As a young pastor I was taught, when serving the Sacrament, to say to each recipient, “The body and blood of Jesus.” I did that for many years. Then one Sunday I felt led to say simply, “He died for you.”
It is one of the most profound truths any of us can ever embrace: that God died on a cross to save me from my sins.
This truth is embedded in three of Charles Wesley’s hymns that I love. One is well known; the other two less known.
The refrain of Wesley’s hymn, “I Do Believe,” is succinct and beautiful: “I do believe, I now believe, that Jesus died for me, and that He shed His precious blood from sin to set me free.”
I felt I had discovered a gold mine when I came across Wesley’s awesome hymn, O Love Divine.” Oh how I love these precious words: “O Love Divine, What Hast Thou Done, Th’imortal God hath died for me! The Father’s co-eternal Son bore all my sins upon the tree.”
Wesley could have written that he “died for us,” but the Spirit guided him to allow us to say and sing, “God hath died for me!”
Observe how beautifully he uses the personal word “me” in one of his best loved hymns:
“And Can It Be That I Should Gain. an interest in the Savior’s blood? Died He for me who caused His pain? For me who Him to death pursued? Amazing love! How can it be that Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?”
As we sing this inspiring hymn, Wesley gives us in the final verse this marvelous, personal conclusion: “No condemnation now I dread; Jesus, and all in Him, is mine. Alive in Him, my living Head, and clothed in righteousness divine; bold I approach the eternal throne, and claim the crown, through Christ my own.”
Many other songs capture this profound truth, as Ray Overholt does in his winsome song, “Ten Thousand Angels” – “He could have called ten thousand angels, but he died alone, for you and me.”
Our family was having lunch one Sunday after church when the phone rang. When I answered the call, my dear friend Austin, an awesome leader in our church, was crying. This is what he said, “Pastor, I am shedding tears of joy! I just realized that Jesus died on the cross for me! He bought me with his blood! I am his and he is mine! I just had to call and tell you!”
My friend had been raised in the church. Now, sixty years old, the words “He died for me” had impacted his soul with life-changing power. Saint Paul describes this power in First Corinthians 1:18: “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
John Bunyan paints a beautiful picture of the power of the cross in Pilgrim’s Progress. Christian is walking toward the Holy City, struggling with a heavy burden on his back. Then he sees the Cross and the burden fell off his back and rolled away, and was never seen again! That is what happens to us when it finally sinks in that Jesus “died for me.”
I love what Paul says in Colossians 2:13-15 – that when Jesus died for me, he nailed my sins to the cross! Paul’s words sum up so beautifully what God did when Jesus died for you and me: “You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.”
The next time you look at a cross, say the words out loud, “He died for me.” Then rejoice and remember that he died for you so you could live for him.
Glory!!!