Would Jesus have the sinner die?
Why hangs He then on yonder tree?
What means that strange expiring cry?
(Sinners, He prays for you and me)
“Forgive them, Father, O forgive,
They know not that by Me they live,”
“They know not that by Me they live!”

Jesus descended from above,
Our loss of Eden to retrieve,
Great God of universal love,
If all the world through Thee may live,
In us a quickening Spirit be,
And witness Thou hast died for me,
And witness Thou hast died for me!

Thou loving, all-atoning Lamb,
Thee—by Thy painful agony,
Thy bloody sweat, Thy grief and shame,
Thy cross and passion on the tree,
Thy precious death and life—I pray,
Take all, take all my sins away,
Take all, take all my sins away!

O let me kiss Thy bleeding feet,
And bathe and wash them with my tears!
The story of Thy love repeat
In every drooping sinner’s ears,
That all may hear the quickening sound,
Since I, even I, have mercy found,
Since I, even I, have mercy found.

O let Thy love my heart constrain!
Thy love for every sinner free,
That every fallen soul of man
May taste the grace that found out me;
That all mankind with me may prove
Thy sovereign everlasting love,
Thy sovereign everlasting love.

Yea, as I live, Jehovah saith,
I would not have the sinner’s death,
But that he turn from error’s ways,
Repent, and live through endless days.

To us therefore Christ gave command:
“Go forth and preach in every land;
Bestow on all My pardoning grace
Who will repent and mend their ways.

“All those whose sins ye thus remit
I truly pardon and acquit;
And those whose sins ye do retain
Condemned and guilty shall remain.

“What ye shall bind, that bound shall be;
What ye shall loose, that shall be free;
Unto My church the keys are giv’n
To ope and close the gates of Heav’n.”

The words which absolution give
Are His Who died that we might live;
The minister whom Christ has sent
Is but His humble instrument.

When ministers lay on their hands,
Absolved by Christ the sinner stands;
He who by grace the Word believes
The purchase of His blood receives.

All praise, eternal Son, to Thee
For absolution full and free,
In which Thou showest forth Thy grace;
From false indulgence guard our race.

Praise God the Father and the Son
And Holy Spirit, Three in One,
As ’twas, is now, and so shall be
World without end, eternity!