By Guest Writer
In 1738, Charles Wesley was struggling to find peace with God. He had served as a missionary to Georgia, but that had turned out disastrously bad. Peter Bohler, the leader of the London Moravians, asked Charles if he hoped to be saved. Charles replied that he did. Bohler pressed, “Upon what basis do you hope to be saved?” Wesley said, “Because I have used my best endeavors to serve God.” Bohler shook his head sadly and walked away.
Wesley recorded his reaction in his journal: “What, are not my endeavors a sufficient ground of hope? Would he rob me of my endeavors? I have nothing else to trust to.”
Wesley was stuck in the tension that many raised in church have experienced. It is all too common to confuse the fruits of the gospel at work in our lives (good endeavors) with the root of spiritual life (the gospel promise believed).
The problem with trusting our good works is that they are not perfect works. Jesus said that we are to love Him with all our heart, all our mind, and all our strength, and this is a considerably higher bar than just offering Him our best endeavors.
God requires that we love Him perfectly from the moment we are born until the moment we die, with no lapses. Faced with this impossible requirement, many religious people attempt to take solace in such empty hopes as our best, though imperfect, endeavors. But this hymn points us to a higher ground of hope—the power of the gospel.
Later in 1738, Wesley’s friend, John Bray, discovered Martin Luther’s Commentary on Galatians and brought it to Wesley, who was sick in bed. Luther had famously once said that the whole of the gospel was found in the personal pronouns, and Wesley found peace as the Lord gave him faith to believe that Jesus had died for him. Wesley wrote in his journal, “I spent some hours this evening in private with Martin Luther, who was greatly blessed to me, especially his conclusion of the second chapter. I labored, waited, and prayed to feel ‘Who loved me and gave Himself up for me.’”
It is sometimes said that “And Can It Be” was Wesley’s first hymn, written soon after his conversion. Hymn scholars are now convinced that “Where Shall My Wondering Soul Begin?” was actually his first hymn. But “And Can It Be” was written soon after and expresses beautifully and powerfully the converting power of the gospel that he had experienced.
Wesley is one of our most skilled hymn writers. He begins with a piercing question to which no real answer can be given: “How can it be, that thou my God, shoulds’t die for me?” If we ever get to the point where God’s grace seems deserved or expected, we are in deep trouble.
We see Wesley’s grasp of Luther’s point in his use of personal pronouns: “my God,” “for me.” But it is in the last verse where Wesley reveals the heart of his new-found hope. “Alive in Him, my living head, and clothed in righteousness divine.”
Wesley had come to understand that the gospel Christ gives us what God requires—His perfect righteousness through our union with Him. What Christ does, we get credit for; what He deserves, we get!
Rather than trusting in our best endeavors, Wesley gives us words to praise God for our only true hope, the righteousness of Christ imputed to His people through faith. This brings us not only hope, but boldness to claim the crown—not because of what we have done, but because of what Christ has done in our place.
Written by Kevin Twit
And Can It Be That I Should Gain?
Charles Wesley, 1738
And can it be that I should gain
An interest in the Savior’s blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain—
For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
He left His Father’s throne above
So free, so infinite His grace—
Emptied Himself of all but love,
And bled for Adam’s helpless race:
’Tis mercy all, immense and free,
For O my God, it found out me!
’Tis mercy all, immense and free,
For O my God, it found out me!
Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray—
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him, is mine;
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach th’eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.
Bold I approach th’eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.
For an added layer of worship during reading plan, we’ve created a Spotify playlist for Hymns. You can find the complete HRT Hymns Playlist here, or listen to the first track on the player below. Enjoy!
81 thoughts on "And Can It Be?"
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Jarod Workman says:
God is less concerned with our works, than he is with our basic belief. Works will come out of a heart of belief
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It’s free, based on our belief.
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We can do nothing to deserve salvation.
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Kyle says:
We can often try to work our way to please God instead of focusing on the Gospel and what Jesus has already done for us.
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How much he loves us. That he came down to meet us where we’re at, so we are no longer bound to our works to try to get to him.
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We are set free through Jesus. He has done the work for us and there are no amount of works we can do to try to earn more of God’s love because Jesus has already done the ultimate work for us.
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Kyle says:
How can it be? Because our God’s mercy and love is unfathomable. He is unfailing in His love for us. Though we may be unfaithful, God will remain faithful because He cannot deny who He is.
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I will try to harvest the fruits of the gospel by doing works to show Christ’s love, but I will not have that as the basis for my spiritual life. The only foundation is Jesus Christ and His promise to us– salvation!
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Man tries to earn grace, but we never can. Our works are our best efforts but they are not perfect. We are required to be perfect since birth, and since that is impossible we have been given the free gift of salvation. We are undeserving, but God still loves us.
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The Gospel is the good news of salvation! It’s the best news ever! There is life after death because of the grace of Christ Jesus, our Savior.
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Dear Lord,
Help me never to be complacent in my faith. I am SO undeserving of Your grace and love. I want to run towards you and seek Your face. Use me to show Your love to others and lead them to a belief in the promise you have given– life. -
Kraymer Lorig says:
By loving God with my fullest being. By doing the will of the Father and by receiving grace that is offered to me every day, by not taking advantage of it but simply being thankful for the fact that the Lord has offered me such an amazing, undeserved gift.
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The Gospel is great news! We have a savior who can relate to us! Who can feel what we feel and who has been tempted as we are tempted. There is nothing that we go through that he has not already taken on himself. Jesus has won!
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We try to compensate for things done wrong by doing things that are good in hopes that they will balance each other out.
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God’s love is amazing. We do not deserve it yet he offers it to us every day! God does not require us to do good works, he requires of us our full amount of love for Him.
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Lord may Your will be done in me. Thank you for your love and for your grace that you pour out every day, and thank you for the many many blessings that you have give me throughout my life. I ask that you would guide my feet and my heart through your Word so that you may work through me and that I may love you will all of my heart.
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Andrew C says:
That we constantly try to “do our best” to please God. Our best works and things are not what pleases God. Good works come from the joy of your heart that is in you from serving The Lord. God wants our heart, not our best of “works”.
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I will try my best to let others know the Truth and The Gospel. I will submit my heart to The Lord instead of trying to do good things to please Him.
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That God gives us strength and calls us to be courageous and go out and take the crown that He’s offered us. That He views us not only as not sinful, but as righteous.
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That The Good News that Jesus gives to us is that we don’t have to be perfect and follow these crazy laws to get to The Lord. Jesus died for us and in doing that bridged the gap between man and God. And God gives us what only His son deserved. We deserve the opposite, but God gives us mercy and grace and we get to inherit the Kingdom of God.
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