Millions of Christians around the world arising on Sunday morning, they have just one thing on their minds, an honoured tradition for them… and this they fulfill by tuning into my ongoing weekly series, “Then Sings My Soul: The Hymns of My Youth.” Okay, I suppose I’m overstating things just a tad. Micah Fries is to blame for his week’s selection, as he reminded me of it with his post of a YouTube video of the song. Robert Lowry, a professor of literature and Baptist minister wrote “Nothing But the Blood of Jesus” in 1876. The hymn has enjoyed a bit of a re-popularization in the past few years as a number of worship and Christian pop bands have picked it up and reworked it. Not bad for a 130-year-old song. It has a simple message and delivers it well: “This is all my hope and peace” and “This is all my righteousness, Nothing but the blood of Jesus.” This is a fine example of a good hymn imparting solid theology.

Nothing But the Blood

What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Refrain:
Oh! precious is the flow
That makes me white as snow;
No other fount I know,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

For my pardon, this I see,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
For my cleansing this my plea,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Refrain

Nothing can for sin atone,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
Naught of good that I have done,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Refrain

This is all my hope and peace,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
This is all my righteousness,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Refrain

Now by this I’ll overcome—
Nothing but the blood of Jesus,
Now by this I’ll reach my home—
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Refrain

Glory! Glory! This I sing—
Nothing but the blood of Jesus,
All my praise for this I bring—
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Refrain

Some of these hymns just don’t come alive without a congregation behind them. This clip is a bit longer, but watch this one, enter into the spirit of it, right after the brief “Grace, grace” at the beginning… ignore the fact that these folk look anything but “emergent,” and allow yourself to be impacted… right around 2:23 or so, which is the point I decided to use this clip instead of the Gaithers, Jim Greeninger, Jars of Clay, Matt Redman, or anybody else. A couple of them get downright charismatic around 4½ minutes into it, and hey, we’re talking the hymns of my youth here, not the reworked hymns of contemporary artists.

Update: you know, I don’t normally do this with my “HoMY” entries, but I listened to this two or three times last night, and a couple of times again this morning. Over a pancake breakfast with the kids, I walked them through all the lyrics to the song, asked them questions, and explained what they meant when they got stuck. My oldest informed me that “not” was a homophone since there was also “knot” — we added the word “naught” to her homophone list. I told them how songs used to be used to teach people about Jesus, and I feel like I’ve been dining richly on this one. 130 years… a lot of hymns get updated by contemporary artists, and many are in need of the tune-up. Not this one.