"My Savior’s Love "

“Songs My Father Sang”


Father’s Day 2010

My Savior’s Love has to be one of my father’s favorite hymns. I remember him singing this often. He would use the verse in his sermons, often quoting verse one: “I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene, and wonder how He could love me, a sinner, condemned, unclean.”

He was grateful for the cleansing of the blood of Jesus that changed him from a sinner, condemned, unclean, to a child of God. This text takes one on a journey through the garden of Gethsemane to the Cross. The songwriter can only exclaim, as he thinks of what Jesus did for us, “How marvelous! How wonderful!” There is no other explanation for the love He showed to us on the cross.

Then, one of these days, verse five declares, we will have the joy of singing about His love for eternity with all the others who also have experienced Jesus’ love in their lives.

My Savior’s Love

Text and Music by Charles H. Gabriel (1856-1932)
This song first appeared in 1905.

1. I stand amazed in the presence
Of Jesus the Nazarene,
And wonder how He could love me,
A sinner, condemned, unclean.


Refrain


O how marvelous! O how wonderful!
And my song shall ever be:
O how marvelous! O how wonderful!
Is my Savior’s love for me!


2. For me it was in the garden
He prayed: “Not My will, but Thine.”
He had no tears for His own griefs,
But sweat drops of blood for mine.


3. In pity angels beheld Him,
And came from the world of light
To comfort Him in the sorrows
He bore for my soul that night.


4. He took my sins and my sorrows,
He made them His very own;
He bore the burden to Calvary,
And suffered and died alone.


5. When with the ransomed in glory
His face I at last shall see,
’Twill be my joy through the ages
To sing of His love for me. 

Related Scriptures:

Matthew 26:39-44  Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will." Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. "Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?" he asked Peter.  "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak."

42 He went away a second time and prayed, "My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done."

43 When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. 44 So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.

Luke 22:41-44  He withdrew about a stone's throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.

Romans 5:6-8 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7ery rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.  But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Ephesians 3:14-19  For this reason I kneel before the Father,  from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,  so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

“All my theology is reduced to this narrow compass—Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners!” Archibald Alexander