CHRIST RECEIVETH SINFUL MEN

          While writing these hymn blogs I've often reminisced about my experiences growing up.  Once again I am reminded of many Sunday night services which featured hymns and enthusiastic singing.  I miss those experiences.

          This week's hymn choice is one that I enjoyed singing in those services.  I enjoyed the back time which was often sung by the men.  But even more I enjoyed the message that Christ receives sinful men.  And I was one of those sinful men.  Praise the Lord!

          This song was written by Erdmann Neumeister, (1671-1756), pastor of a Lutheran Church in Hamburg, Germany, in 1718.  Neumeister was well known in his day as an earnest and eloquent preacher, as a vehement upholder of High Lutheranism, and as a keen controversialist against the Pietists and the Moravians by means of the pulpit as well as the press.  He wrote about 650 hymns and  is considered the originator of the church cantata.
            Neumeister wrote this hymn to be sung at the end of a sermon on Luke 15:2. That verse tells about the Pharisees and scribes grumbling, "This man (meaning Jesus) receives sinners and eats with them."
         About 150 years later, Emma Bevan, (1827-1909), a British woman who was the wife of a prominent banker and was fluent in German, translated this old hymn into English.
          Another step that brought this hymn to us came about 30 years later, when James McGranahan (1840-1907), who pioneered developing men's choirs in church services, took this hymn and gave it a lilting tune men would like to sing. It is also one of those odd hymns that changes timing between verses and the chorus.
          The chorus exultantly encourages us to proclaim this good news of salvation from sin through Christ to the whole world.
          Though this hymn has gone through a few changes since it was first written about 300 years ago, the message has remained the same. Jesus still receives sinful men – and sinful women.  And I, as a sinful man myself, am so glad He does!  As Christians, we should be thankful that Christ was willing to receive us and then we should spread the good news to others that "Christ Receiveth Sinful Men.

1    Sinners Jesus will receive: 

Sound this word of grace to all 

Who the heav'nly pathway leave, 

All who linger, all who fall.

Chorus:

Sing it o'er 

(Sing it o'er again) 

and o'er again:

(Sing it o'er again:)

Christ receiveth 

(Christ receiveth sinful men) 

sinful men. 

(Christ receiveth sinful men) 

Make the message 

(Make the message clear and plain) 

clear and plain: 

(Make the message clear and plain)

Christ receiveth sinful men

2    Come, and He will give you rest; 

Trust Him, for His word is plain; 

He will take the sinfulest; 

Christ receiveth sinful men. [Chorus] 

3    Now my heart condemns me not, 

Pure before the law I stand; 

He who cleansed me from all spot 

Satisfied its last demand. [Chorus] 

4    Christ receiveth sinful men, 

Even me with all my sin; 

Purged from ev'ry spot and stain, 

Heav'n with Him I enter in. [Chorus]

Sing along with it here.     RECEIVETH