Unless stated otherwise, my source for hymn texts and tunes is The Lutheran Service Book.

Wednesday, April 14, 2021

LSB #567 "Not What These Hands Have Done"

Biblical citations in the hymnal:  Ephesians 2:8-9; Romans 3:28, 4:5

Ephesians 2:8-9:  "8 For by grace you have been saved through faith.  And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast."

Romans 3:28:  "For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law."

Romans 4:5:  "And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justified the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness"

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The text is public domain:
Not what these hands have done
Can save this guilty soul;
Not what this toiling flesh has borne
Can make my spirit whole.
Not what I feel or do
Can give me peace with God;
Not all my prayers and sighs and tears
Can bear my awful load.
Thy work alone, O Christ,
Can ease this weight of sin;
Thy blood alone, O Lamb of God,
Can give me peace within.
Thy love to me, O God,
Not mine, O Lord, to Thee,
Can rid me of this dark unrest
And set my spirit free.
Thy grace alone, O God,
To me can pardon speak;
Thy pow'r alone, O Son of God,
Can this sore bondage break.
I bless the Christ of God,
I rest on love divine,
And with unfalt'ring lip and heart
I call this Savior mine.
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The hymn text seems to draw from Ephesians 2:8-9 a bit more than from the other two passages, but all three are fairly similar.

The name "Lamb of God" in the third verse comes from John 1:29.