Salvation Unto Us Has Come

1. Salvation unto us has come
By God's free grace and favor;
Good works cannot avert our doom,
They help and save us never.
Faith looks to Jesus Christ alone,
Who did for all the world atone;
He is our one Redeemer.

2. What God did in His Law demand
And none to Him could render
Caused wrath and woe on every hand
For man, the vile offender.
Our flesh has not those pure desires
The spirit of the Law requires,
And lost is our condition.

3. It is a false, misleading dream
That God His Law had given
That sinners can themselves redeem
And by their works gain heaven.
The Law is but a mirror bright
To bring the inbred sin to light
That lurks within our nature.

4. Yet as the Law must be fulfilled
Or we must die despairing,
Christ came and has God's anger stilled,
Our human nature sharing.
He has for us the Law obeyed
And thus the Father's vengeance stayed
Which over us impended.

5. Since Christ has full atonement made
And brought to us salvation,
Each Christian therefore may be glad
And build on this foundation.
Your grace alone, dear Lord, I plead,
Your death is now my life indeed,
For you have paid my ransom.

6. All blessing, honor, thanks, and praise
To Father, Son, and Spirit,
The God who saved us by His grace-
All glory to His merit!
O Triune God in heaven above,
You have revealed your saving love;
Your blessed name be hallowed!

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This hymn teaches justification by grace alone. This is filled with doctrine - teaching us about justification - that it is free, that is is received through faith looking to Christ alone, that the Law shows us our sin, that the Law condemns us and that we cannot redeem ourselves, that the Law needed to be fulfilled, that Christ fulfilled the Law for us, that Christ did it all for us. And for all that - it closes, we thank and praise him. Bonus points for being Trinitarian - this hymn points to the one and only true God - the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

There is virtually nothing I can criticize about this hymn - it is filled to the brim with a very clear and concise summary of what God's Word has to say about justification. The hymn is Gospel proclamation through and through - there are no wasted words. My only complaint is that some excellent stanzas were left out of our hymnal.