Believe and Live

When the Saviour said "'Tis finished,"
Everything was fully done;
Done as God himself would have it --
Christ the victory had won.
Vain and futile the endeavour
To improve or add thereto;
God's free grace is thus commended--
To "believe," and not "to do."

All the doing is completed,
Now 'tis "look, believe and live:"
None can purchase his salvation,
Life's a gift that God must give;
Grace, through righteousness, is reigning,
Not of works lest man should boast:
Man must take the mercy freely,
Or eternally be lost.

Albert Midlane, 1862
No. 535 in C.H. Spurgeon's Our Own Hymnbook

Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith;
and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

background and graphics by mary vannattan