And Can It Be – Wondering at Free Grace

Preached on June 14, 2009, by Eric Schumacher

Topics: Hymns

© Eric M Schumacher – Preached June 14, 2009 at Northbrook Baptist Church, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Sermon audio available here.

Do you wonder at the Gospel? By “wonder,” I don’t mean “are you curious about and what to learn more about the Gospel?” The Merriam-Webster dictionary offers this definition of “wonder”: “the quality of exciting amazed admiration” and “rapt attention or astonishment at something awesomely mysterious or new to one's experience.”

With that in mind I ask: Do you wonder at the Gospel? Does the message of Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man, crucified for your sins and raised from the dead to forgive you and give you a righteous standing in God’s presence fill you with “exciting amazed admiration” and “astonishment”?

We often think that those who are most thankful for the gospel are those who were rescued from a life of outwardly terrible sin and ruin (such as, perhaps, John Newton the slave ship captain). Those who have “amazed admiration” for the Gospel are those who once lived in what the world would consider “amazing sin.”

I want to introduce you this morning to a man who spent the last 50 years of his life “wondering” at the free grace of God given to him in the Gospel, a man who was not saved out a life of rampant wickedness, but out of a life of disciplined religion and confidence in his religious good works.


Biography
Charles Wesley was born December 10, 1707, the eighteenth child (out of nineteen children) of Samuel and Susanna Wesley. As a child, Charles was educated with his other siblings by his mother and then went to Westminster School and, finally, to Oxford in 1726.

His first years there were spent carefree, “intent only on having a good time.” But, in 1729, Charles became quite devout and poured his energies into trying to live the Christian life.


Holy Club
This devotion led him to form what other students mockingly called the “Holy Club,” which existed for the purpose of (1) studying the Bible in a disciplined manner, (2) improving Christian worship and celebration of the Lord’s Supper, and (3) to help the needy. George Whitfield, the famous evangelist, joined in 1732 and became close friends with Charles. Whitfield would be converted in 1735.

Members of the Holy Club “fasted until 3 PM on Wednesdays and Fridays, received Holy Communion once each week, studied and discussed the Greek New Testament and the Classics each evening in a member’s room, visited prisoners and the sick, and systematically brought all their lives under strict review.” There use of disciplined methods would later gain their movement the nickname of “Methodists.”

Ordination & Missionary to Georgia

After graduating in 1733, he was ordained a priest in the Church of England in 1735. After his ordination, he traveled for year with his brother John on a missionary journey to the New World, in the British Colony of Georgia.

Conversion

Despite all this, Charles was not converted. He was resting on his good works. Early in 1738, Charles had become sick and was close to death. Peter Bohler, a German Moravian missionary, visited him and asked him, “Do you hope to be saved?” When Charles stated that he did, Bohler asked, “For what reason do you hope it?” Charles replied, “Because I have used my best endeavours to serve God.” Bohler shook his head and said no more. Charles later recorded that he thought, “What are not my endeavours a sufficient ground of hope? Would he rob me of my endeavours? I have nothing else to trust to.”

For several days, Charles sought to believe in Jesus Christ, and felt himself to be without him. He spent several days, though sick and confined to bed, speaking with Christians and studying the Scripture.

Another Moravian missionary named William Holland left Charles a copy of Martin Luther’s commentary on Galatians, which he began to read and by which he was quite affected. He noted on May 17, 1738, “I spent some hours this evening in private with Luther, who was greatly blessed to me, especially his conclusion to the second chapter. I laboured, waited and prayed to feel ‘Who love me and gave Himself for me’.”

On May 21, Pentecost Sunday, Charles wrote in his diary:

… The Spirit of God strove with my own and the evil spirit, till by degrees He chased away the darkness of my unbelief. I found myself convinced, I knew not how nor when, and immediately fell to intercession…

At midnight I gave myself to Christ, assured that I was safe, whether sleeping or waking. I had the continual experience of His power to overcome all temptation, and I confessed with joy and surprise that He was able to do exceedingly abundantly for me above what I can ask or think.

…I now found myself at peace with God, and rejoiced in hope of loving Christ. My temper for the rest of the day was mistrust of my own great, but before unknown weakness. I saw that by faith I stood; by the continual support of faith, which kept me from falling, though of myself I was ever sinking in sin. I went to bed, still sensible of my own weakness, yet confident of Christ’s protection.

Charles immediately began to regain his strength. The next day, he began to write a hymn.

Three days after Charles’ conversion, John was converted at a meeting on Aldersgate Street, where Peter Bohler was reading from the introduction to Martin Luther’s commentary on the book of Romans. When John announced that night, “I believe,” they sang Charles’ first hymn, “Where Shall My Wondering Soul Begin?”

Closely following that hymn, Charles wrote, “And Can It Be.” On the one year anniversary, he penned the hymn “O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing,” which he recommended singing “on the anniversary of one’s conversion.”

Hymn-writing

Charles continued writing hymns for the next 50 years. He would write almost 6,500 hymn. 15 of them are included in our hymnal. He wrote such popular hymns as:

• Jesus, Lover of My Soul
• Rejoice, the Lord is King
• O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing
• Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus
• Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
• Chris the Lord is Risen Today
• Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending
• Love Divine, All Loves Excelling

Preaching, Marriage and Death

Charles became an itinerant evangelist until 1749, when he married Sarah (aka Sally), with whom he had an almost ideal marriage. They settled in Bristol and later London, where Charles preached. They had eight children, five of whom died as young children.

Charles died in March of 1788.

Applications

Before moving on to looking at Charles’ hymn and our text for today, I want to pause to dwell on something important. We should note that Charles formed the “Holy Club,” to study the Bible, care for the sick, and improve Christian worship, almost 10 years before he was converted. He was ordained as a priest, served as a pastor and missionary, three years prior to his conversion.

Charles, like Paul before his conversion, was extremely disciplined and devoted to religion, but was not saved. He had been baptized as an infant in the Church of England. He made a decision to lead a good life. He fasted. He prayed. He was disciplined in the reading of his Bible. He visited the sick and those in prison. He took communion each week. He was ordained to ministry. He went overseas as a missionary.

And, in spite of all this, as he would later admit, he was not saved. He was not truly a Christian. When asked about his hope of salvation, he replied that he hoped to be saved because he had given his best endeavors to Christ.

Perhaps that describes you this morning. You’ve been baptized. You take the Lord’s Supper. You go to church regularly. You pray, and maybe fast. You are disciplined in your reading of the Bible. You care for the sick. Perhaps you even have held official positions of service in the church for many years and have gone on missions trips. Yet, when the question is put to you about your hope of entering eternal life, your answer is in these things, and not in Christ.

When it all comes down, you trust that Christ will save you because you have given all these things to him—and not because he has given himself for you. And one of the clearest signs of your false hope and your unsaved condition is that you have no wonder at the Gospel. The message of salvation does not amaze you because you don’t really believe that you’ve ever needed to be saved. You’ve saved yourself, you imagine. You don’t wonder that Jesus would bleed for the helpless, because you imagine that you’ve helped yourself.

I hope that Charles Wesley’s testimony will encourage you to examine the state of your own soul, to quit hoping in yourself, and to turn to trust in Christ alone, crucified for sins and raised from the dead.

And should you come to conclusion this morning that you are not saved, do not shrink back from pursuing Christ, from the study of Scripture. Press on!

When Charles understood that he was not saved, he did not quit his religious devotion to the study of the Bible and prayer and such—he increased it. Realizing that he was without faith in Christ, without the forgiveness of sins, without the assurance of salvation, he pressed in toward Christ. He asked until it was given to him. He sought until he found. He knocked until the door was opened to him.

If you fear that you are not saved, then wake-up! Arouse yourself this morning to seek the Lord while he may be found!

The Wonder of the Gospel

One of the things that marked Charles’ conversion, was his “wonder”—his astonished amazement—in the Gospel. I would argue that such “wonder,” to some extent, marks every believer. Peter assures his readers in 1 Peter 1:8 that their faith is genuine because the “believe in [the Lord Jesus Christ] and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible…” Joy that cannot be expressed is the joy of the Christian.

That, I believe, is what drove him to write over 6,000 hymns. His very first hymn, written the day after his conversion, began “Where shall my wond’ring soul begin?” His soul was full of astonishment at the Gospel and desired to express it. So, he asks, “Where do I begin?”

That question, of course, leads to the similar question, “Where do I end?” The Gospel is so rich, so wonderful, so deep, so beautiful, that its glories cannot be exhausted, especially in one hymn. Human language simply cannot suffice to describe it. That may be why Wesley would ask for “a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer’s praise!”

Every one of Charles 6,500 over the next 50 years hymns was a failed attempt to describe the depth and the riches of the Gospel. Wesley’s entire life of hymn writing is one sustained effort to proclaim the glories of the Gospel.

And Can It Be

And that is what “And Can It Be” is—an attempt to describe his soul’s wonder at the Gospel. This hymn was written shortly after his conversion in 1738 and published in 1739 under the title “Free Grace.” It is not a theological treatise, written by a tenured seminary faculty member who is sitting in a study, giving precise expression to all the finer points of conversion theology. It is the overflow of a new Christian, who is struggling to find words to express his amazement at being saved. It should be read and sung as such.

“And Can It Be” is a hymn of amazement at love, mercy and grace shown by God to an undeserving enemy, through the humble, substitutionary death and resurrection of the incarnate Lord Jesus Christ; grace which seeks out and regenerates one who is dead in sin, and gives him justification, sanctification and glorification.

And I want to show you this morning, from its four stanzas, and from Romans 5 and a few other Scripture passages, four things about the wonder the Christian has at the free grace of God in Jesus Christ.

The Christian has…

…Wonder at Blood Shed for the Benefit of an Enemy (Stanza 1).

Wesley begins by expressing his wonder that he should “have an interest” in the Savior’s blood. By interest, he doesn’t mean “curiosity about.” He means having a share in Christ’ blood—he gets to participate in and have an advantage in Christ’s blood. He benefits from it.

He wonders at the fact that Christ—who is fully God—should die for him. The emphasis here is not on Christ’s death. That is to come in the next stanza. The emphasis and focus of the wonder here is that Christ, his God, should die for him.

Wesley presents himself as the Savior’s persecutor and enemy. He is the one “who caused his pain.” He is the one who pursued Christ to death. Wesley pictures himself as one who is not simply a sinner, but one who is chasing Christ in order to kill him and torture him. How is it that Christ could die for such a person?

And that is exactly the point that Paul is driving at in Romans 5:6-11. In verse 5, Paul has mentioned the love of God that has been poured out into our hearts. And where is this love grounded and where is it seen? In Christ’s death.

And when did Christ die for us? “While we were still weak.” And what does Paul mean by “weak”? He is referring to our moral condition. He says that “at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.”

On rare occasions, scarcely, someone will die in the place of a righteous person (one’s whose life is outwardly morally upright) or for a good person (someone who does good). But such is scarce.

God’s love—which Wesley calls “amazing love”—is seen in this, “that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” In verse ten, Paul says that this happened “while we were enemies.”

Friend, do you believe this morning that you are one “who caused his pain, who him to death pursued”? Do you believe that you are “weak,” “ungodly,” a “sinner,” and an “enemy of God”? If you do not believe yourself to be such, then you cannot possibly believe that Jesus Christ died for you—because that is who this passage says that Christ died for!

And why did he have to die? Paul has covered this already back in chapter 3. He says that God put Jesus Christ “forward as a propitiation by his blood.” All have sinned. All have failed to give God the glory and honor that he deserves. And therefore, all deserve the wrath of God. God’s justice demands that he punish sinners.

And yet God, in a display and act of “amazing love,” sent his Son Jesus Christ to become man and to live a life of perfect obedience. And then, in the supreme act of obedience to his Father, Jesus Christ was crucified. He died beneath the wrath of God as a “propitiation by his blood.” That is God’s wrath was propitiated, it was satisfied by inflicting on Jesus all the wrath and punishment that his sinful enemies deserved.

That propitiation is “to be received by faith.” That is, we cannot purchase or earn it. We simply trust in it. And God is “the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” The one who trusts that Jesus—believes that Jesus took all the wrath of God for him on the cross—has “an interest in the Savior’s blood.” God counts Christ’s death as the death of the believer—and is satisfied. He declares the believer to be forgiven and righteous before Him.

Therefore, Paul can say in Romans 5:10-11 that “while we were enemies we were reconciled by the death of his Son.” God no longer has any anger toward the one who trusts in Jesus. We are no longer enemies; we have received reconciliation through his death.

Do you, this morning, understand that your sin made you an enemy of God? And do you wonder that Jesus Christ would shed his blood for you?

…Wonder at Humility Embraced for the Undeserving Helpless (Stanza 2).

Next, Wesley steps back to examine what Jesus Christ did in coming to die to be the propitiation for our sin. He focuses on Christ’s incarnation, his becoming man to die for man.

His words echo those of Paul in Philippians 2:5-8:

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Paul’s point here is to emphasize the humility of Christ—which is exactly Wesley’s emphasis.

Paul highlights that Jesus was “in the form of God.” That is, he was eternally God. As Scripture teaches elsewhere, he is the eternal Son of God, who existed eternally, possessing the true and exact nature of God; he is and always was fully God. He possessed all the characteristics and qualities of God.

The next sentences of Paul’s receive some of the most pages of commentary of any passage of Scripture, and can be difficult to know how to translate. But, the basic idea is that Jesus had every right to hold on to the privileges of being God. He had every right to eternally enjoy glory together with the Father.

But, as Paul writes, he “made himself nothing.” The phrase there is literally, “he poured himself out.” Some have wrongly interpreted this to mean that when Jesus Christ became man he became “less than God” or that he gave up some of the attributes of God (such as being omnipotent or omniscient). That is a heresy known as “kenotic theology.”

What Paul was speaking up is Christ giving up his privilege of being the King of the universe and sharing eternal glory in the presence of his Father, in order to make himself, as the King James puts it, “of no reputation.” He, who was the king of all creation, became a slave and servant of all. He, who spoke the worlds into existence, was born in a stable, would wash the feet of sinners, and would die on the cross for their sins. He chose suffering over comfort and obedience over authority. Though he was rich, he, for our sake, became poor (2 Cor 8:9).

Unfortunately, some have accused Wesley of believing and teaching the kenotic heresy in his line “Empty’d himself of all but love.” Granted, Wesley’s language is unclear. But, we have no grounds from either this hymn or Wesley’s wider writings on which to accuse him of the heresy of saying that Christ gave up divine attributes in the incarnation. That phrase, like all language, must be interpreted within the context it is written.

First, that heresy was being raised by German theologians in 1850. Wesley died in 1788. He would have been confused by the whole conversation.

Second, Wesley is clear that Jesus Christ, even at the moment of his death, is God. “Thou, my God, should die for me,” he writes! (In fact, his language about the divinity of Christ is so strong, that some have accused him the heresy of saying that God suffered and died.)

Third, in its context, it points directly where Paul was pointing. No where in this verse does Wesley refer to anything to do with the attributes of God. He is referring to Christ leaving a place of glory in order to die. He speaks of Christ’ great humility. Wesley connects “emptying himself” with humility and death. And that—Christ’s great humility—is precisely Paul’s point in the passage Wesley quotes—Jesus left his place at the Father’s right hand in glory in order to suffer and die a shameful death.

Wesley brings out that this act of humility is one of mercy. He humbled himself in order to bleed “for Adam’s helpless race.” It was not for Jews alone—but for mankind, for Jew and Gentile—that Jesus came to die. As John will write, “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” And as Paul will write, the living God is “the Savior of all men, especially of believers.” And as the Baptist declared, Jesus is “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.”

Mankind had fallen into rebellion, wickedness, and sin. He was trapped in death and “helpless,” and the God whom he had offended became man and bled for men.

And Wesley again wonders that it should find him. Do you wonder that Jesus Christ would humble himself and bleed for you in your helpless condition?

…Wonder at Redeeming Grace Reigning Over Death (Stanza 3).

Next Wesley moves from the humility of Christ to thoughts of his own conversion. He illustrates what he means by “helpless.” For a long time, his spirit lay imprisoned, “fast bound in sin and nature’s night.”
This echoes Paul’s description of all of us, prior to conversion, in Ephesians 2. He writes:
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience--among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
We were not sick, but dead. Not righteous, but following this world and Satan. Not sons of God, but “sons of disobedience.” Not children of God, but “children of wrath”—and that “by nature.”

We could not raise ourselves. We were dead. We could not change our nature, anymore than a leopard could change its spots or an Ethiopian could change the color of his skin.

But Wesley says that while he was in that helpless condition, God’s eye looked upon him and sent forth a “quick’ning,” that is a “life-giving” ray. When God looked upon him with favor, he was brought to life and saw light. The chains of his sin and natural condition fell off. His heart was set free from the reign of death. He was given new life; he got up and followed Christ.

And that is what Paul says in Ephesians 2 happen with us. We were dead:

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved--and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

As Paul wrote in Romans 5, “death reigned” through Adam, and sin reigned through death. But through Jesus Christ, we receive abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness and we will reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

Do you wonder at the redeeming grace of God—that reigns over death? Have you experienced this? Have you been converted?

…Wonder that Produces Astonishing Boldness in Life and in Death (Stanza 4).

Finally, Wesley reflects on the effect and application of the Gospel. He no longer fears any condemnation—from God or from man. He does not fear condemnation because Jesus—and everything in Jesus—belongs to him. He not only has “an interest in the Savior’s blood,” he has an interest in the Savior life and resurrection and reign. Jesus death has been reckoned as his. And so has the righteousness of Christ in a perfect life been reckoned his. And the resurrection of Jesus Christ is his also.

As Paul writes in Romans 5:1-2, “we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” We will not be condemned when we enter God’s presence, because he has already pronounced us righteous. We gain this access, not by our works, but by faith. We stand in grace.

Wesley now wonders to find his life “alive in him, my living head.” That is, Christ is his head, his representative.

Paul writes in Romans 5:18 that “one trespass led to condemnation for all men…by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners.” That is, Adam is the head of mankind. He represented us. All those who are connected to Adam by being born human share in the guilt of Adam. But, Paul continues, “one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men…by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.” That is, Christ is the head of all those who are born again by grace through faith. Because he is their representative “head,” they share in his life and are “clothed in righteousness divine.”

If we “have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,” then we have no fear of death and no fear of the presence of God. “Bold I approach the eternal throne and claim the crown, through Christ my own.”

If God has already declared you to be righteous, if he has reconciled you to himself through the blood of his Son, if he has said that we will “reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ,” then we can live with boldness and approach God with confidence.

Two months after Wesley’s conversion, he did something amazing. He asked to spend the evening locked in the prison cell with prisoners condemned to be executed the next day. He has spent the week preaching the Gospel to them, and wanted to spend the last night with them before they were hung the next day. He did. And all of them were converted and died with peace.

Those prisoners had nothing more to lose. They would be hung the next day. They would lose nothing by killing Wesley that night. How did he live with such boldness?

When you have peace with God through Jesus Christ—when you have a Gospel that gives you confidence to approach the throne of God without fear of harm—then there is nothing and no one else that can ultimately do any harm to you.

Does your wonder in the Gospel produce the boldness the approach throne of God with confidence and live with confidence now?