There is little known about the life of Elvina Mable Hall.
Her fame is attributed to how and when she wrote, “Jesus Paid It All.” Hall composed
the words while at church sitting in the choir loft.
It happened on a warm summer day in Baltimore, 1865.
Initially, there was nothing special about that day for Hall. It was just
another Sunday for her to sing in the choir at Monument Methodist Episcopal
Church. She began thinking of the cross, and the sacrifice Jesus made for the
world. As Reverend Schrick went into a rather wordy prayer, Hall began writing
a poem. Not having any paper, she wrote the words inside the cover of the
hymnal.
Hall composed four stanzas and then gave a copy to Pastor
Schrick.
As it turned out, another church member had presented a
creative work of their own to the reverend earlier that week. The other member
was John Grape, and he was the organist at the church. Grape had written a tune
for a hymn yet had no lyrics for it.
Stepping into his study, the pastor laid Mrs. Hall’s poem
next to the lines of music from Mr. Grape. He was surprised to see they fit one
another like hand in glove. “Indeed, God works in mysterious ways!” he thought.
The meter of the text and tune were agreeable, except that Grape’s tune had a
refrain. Hall then added the words of the refrain to fit, and the hymn was
complete. The words and tune have been partners ever since.
Schrick suggested they submit “Jesus Paid It All” to
Professor Theodore Perkins, a publisher of Sabbath Carols. Perkins eagerly
published the hymn, and soon the world was introduced to the timeless classic
that is still being sung today.
Elvina Mable Hall was born 1822 and died in 1889. She
married Richard Hall of Virginia. They had at least three children together
that lived to adulthood, Agnes, Asenath, and Ella. Two children died as infants.
Hall was a 40-year member of the church in Baltimore and a
member of the choir. After her husband’s death, she married The Reverand Thomas
Meyers, a Methodist pastor in the Baltimore Conference.
John T. Grape was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1835 and
died in 1915. He was a successful coal merchant and member of the Monument
Street Methodist Episcopal Church in Baltimore. He also played the organ,
directed the choir, and was active in Sunday School. He later directed the
choir at the Hartford Avenue Methodist Church.
The title of the hymn, "Jesus Paid It All,"
harkens to the ultimate sacrifice made by Jesus through his crucifixion. Hall,
inspired by her gratitude for our salvation through Jesus, wrote this hymn as a
reminder of the price He paid to resolve us of our sins.
The four stanzas speak of our human weakness and failure,
our need for salvation and the power and grace we receive through Jesus Christ.
The refrain centers on the debt we owe to God as a result of our sin and the
fact that that debt was paid through Jesus' death on the cross.
Stanza One: Jesus says that we are weak and through watching
and prayer, we will find all that we need.
Stanza Two: It is in Jesus that we find the power to change
our lives and our hearts.
Stanza Three: We are meritless to claim God's grace. It is
Jesus' shed blood that saves us.
Stanza Four: When we are finally judged by God, we shall
proclaim our salvation through Jesus' death.
Refrain: The debt of our sin was paid by Jesus.
Through the song, we confess our inability to save
ourselves, and our utter dependence on what Christ accomplished on the cross.
Verse One
“I hear the Savior say,
Thy strength indeed is small;
Child of weakness, watch and pray,
Find in Me thine all in all.”
Romans 5:6
You see, at just the right time, when we were still
powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.”
Studylight.org, Clarke’s Commentary: The apostle, having pointed
out the glorious state of the believing Gentiles, takes occasion to contrast
this with their former state; and the means by which they were redeemed from it
. . . without strength . . . ungodly . . . sinners . . . enemies of God.
Studylight.org, Barnes’ Notes on the Whole Bible: Here it
means that we were without strength . . . we had no power to devise a scheme of
justification, to make an atonement, or to put away the wrath of God . . . While all hope of man’s being saved by any
plan of his own was thus taken away; while he was thus lying exposed to divine
justice, and dependent on the mere mercy of God, God provided a plan which met
the case and secured his salvation.
“Lord, now indeed I find
Thy power, and Thine alone,
Can change the leper’s spots
And melt the heart of stone.”
Ezekiel 36:26
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I
will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”
Studylight.org, Gill’s Exposition of the Whole Bible: “Heart
of stone": this is a heart hardened by sin, and confirmed in it; destitute of
spiritual life and motion; senseless and stupid, stubborn and inflexible . . .
but by the powerful and efficacious grace of God; giving repentance unto life;
working faith in the soul, to look to a crucified Christ; and shedding abroad
the love of God in the heart, which softens and melts it, all which is done by
the Spirit, and frequently by means of the word . . . “A new heart” and a “new
spirit” are one and the same; that is a renewed one; renewed by the Spirit and
grace of God; in which a new principle of life is put; new light is infused; a
new will, filled with new purposes and resolutions; where new affections are
placed, and new desires are formed; and where there are new delights and joys,
as well as new sorrows and troubles; the same which in the New Testament is
called the “new man.”
Verse Three
“For nothing good have I
Whereby Thy grace to claim;
I’ll wash my garments white
In the blood of Calvary’s Lamb.”
Titus 3:5
“He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done,
but because of His mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and
renewal by the Holy Spirit.”
Studylight.org, Commentaries on the Bible: God's unmerited
grace is the source of all salvation, and all the good works of a hundred
lifetimes could never earn or merit the saving grace of God.
Studylight.org, Barnes’ Notes on the Whole Bible: The plan
was not based on our own good works, nor are our own good works now the cause
of our salvation. If people could have been saved by their own good works,
there would have been no need of salvation by the Redeemer; if our own deeds
were now the basis of our title to eternal life, the work of Christ would be
equally unnecessary. It is a great and fundamental principle of the gospel that
the good works of men come in for no share in the justification of the soul.
Studylight.org, Contending for the faith: It is utterly
impossible for anyone, regardless of how devout, to live a completely righteous
life on his own strength. Even Paul, who tried so hard, admitted he failed. No
one can be saved on the merits of his own righteousness. Salvation is the
result of God’s grace and love.
“And when before the throne
I stand in Him complete,
Jesus died my soul to save,
My lips shall still repeat.”
Psalm 86:12
“I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart; I will
glorify your name forever.”
Biblehub.com, Barnes’ Notes on the Bible: And I will glorify
thy name forevermore - Not merely in the present emergency; but I will do it
ever onward - even to eternity. The meaning is, that he would in all cases, and
at all times - in this world and in the world to come - honor God. He would acknowledge
no God but Him, and he would honor Him as God.
Refrain
“Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.”
Snow. Pure white. Pristine. Without blemish. Beautiful.
Sparkling. Spotless. That’s what God did for us. He made us beautiful in His
sight. “He washed us white as snow.” We were stained. He made us clean.
This is the gospel of grace--that God, in love, did for us
what we could not do for ourselves—Jesus paid it all.
I am indebted to the following resources:
UMCdiscipleship.org
IndependentBaptist.com
Godtube.com
Hymncharts.com
By His Grace . . .
