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Just as I am, without one plea, But that Thy blood was shed for me, And that Thou bid’st me come to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come! I come! |
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Just as I am, and waiting not To rid my soul of one dark blot; To Thee whose blood can cleanse each spot, O Lamb of God, I come, I come! |
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Just as I am, though tossed about With many a conflict, many a doubt; Fightings within, and fears without, O Lamb of God, I come, I come! |
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Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind; Sight, riches, healing of the mind; Yes, all I need, in Thee to find, O Lamb of God, I come, I come! |
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Just as I am, Thou wilt receive, Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve; Because Thy promise I believe, O Lamb of God, I come, I come! |
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Just as I am, Thy love unknown Has broken every barrier down; Now, to be Thine, yea, Thine alone, O Lamb of God, I come, I come! |
We should simply come to the Lord without any way. Hymns, #1048 says, "Just as I am ... / O Lamb of God, I come! I come!" Every morning come to the Lord: "Lord, I come just as I am. I do not know how to pray. I come as I am, in my situation, not knowing. You know. It does not matter how I feel; it is up to Your leading." Every day come to the Lord in this way.
God is Spirit; hence, our contacting and absorbing Him do not depend on our words. Some people utter many words when they pray, but their words are like sounding brass or clanging cymbals; they do not have much value before God. We may not say anything when we come to God, but our whole being, including our heart, should face God. While we look to God, we may sigh and confess that we are incompetent, weak, unable to rise, unpresentable, and thirsty and that we lack words for the gospel and are not inclined to fellowship with the saints. We should lay our inner condition before God and even tell Him that we are short in every matter. No matter what our inner condition is, we should bring it to God. There is a hymn that says, "Just as I am" (Hymns, #1048). This means that we should come to God just as we are without trying to improve or change our condition. Our attitude when we come to God should be to come just as we are.
In England in the early 19th century there was a woman who had Christian parents and who for years had longed to be saved. She went to hear this and that preacher and visited churches and chapels in her search for salvation, but all in vain. One day she wandered into a little chapel with no real expectation in her heart, for she was almost in despair. She sat down at the back. The speaker was an elderly man. Suddenly in the middle of his address he stopped and pointing his finger at her said: 'You Miss, sitting there at the back, you can be saved now. You don't need to do anything!' Light flashed into her heart, and with it peace and joy. Charlotte Elliott went home and wrote her well-known hymn: 'Just as I am, without one plea ... O Lamb of God I come.' Those words have pointed to countless sinners the way of humble access to God through the blood of Christ. Yes, we dare to say to-day, to every one of the inhabitants of Shanghai or of any other city, that they can come to Him and be saved just as they are.
I repeat these incidents just to emphasize that what the sinner cannot do the Saviour is at hand to do for him. It is for this reason that we can tell people that they need not wait for anything, but can come to Him immediately. Whatever their state, whatever their problem, let them bring it and tell it to the Friend of sinners.
I like the song we sang today. It says, "Just as I am...I come! I come!" [Hymns, #1048]. I have told you before that this hymn was written by a woman in her twenties. She said that she had the sense of sin since she was very young. She wondered how a person like herself could face God. To her this was impossible. She visited many churches and talked with many pastors. She asked them questions and tried to find out from them how she could be saved. This went on for seven or eight years. Many told her that she had to do better before she could believe in Jesus. Others told her that she should pray more and study the Bible more. Still others told her to do good and perform noble deeds, or to do this or do that before she could believe in the Lord Jesus and be saved. As time went by, she found herself worse than before. In the end, she met an old preacher. She asked the old man what she must do before she could be saved. The old man put his hand on her back and said, "Go to God just as you are." She jumped up and asked, "Do I not have to do better, make more progress, and improve more before I can believe in the Lord Jesus?" The old man said, "There is no such need. You can come just as you are." On that day, she became clear and realized that she could come to the Lord just as she was.
God knows that we are sick. This is why He sent us the Doctor. Friends, have you ever been sick? Suppose I have a fever of one hundred five degrees. If I ask the doctor to come, will he say that he will come when the temperature drops to one hundred three? The sicker I am, the faster the doctor will come. If a person's temperature is ninety-eight degrees, the doctor may say that since it is only ninety-eight degrees, there is no need to go. The more serious your illness is, the faster the doctor will come. The woman admitted that she was a sick person and that Jesus Christ is the Physician from God who came to heal her. Not long after she returned home, she wrote this hymn: "Just as I am...I come! I come!"
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Kampala, Uganda
Amen Lord! Lamb of God I come.
Chesapeake, VA, United States
This hymn says it all. Thank you hymnal.net❤️God bless you.
Johnstown, Pennsylvania, United States
This is one of my favorite church hymns of all time, because it tells you just how it is.
Swansea, City And County Of Swansea
Beautiful words!
Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria
I have known this song for the past 34 years. While struggling with fulfilling my life set goals and desires without total submission to God. This song came as a revelation in my sleep this morning that God has done all I need, only to come to him 'just as I am' and surrender all to Him.
Bakersfield, California, United States
I have a very special place in my heart for this song. It was playing when I was save on June 23rd 1977.
Just love the hymn, it brings me closer to God. Just as I am.
Hatboro, PA, United States
I heard this hymn on a rerun of ER, of all places. It is not one I have ever heard, as a cradle Catholic, but it is one of which all Christians, and those drifting away, should be aware. As profound as its words is the history of its writer, who rose above her infirmity to write these beautiful words in spite of her mental and physiclal anguish. Sometimes great works come from great suffering. Today I am grateful to ER for introducing me to a beautiful hymn.
Detroit, Michigan, United States
It is possible that more hearts have been touched and more people influenced for Christ by this one hymn than by any other song ever written. Its text was born within the soul of an invalid woman as the result of intense feelings of uselessness and despair.
As a young person Charlotte Elliot lived a carefree life in Brighton, England. She gained popularity as a portrait artist and a writer of humorous verse. When she was 30, however, her health began to fail rapidly and she became an invalid for the remaining years of her life.She was extremely depressed. But a turning point in her life came when a noted Swiss evangelist, Dr. Ceasar Malan, visited the Elliott home. Counseling with Charlotte about her spiritual and emotional problems, the evangelist finally pleaded with her"
"Charlotte, you must come just as you are, a sinner, to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And if you will only come to Him, He'll surely forgive and receive you."
Throughout the remainder of her life, every year Charlotte celebrated that day in 1822 when her Swiss friend had led her to a personal relationship with Christ. And though the text for "Just as I Am" was not written until 14 years later, it is apparent that Charlotte never forgot the words of Dr. Malan, for they form the very essence of this hymn's text.
Charlotte lived to the age of 82, even though she was in ill health for more than 50 years. Often she endured times of great physical suffering:
"He knows, and He alone, what it is, day after day, hour after hour, to fight against bodily feelings of almost overpowering weakness, langour and exhaustion; to resolve not to yield to slothfulness, depression and instability, such as the body causes me to indulge, but to rise every morning determined to take for my motto: "If a man will come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me."
Charlotte wrote the text for "Just As I Am" in 1836. It was published that same year in the 2nd edition of 'The Invalid's Hymn Book', a collection which contained 115 of her original works. Miss Elliott wrote approximately 150 hymns and is regarded today as one of the finest of all English hymn writers.
She wrote, "I remember writing 'Just As I Am'. ... I was feeling particularly despondent and useless. I had been living with my brother, who was pastor of the parish church here in Brighton. He was busily engaged in trying to raise funds to build a badly needed new educational building in which to train the children of poor clergymen.
One day as my brother visited my bedside I exclaimed: 'I just feel so utterly useless while you and your parishioners are working so hard to get enough funds for that new building. I wish there was something that I could do to help instead of just lying here all the time."
That is when her brother asked her about the new hymn she had been working on that morning and asked her to read it to him. To her brother's amazement, when it was printed and sold, this one poem from the pen of his invalid sister brought in more funds for the new school building than all of his parishioners' fund raising projects. After Charlotte's death there were found more than 1,000 letters from individuals around the world expressing gratitude for the spiritual influence of this hymn in their lives.
Charlotte's brother left this statement as he approached retirement:
"In the course of a long ministry I have been permitted to see much fruit for my labors; but I feel that more has been done for God's kingdom by this single hymn of my sister's than through all of my many sermons."
Though the message of "Just As I Am" is generally used as an invitation hymn for non-believers, it is also a reminder to Christians that our eternal standing with God is based solely on Christ's merits and not our own. Our daily sufficiency is found in these words of testimony by Charlotte Elliott:
"God sees, God guards, God guides me; His grace surrounds me and His voice continually bids me to be happy and holy in His service - just where I am!" - '52 Hymn Stories Dramatized' by Kenneth W. Osbeck
Mowe, Ogun State, Nigeria
Just got a better understanding of this hymn. Jesus, please help me.