpit. He is just like his hymns—not great, but tender, sweet, and tranquil.”

A hard worker like Bonar might have been tempted to think his deeds were worth something to God, but he knew better. God “saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy,” Paul wrote to young Titus (3:5). And “salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it,” he wrote to the Ephesians (2:9). Bonar, like Paul, knew that God wants us to come to Him humbly, as little children, trusting completely in what He has accomplished through Jesus Christ.

God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)

Ephesians 2:4-5