Verse 1

Jesus, lover of my soul,
Let me to Thy bosom fly,
While the nearer waters roll,
While the tempest still is high:
Hide me, O my Savior, hide,
Till the storm of life is past;
Safe into the haven guide;
O receive my soul at last.

Verse 3*

Thou, O Christ, art all I want;
More than all in Thee I find;
Raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
Heal the sick and lead the blind.
Just and holy is Thy name,
I am all unrighteousness;
Vile and full of sin I am,
Thou art full of truth and grace.

*From my research I cannot see that this verse is originally by Charles Wesley. When included, it is usually the third verse being sung. I have chosen to include it because, having sung it recently, I wanted to address it specifically.

I usually try to be very positive on this blog. Even when there are hymns or worship music I don’t agree with, I try to look for positive and be constructive. I love music and I especially love hymns, thus I see this as looking for the amazing message of this music and its poetry in an attempt to help others see why they are so important.

Bringing up Jesus, Lover of My Soul requires such an introduction because I have some less than positive words to say. But let me start with the positives before we dig into the heavy discussion. As Wesley wrote it, Jesus, Lover of My Soul is a beautiful melody with a strong message of relying on God’s power to bring us through the trials of life, bringing us through into His fold. The sentiment is well needed, especially so explicitly stated.

Let’s get to the nitty-gritty. I have some pretty major issues with some of the theological implications. First, let’s look at some of Wesley’s lines. “Hide me… Till the storm of life is past; Safe into the haven guide.” What a good bit of the text is addressing is the desire to be protected. However, these lines seem to imply wanting to be removed completely from all strife. As a result, the poet askes to bypass life to get to Heaven.

This is not what we are called to do as Christians! We are meant to live here, in God’s world, loving the people God made, serving Him with the gifts He has given. It will be hard, painful, and even setting aside the things the world says are good in exchange for the things God says are good, typically a very unpopular choice. We were never meant to have an unhealthy obsession with life after death; rather, the promise of eternal life is meant to encourage us now to push onward, with the help of the spirit, to accomplish God’s work.

Next, the added verse presents a fallacy that is incredibly prevalent in the American church, and with it comes an awful mentality which is leading many Christians astray. See, the verse labels Christians as the embodiment of unrighteousness. Note, the subject of that is a Christian, not just a person. Paul states quite definitively in Romans 6 that we are dead to sin. Because of the presence of Christ in our lives, we have the ability through the salvific act of Christ and the indwelling of the spirit to choose something other than sin. We can, in fact, live a life nearly devoid of sin. This is sanctification.

To combat the idea that humans are basically good, we have over emphasized the doctrine of the depravity of humanity. It is true that apart from Christ humanity is totally and completely depraved. However, that status is wiped from us when we are saved, meaning that we are not to be defined by our old sin nature. A focus on that ongoing nature is either (a) a dualistic notion that flesh is bad and spirit is good or (b) underestimating the power of Christ’s salvific work. Dualism calls God’s very image and creative efforts wrong even though God Himself called them good. The underestimating is either misunderstanding or lack of trust regarded God’s love for His people. Either way, we must not be defined by sin, but rather by God’s love and glory shining through us, not by our efforts, but by God’s grace.

SDG,

-Paul Hart Cochran