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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andrew says:
He gives so freely. He holds no grace back for His elect. He made Himself a man, humbling Himself to the utmost. even to die for all of those who spit at His name. we, as believers, should never grow tired of hearing about our perfect God.
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Benjamin McKnight says:
My response should include a much different prayer life, and while I want to show the world how much I love God, it’s much more important just to love Him.
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Nick S says:
This teaches me that God loves us so much. He is humble and came to serve even though he deserves to be served by everyone and everything. He is our example of obedience. He was without sin. God wakes us up breaks the chains and frees us from sin. God commands us to follow him. He is full of power, righteousness, grace, strength. He is victorious, the Almighty, the great high priest.
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Man- I attempt to please God by my works. But mine works will never be enough. I have no righteousness of my own and I am actually in bondage to sin. I am needy of God. I need to be set free.
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The Gospel teaches that I am a sinner and have no righteousness of my own and stand condemned before God. But Christ and his great love for me, humbled himself to become a man and serve man and die for man, because of his great love and for his glory. It is not my works that make me right with God but it is the finished work of Christ on the cross, nothing more nothing less, that justifies a man before God. God not only wants to count be righteous but he wants to break me free from the bondage of sin.
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I will respond by praising God for the salvation that he has won for me. I will keep my eyes fixed on him and not on my works and fall in love with Christ so that my works reflect his works. I will trust in the finished work of Christ
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I pray that God would reveal himself as most glorious and wonderful. I pray that I would never lose sight of the cross and the Great sacrifice Christ made for me. I pray that God would break the chains that are around my wrist at this very moment. He has set me free but I keep going back to them. God I pray that you would fill me with your grace
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Erik says:
Spend more time with Jesus. Talk with him about my daily thoughts and worries. Live a thankful life. Let him transform my life.
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We tend to believe that salvation is to be bought by doing a lot, while our acts should be the fruit of our faith in the desth and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
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It is about God loving us first and breaking down walls to be with us. He is looking for our heart and in his Word the whole plan to save us is visible.
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God is not keeping a list of the things I do, He wants my heart. He wants to break down the walls and set me free of the focus on earthly things.
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God, help me to focus on being your child, unconditionally loved. Help me to do everything out of love for you. Let your love shine through me in everything I say or do.
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Dalton Beaty says:
God is for ME. God sent his son for ME. It is because of his sacrificial love that I can claim what it is that he did for all of humanity. God’s love is the same for all, and all have the ability to claim it if they so choose. It overwhelms me that one gift can be accepted and claimed personally by all of humanity.
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We will never fully comprehend that vastness of God’s love, God’s grace, or God’s mercy. We don’t have to, but we must embrace it as best we can. Cling to it, for it is all that we have. The Bible says that our works are like filthy rags to God. We can do nothing to earn what he has already been given.
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The Gospel is mine to claim. It is ours to claim. It is everyone’s to claim. The Gospel is beautiful, glorious, righteous, and salvific, but most of all it is personal.
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I will respond by pressing more into Proverbs 3:5-8 and “lean not on my own understanding but in God alone and allow Him to make straight my paths.”
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Lukas Fortunato says:
We do like Wesley, want to trust in our endeavors and our “best”. I want to know that I gave it my all. I want to know that I left it on the field. It can feel like a hard reality that my best will never come anywhere close to enough. Yet in Gods mercy he does for me what I could not do for myself. There is great freedom in that reality.
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I love the imagery of rescue from prison. The same jailbreak that Paul experienced is what we experience as well. We have a God who breaks us out of prison. As the hymn says: I woke, the dungeon flames with light, my chains fell off my heart was free.
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I love the imagery of prison break and rescue. That we are all in death row and God comes in to bust us out.
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I will reflect on my freedom from prison. The chains that bound me. The sentence I would have served. But God has rescued me.
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