How Sweet the SoundNäide

Jesus Paid it All

I can’t even keep my fridge clean, how could I possibly keep my heart clean? For my day-to-day mess ups it’s easy to confess my mistakes to Jesus, and receive His grace. After talking to Him I feel all shiny.

The refrain of the hymn, “Jesus Paid it All,” by Elvina Hall declares, “Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow.”

White as snow.

It sounds great. But the really, thick, sticky sins of my past? Sometimes they haunt me. Yes, my brain knows Jesus forgives all my sins. But my heart struggles to fully accept this. Because when I think of the worst things I’ve done, well, I wish they weren’t part of my personal soundtrack. Do you have any of these things?

I wish I could go back and tell my college-aged-self to go home, walk out, say, “no,” get a grip. I’m embarrassed and ashamed by some of her actions. But as the sins of my past try to haunt me I hear the Savior say, "Thy strength indeed is small, Child of weakness, watch and pray, Find in Me thine all in all." And I am transported from disappointment in myself, to love for my Jesus.

I’m reminded that I am lacking and weak, but He has strengthened me, enabled me to walk away from the dark past and into the bright future. Jesus reminds us that He has paid it ALL. Not some. His blood didn’t just wash away our snide comments or how impatient we were standing in line at the airport. His blood washed away the “worst” things, too, just as clean, just as completely. Do you believe it? That Jesus forgives your ugliest moment?

Let it sink in that Jesus is your all in all, that He not only has the power to wash away the worst of your sins, but He has bleached your sins so pure white, it’s like they never even happened. Like you never even walked into those places, thought those thoughts, or did those things.

When I let this truth penetrate, I want to stop hiding and stuffing and stashing my past sins, pull them out, take each and every one to Jesus, and thank Him for scrubbing me clean. Because, For nothing good have I, and therefore, Where-by Thy grace to claim; I'll wash my garments white in the blood of Calv'ry's Lamb.

What freedom.

Since I don’t have to carry around the heaviness of my past, I can freely live my life. Yes, it means in the end we can all stand before Jesus’ throne, in Him complete, But it also means everyday, any day, where old habits and temptations rear their heads, or past mistakes stalk our consciences, my lips shall still repeat….Jesus paid it all. Those sins have no power over us. Zero. Zip.

Jesus never runs out of grace. He never decides He’s sick of cleaning up after us. Jesus’s grace makes us clean, pure, and complete. Dazzling white.

All to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow.

Questions:

“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 NIV).

Do you have anything in your past you wish you could erase?

Write “Jesus Paid it All” over any of those past transgressions you listed. Come back to this throughout the week retracing, or writing over “Jesus Paid it All” each day.

*This devotion is taken from Laura L. Smith’s book How Sweet the Sound: The Power and Promise of 30 Beloved Hymns.