Jesus, Savior, Son of God

1
Jesus, Savior, Son of God,
Bearer of the sinner’s load,
Breaker of the captive’s chain,
Cleanser of the guilty’s stain.
2
Thou the sinner’s death hast died,
Thou for us wast crucified;
For our sins Thy flesh was torn,
Thou our penalty hast borne.
3
Savior, Surety, Lamb of God,
Thou hast bought us with Thy blood;
Thou hast wiped the debt away,
Nothing left for us to pay;
4
Nothing left for us to bear,
Nothing left for us to share
But the pardon and the bliss,
But the love, the light, the peace.
5
I to Thee will look and live,
And, in looking, praises give;
Looking lightens, looking heals,
Looking all the gladness seals.
6
Jesus, Savior, Son of God,
Bearer of the sinner’s load,
I would rise to Thee above,
I would look, and praise, and love.
1
Steve Miller

Detroit, MI, United States

Edward Bickersteth was ordained as an Anglican minister in 1815, and later became the secretary of the Church Missionary Society. In 1825, while he was secretary, he came in contact with Anthony Norris Groves who had a financially rewarding dental practice. Groves considered 2 ways of offering himself - either his money or his time. Bickersteth responded to him, "If you are called of the Lord to the work, money cannot be set against it; it is men whom the Lord sends and He stands in need of men more than money." (Groves, "Memoir, p. 28). A few years later, Groves sailed for Baghdad as a missionary and stayed there for 3 years. He then labored in India for another 19 years. Groves was influential among the Brethren and was the brother-in-law of George Mueller.

"Bickersteth's Christian Psalmody" (1833) comprised over 700 hymns , to which he subsequently added another 200. "Christian Psalmody" went through 59 editions in 7 years. Some have attributed this hymn to Horatius Bonar. - Songs of the Spirit by Martin