I hear the Savior say,
“Thy strength indeed is small;
Child of weakness, watch and pray,
Find in Me thine all in all.”
Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.

Lord, now indeed I find
Thy power and Thine alone,
Can change the leper’s spots
And melt the heart of stone.
Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.

For nothing good have I
Whereby Thy grace to claim,
I’ll wash my garments white
In the blood of Calv’ry’s Lamb.
Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.

And when before the throne
I stand in Him complete,
“Jesus Died my soul to save”
my lips shall still repeat
Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.

Words by Elvina M Hall, 1865
Music by John T. Grape, 1865

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.
Colossians 2:13 – 14

For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.
1 Peter 1:18 – 19

“Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the Lord.
“Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.
Isaiah 1:18

I remember several years ago when we bought our first home. We were so excited. My wife and I had looked around for quite a while. We had two previous attempts fall through because of inspection problems. But now we had it. Our own home.

Then I remember waking up one night wondering, “What have we done! How are we going to afford this?” It’s what they call buyers remorse. It’s that sudden realization of how much debt you have just put yourself into.

It really is a great financial debt to find yourself in, but the reality is that it is nothing compared to the greatest debt we owed.

Genesis chapter 1, verse 27 tells us, “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” We were a unique creation, created to be the image of God. But this was not enough for us. We instead chose to follow our own desires. We sought to be the center of our world, and to not give our Creator what was rightfully his. This is sin. To follow actions that place our own desires ahead of Gods.

This sin within us further separated us from God, and left us no way back. But God did not abandon us, instead, He sent his Son and “demonstrated his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

This is the message of “Jesus Paid It All.” We had a debt that we put ourselves into, a debt we could not pay. But Christ paid it on our behalf. Colossians 2:13 – 14 tells us, “ He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us” Jesus paid the debt we could not. It was in this realization that Hall wrote the words, “Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe.” You see we went from being unable to pay a debt that eternally separated from God, to being given a gift that does not need to be repaid. “All to Him I owes.”

It is in the profound realization of this truth that I sing the words of the last verse, ““Jesus Died my soul to save” my lips shall still repeat.

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