A Song Of Grace: Once For All

1 Free from the law, O happy condition,
Jesus bath bled, and there is remission;
Cursed by the law and bruised by the fall,
Grace bath redeemed us once for all.

Refrain:

Once for all, O sinner, receive it;
Once for all, O brother, believe it;
Cling to the cross, the burden will fall,
Christ hath redeemed us once for all.

2 Now are we free-there’s no condemnation,
Jesus provides a perfect salvation;
“Come unto Me,” O hear His sweet call,
Come, and He saves us once for all.

3 “Children of God,” O glorious calling,
Surely His grace will keep us from falling;
Passing from death to life at His call,
Blessed salvation once for all.

—Philip P. Bliss (1838–1876)

“Once for All,” by Philip Bliss, is an example of the American “gospel song,” which became popular during the nineteenth century. Gospel Songs, the title of a collection of Bliss’s works, published in 1874, two years before his death, in fact provided the term which has since been used for hymns of this type. With its roots in American folk hymnody, but composed, written down, and published by individuals, the gospel song is to sacred music what the works of Stephen Foster are to secular music [1] Its simple tune, repeated refrain, and simple harmonic structure with infrequent chord changes make the typical gospel song easy to learn and remember. [2] This quality made these compositions particularly effective in the evangelistic movements of the late 1800’s to early 1900’s.

Philip Bliss, a Baptist, was associated with two of the noted evangelists of the period-Dwight L. Moody and Major D. W. Whittle. “The effectiveness of Bliss’s singing … first brought to Moody an awareness of the real value of music in his work. At Moody’s insistence, Bliss abandoned his teaching … and became song leader for Major D. W. Whittle …” [3] Bliss was not only a talented singer and song leader, but a gifted and prolific composer and lyricist as well.

A frequent criticism of gospel songs is that they are linguistically trite, doctrinally weak, and musically dull. If such be true, “Once for All” is an outstanding exception! The author has used language skillfully and creatively to communicate profound, scriptural salvation truths. The phrases, “Cursed by the law and bruised by the fall,” and, “Grace hath redeemed us” (which have scriptural bases in Gal 3:10, 13; 1 Cor 15:22; and Rom 11:5, 6) remind us of man’s utter powerlessness to save himself. The complete efficacy of Christ’s work on the Cross as the remedy to man’s dilemma is proclaimed in the phrases, “free from the law,” “Jesus hath bled and there is remission,” “Jesus provides a perfect salvation,” and, “cling to the cross.” Scriptural support for these ideas is found in Rom 8:2; Matt 26:28; 1 Pet 1:18, 19; Heb 7:25; 9:11–14; and 1 Cor 1:18. The eternal, unconditional security of the believer is expressed in the words, “now are we free-there’s no condemnation,” “surely His grace will keep us from falling,” and, of course, the triumphant, “once for all,” repeated throughout the song. Numerous Bible passages support the doctrine of eternal security, but Rom 8:1, 2; Jude 24; Rom 6:10; and Heb 10:10 seem to have had particular bearing on Bliss’s choice of words.

The melody, strongly rhythmic, with well-timed rises and falls, is vigorous and assertive. Truly, “Once for All” is a song of grace. “Faith alone in Christ alone” is woven throughout the lyrics and enhanced by a musical setting appropriate for a rousing, enthusiastic heralding of the great message of the Gospel of grace.

In previous issues of JOTGES we have had four hymns of grace and one psalm of grace. With this issue we are happy to have Mrs. Dan Mosher’s presentation of our first spiritual song of grace (see Eph 5:19 and Col 3:16 for the categories, and the autumn of 1990 issue of the journal for a discussion of them).

Frances is a graduate of the University of North Texas and studied church music at Southwestern Theological Seminary in Ft. Worth, Texas. She teaches piano as well as homeschooling her son Daniel. Besides being the pianist at Christ Congregation in Dallas, Frances teaches Sunday School and has been active in Child Evangelism Fellowship. She was also my secretary in the late 1970’s, accurately typing and retyping both the text of the New King James NT, and the poetical sections of The Greek New Testament According to the Majority Text (both Thomas Nelson publications). Ed.

Notes

1. William Jensen Reynolds, A Survey of Christian Hymnody (Chicago: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1963), 108.
2. Ibid., 107-108.
3. Ibid., 105.