“My guilty conscience seeks no sacrifice beside (his powerful blood).”

Hymn: “Join All the Glorious Names” – Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
Typical Tune: DARWALL

In my education process, we learned that Isaac Watts is the “Father of English Hymnody.” While this hymn is not nearly as popular as his “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,” there are some similarities, especially with THIS line. Here is the full stanza:

Jesus, my great High Priest, offered his blood and died;
My guilty conscience seeks no sacrifice beside.
His powerful blood did once atone,
And now it pleads before the throne.

Many of us have a tendency to carry our guilty conscience with us everywhere we go. We seem to drag it behind us as if we need something else to free us from the weight of our past. It’s almost as if we are not sure that the cross-sacrifice is adequate “for such a worm as I.” We know better; we verbalize the fact that “nothing but the blood of Jesus” can for sin atone. But we can’t seem to erase the guilt from our consciousness… to release it.

I’m sure you’re about as tired of the FROZEN song “Let It Go” as I am. It is a great song… at least it was the first forty-three times I heard children singing it on YouTube! However, it might do us well to make it our theme song when it comes to dealing with our past indiscretions… our sins. Couldn’t we just stand and sing those first two phrases after we speak our confessions in public worship? Makes sense to me. I’m sure the lawyers at Disney would be all over THAT!

The forgiveness process needs no further sacrifice than the one already made. So let’s stop going through life looking for a supplement. To quote another of my favorite hymns, “It is enough that Jesus died, and that he died for me.”  Enough is enough. Period.

An Organ Postlude on This Tune