Paul said that, “if in this life only we have hope, we are most miserable (1 Corinthians 15:19) But we have hope beyond this life. Life does not end in three scores and ten, it is beyond that, it is eternal. And that hope is in Jesus alone. All by grace and by grace alone. I love this hymn which has been a blessing to millions over the years.
My Hope is built on Nothing Less
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly trust in Jesus' Name.
Refrain
On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.
When darkness seems to hide His face,
I rest on His unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.
His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Support me in the whelming flood.
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my Hope and Stay.
When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh may I then in Him be found.
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.
( The Hymnal for Worship and Celebration, Word Music, Nashville, Tennessee, 1986)
This hymn has a ‘ graceful theology’ if you allow me to call it this way. The first stanza declares to us a wonderful gift of grace-His righteousness. The second and third stanza speaks to us the application of that grace in times of trials, troubles, and tribulations of life. Then in the fourth stanza the hymn writer Edward Mote brings it to full circle with the final and ultimate realisation of God’s grace.
What we are now and what we will be is all because of God’s incredible grace. All by grace and by grace alone, through faith alone. Christ is the solid Rock we stand. God is now (and still is) in the process of making us beautiful. The completeness will be crystal clear one day- that is future grace. We are His masterpiece, the beauty and the best of all His creation! Rejoice! Rejoice! Rejoice in His Wonderful NAME! The sweetest NAME of JESUS!