Hymn of the Week, a Lenten Journey: March 21, 2022
Hymn of the Week: Just As I Am, Without One Plea
Glory to God: #422
The devotion has been reprinted with permission of the author, James C. Howell, from his book entitled: Unrevealed Until Its Season: a Lenten Journey with Hymns.
Published by Upper Room Books 2021.
The book can be found here: https://upperroombooks.com/
Just As I Am, Without One Plea
Text Charlotte Eliot 1834
Music William Bradbury 1849
Just as I am, without one plea
but that thy blood was shed for me,
and that thou biddest me come to thee,
O Lamb of God, I come; I come!
Just as I am, though tossed about
with many a conflict, many a doubt,
fightings and fears within, without,
O Lamb of God, I come; I come!
Just as I am, thou wilt receive,
wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve;
because thy promise I believe,
O Lamb of God, I come; I come!
Just as I am, thy love unknown
has broken every barrier down;
now to be thine, yea, thine alone,
O Lamb of God, I come; I come!
To Rid My Soul of One Dark Blot
In one of the evangelist Tony Campolo’s funny set pieces, he would speak of a revival service where the pastor would issue an altar call, inviting people to come during the singing of “Just as I Am.” Indeed, after a few stanzas, one of the brethren would come, “just as I am,” kneel and pray fervently - and then when the service had ended he would head back home (as Tony put it), “just as he was.”
Is it that God accepts you “just the way you are”? Or is God’s business to take the ramshackle you and convert you into something you should or could be? Is the gospel about the recovery of the real you that has gotten caked over with phony stuff? Is the conversion settling back (or forward) into the pure you, the child within, the image of God never fully expunged by the world, or the mess you’ve made of things? Paul Tillich famously described being “struck by grace” like this:
A wave of light breaks into our darkness, and it is as though a voice were saying: “you are accepted…accepted by that which is greater than you…Do not try to do anything now; perhaps later you will do much …Simply accept the fact that you are accepted!”
“Just as I am without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me.” The theological theory of Atonement – the idea that Jesus died in my place – lurks behind this. What can we make of this, especially during Lent? The idea that God was really angry about human sin and vented that anger on his own son instead of on us is nonsensical and downright blasphemous if you think about it. What a petty deity this would be to require blood vengeance.
Yet, that Jesus’ blood was “shed for me” is the ultimate secret to Christianity. It is the scandal of the Cross. God became human, was pierced, and died – but it wasn’t simply a tragedy, the sad story of a good man who died wrongly. His blood somehow was an expiation of our sin. As Jesus bled on the cross, God’s love for all people was being poured out. Mercy overflowed from his beautiful body to bring healing to people who didn’t understand weren’t all that holy and thought of God as their grand benefactor in the sky instead of as their brother in suffering and death.
God loves you and all of us – the soldiers gambling for his clothing, the thief on the cross next to him, and the person who has broken your trust – that much. Just as I am, I ponder this marvel. Just as I am, I soak in the glory of this humbling truth. And perhaps, if I go deeper, I might pray not only to admire Jesus’ suffering but to share in it, to love as he loved, and to bear the cost with him.
The hymn echoes well the turmoil most of us feel in the soul: “tossed about, with many a conflict, many a doubt, fightings and fears within, without.” For me, the most intriguing line in the hymn is “To rid my soul of one dark blot.” Do I have just one dark blot? Or is there a lot of regrettable ink splattered on my soul? Maybe it’s a theological Rorschach test. I inspect the blot that is in me. The blot that is me. Do I have a problem? Am I the problem?
Yes to both. I have sins. Plural. But sin is a condition. It’s me, all of us actually, distanced infinitely from God, thinking that I can manage on my own. I can fix my own problems. It’s really all about me. I am the center of the universe. I must justify myself. I must be good enough. I must be enough. To this “one dark blot,” Jesus responds by inviting us to ponder that “one thing is needful” (Luke 10:42 RSV). It’s not that a thousand fixes are required for my thousand messes. I am one problem. Jesus is the one blotter-outter. I come as I am to Jesus, who “wilt welcome pardon, cleanse.”
Then it adds “relieve.” Is being out of trouble with God my relief? Or is it having the massive weight of life apart from grace lifted from me? So many of us live like Atlas, the Greek demigod who carries the weight of the world on his shoulders. But God’s got it. Or we carry the burden of thinking that we are to judge others. God’s got that one too. You’re relieved of that awful burden. And so you can live freely, more lightly, and in the great joy of God’s good mercy.
You have to get up out of your easy chair and come. The clincher in this hymn is what worked in the altar call: “I come.” And it’s repeated if you are hesitant: “I come.” Come. Come to Jesus. Just as you are. You’ll never be the same.
