Why I'm Christian #1 - The Good News
Unpacking the gospel message and how a person becomes a Christian using the beautiful hymn, "There is a Fountain Filled with Blood."
Though I grew up in the church and was raised as a Christian, throughout my twenties I lived as an atheist… which is a story for another time. In September of 2020, Christ called me back through a perfectly precise application of pain. At the same time, unbeknownst to me, God was using others to build a church in downtown Detroit. It was a church that my best friend attended, and one Sunday he invited me to go.
It was through those wonderful people at Motor City Church where I developed a personal relationship with Jesus, not simply as a friend or confidante, but as my Lord and my Savior. It’s also where I first heard the song called, “There is a Fountain Filled with Blood,” which quickly became one of my favorite hymns. One reason is because it’s a perfect depiction of the gospel, which is the core message of Jesus and His church.
What follows is a line-by-line examination of that message in this special hymn. Whatever your background or your beliefs, I encourage you to read this article, no matter how poorly written you may find it to be. (Though hopefully you won’t). My goal is not conversion; it’s amplification.
If you have yet to hear this song, or even if you have, click the link below to listen and enjoy.
There is a fountain filled with blood
Drawn from Immanuel’s veins;
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains.
“There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel’s veins…?”
A fountain can be considered a source of life; a spring of natural water. Serene. A fountain filled with blood points towards something living — a person. This person is the source of all life. This person’s name is Jesus. He is the fountain from whom eternal life flows. This is confirmed in the second line — “drawn from Immanuel’s veins.” Jesus is Immanuel, a name prophesied to Him, meaning “God with us.” You can find this in the Old Testament and the New Testament and is one of the many ways we know Jesus is Jesus.
“And sinners …?”
“Sinners” refers to people who fail to live up to the perfect cosmic standard set forth by its Creator. That standard is The Law, and its Creator, The Lawgiver. This Creator is God — Jesus — and those sinners are you and me. The truth is that any time we’ve lied, cheated, stolen, gossiped, lusted, manipulated, lost our temper, etc, we have fallen short of this standard. This is what it means to sin; originally an archery term meaning “to miss the mark.” Through our own choices, sin corrupts our standing before God. We have broken The Law and don’t have the means to pay our fine; we don’t have the means to rectify the situation on our own.
“…plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains…?”
Our problem is twofold: first, that because of sin we are separated from God and, second, we have no way of solving this problem through our own means.
Enter Jesus.
As John the Apostle stated in his written testimony we call the “Gospel of John,” God became flesh through His Son, Jesus, who lived a perfect life and ultimately chose to sacrifice that perfect life as payment for our sins. Sin is what keeps us separated from God — it creates a debt we cannot afford. God pays that debt through Jesus’ crucifixion for any person who has ever lived or will ever live.
This is salvation: we can be saved from our circumstance through God’s grace and sacrifice. I cannot put it better than Paul in his epistle to the Romans, which is worth quoting at length.
Romans 8:1-4 (NLT) “So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.”
This is the gospel. This is salvation. This is the Good News.
The dying thief rejoiced to see
That fountain in his day;
And there may I, though vile as he,
Wash all my sins away.
The dying thief…?
Before His crucifixion, Jesus — who was completely innocent — was beaten, spat upon, flogged, stripped naked, and mocked with a tortuous “crown of thorns” and a feeble reed “scepter.” He was then paraded around town carrying the very cross to which He would be crucified.
Jesus was not the only person killed that day; there were two thieves crucified alongside Him. Both thieves initially mocked Jesus. Yet, since death by crucifixion took many, many hours, at some point one of these thieves recognized that Jesus was in fact who He said He was. This is the thief to whom the song refers: the penitent thief that tradition calls “Dismas.”
“…rejoiced to see that fountain in his day…?”
Dismas rejoiced to see that Jesus — the fountain — was there to save him. He chided the other thief for mocking Him, and finally pleaded “Jesus, remember me when you enter your kingdom.” Jesus responded, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” And Dismas was saved at the cross.
Side note: this is a perfect illustration of our Lord’s patience and mercy. Dismas spent most of the day hurling insults and mockery. Yet Jesus, ever-patient, forgave him.
“There may I, … , wash all my sins away…?”
It was there that Dismas’ sins were washed away. He was made pure through accepting God’s work. It is there that we may wash ours away, too.
“…though vile as he…?”
For a person to allow Jesus to save them takes a great deal of humility. You must recognize that there is a standard of which humanity falls woefully short. It is the only standard worth meeting, but it is one we cannot meet because of our sin condition. There are certainly different levels of sin… but ultimately, sin is sin.
A picture for you — sin creates a giant chasm that separates us from God. Jesus’ death and resurrection bridges that chasm… we just have to choose to take that bridge.
This may induce feelings of inadequacy or insufficiency. Maybe even worthlessness. Especially if you’ve put your value in the things you “do,” or maybe in the idea of who you believe yourself to “be.” This can be a jarring, almost painful, realization that according to the one standard that actually matters, you’ve failed. I’ve failed. We have failed…
…and have done so consistently.
But this way of thinking is also incorrect — it’s a trap! Because God doesn’t see you as worthless or too far gone. God sees you as someone who is SO valuable and SO worthy that He literally died for you to be in heaven with Him for eternity.
Dear dying lamb, Thy precious blood
Shall never lose its power,
Till all the ransomed church of God
Be saved, to sin no more.
“Dear dying lamb…?”
Jesus is the sacrificial lamb. This idea is all throughout the Old Testament. Before Christ’s earthly birth, frequent sacrifices were offered to God via Israel’s high priest to atone for their sins. This is because God is just; He simply cannot ignore sin. It is not in His character. The Book of Leviticus outlines detailed ceremonial instructions on which animals were to be sacrificed in which instances; many times, a lamb without defect. The Book of Exodus depicts the first Passover in which a lamb without defect was sacrificed.
When God entered our world as Jesus, He did so with the expressed purpose of dying on the cross as the final sacrifice. God sacrificed Himself to atone for any and all sins committed by any and all people who ever existed. He is the dying lamb.
“Thy precious blood shall never lose its power…?”
And this sacrifice, made by God Himself, will never lose its power. For all eternity — past, present, future — the sacrifice stands, so long as you choose to accept it. This is because salvation is a gift from God, not an earned achievement on our part.
“Till all the ransomed church of God be saved to sin no more…?”
We are “ransomed” so to speak by sin. It holds us hostage and demands we pay its price. This ransom is something we cannot afford, but God can afford it. In fact, this is the price He paid on the cross.
To be clear, this sum isn’t paid to The Enemy. This sum is paid by God to God. This is because God is the one who created The Law — the Lawgiver decides what is righteous and what is not. The Enemy uses sin as a tool to deceive us into violating this Law and steer us further from God. The point here is twofold. First, God and the Enemy are not equal, not in the slightest. In fact, evil (which is the Enemy) cannot exist on its own. As CS Lewis put it, evil is a parasite. It is defined by what it perverts: goodness. It only exists to pervert what is good. Goodness, on the other hand, certainly exists for goodness’ sake.
Second, once you become saved — that is to accept Jesus’ sacrifice and acknowledge Him as Lord and Savior — then the Holy Spirit begins the process of sanctification. In the bible, Jesus likens it to pruning a plant. God wishes the best for us and that best is perfection. He sanctifies us over the rest of our lives, pruning away bad habits, bad thoughts, bad actions… ultimately pruning away the sinful aspects of our character.
Salvation is a one-time event, sanctification is a lifelong process.
Side note: God? Jesus? Holy Spirit? How many gods are there? Just one. God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit represent the Holy Trinity. They are three distinct substances or persons that make up the one essence of God. Saint Augustine, an early church father, put it like this…
There is the lover (God the Father), there is the beloved (God the Son), and there exists a spirit of love between them (God the Holy Spirit).
E’er since by faith I saw the stream
Thy flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die.
“E’er since by faith I saw the stream thy flowing wounds supply…?”
Through Jesus’ sacrifice we can receive eternal life. Since water and streams provide means of life and development, Jesus’ wounds sustained on the cross are now the means that sustain the songwriter. They sustain me, as well. The songwriter and I — we have put our faith in Christ.
“What is faith?”
Faith is the confidence in what we hope for and the assurance about what we do not see. In other words, it is a confident expectation in God’s promises. We have faith in God because of His character. To have faith in a person is to know them. To know God is to read The Word.
Throughout the Old Testament, God reveals Himself to be just, gracious, encouraging, good, and consistent. Israel, His chosen people, is the opposite. God made a covenant with Israel, which is a special sanctified agreement, and Israel broke it many times over. Yet God upholds their covenant not because Israel is deserving, but because that’s who He is. In the New Testament, God shows Himself to be trustworthy through the life, teachings, death and resurrection of Jesus. This is important because Christianity is a religion built on an actual person and an actual historical event that existed in time and can be studied, known, and understood.
“Redeeming love…?”
This concept of “redeeming love” highlights what is, to me, the most hard-to-accept aspect of the gospel: God’s motive. Stated in arguably the most famous verse in the bible, John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Let’s take a step back. Sin entered the world through man’s free will. Since God is perfect, God is perfectly just. Since God is perfectly just, He cannot tolerate sin. Therefore, man is separated from God and is in dire need of redemption. The sacrificial systems of the Old Testament were unable to pay the debt. As a result, God employed a radical solution — He wrote Himself into the story. God became human! All so He could sacrifice Himself as substitutionary payment to fulfill the debt which humanity incurred.
Instead of abandoning humanity, though we deserve to be abandoned because of our sin and rebellion, God humbled Himself to join us in a world we dirtied to pay our debts with His life.
This is grace. He gives us that which we do not deserve because He loves us… because He loves you.
“…has been my theme and shall be til I die… ?”
What does a person do when confronted with God’s own actions? Their implications are almost unbearable.
Some people deny them. Others accept them.
To those that accept God’s actions allow themselves to be changed: they are redeemed through His love. This redeeming love becomes their life’s theme; their new identity. To accept His actions is to be born again. The Christian becomes what Christ saved them to be.
Then in a nobler, sweeter song,
I’ll sing Thy power to save;
When this poor lisping, stammering tongue,
Lies silent in the grave.
I’ll sing Thy power to save!
“Then in a nobler, sweeter song I’ll sing Thy power to save…?”
Following this “rebirth,” it’s impossible for the Christian not to sing God’s praises and spread His message. The Christian does this with more than their speech, but with their actions. This is the “nobler, sweeter song.” This is the greatest testimony — actually changing the way one conducts their life.
“When this poor lisping, stammering tongue…?”
Humility is required to fully receive Christ into your life. This is due in part to God humbling Himself to become human. But it’s also due to the nature of the gospel, which is offensive in the sense that it states the problem lies within us. God is not at fault — we are. This is why we need His help.
Additionally, it’s important to acknowledge our inherent flaws. We will never be perfect, no matter how hard we try. So when the Christian sings a nobler song, it will still be expressed by a poor, lisping, stammering tongue. Take this article — some of you reading this may hate it because of how I’ve written it, or maybe I didn’t fully explain something, or maybe I just bored you to tears. This is inevitable because I am far from perfect. Yet, inevitable stammering and lisping cannot — and will not — stop the Christian from spreading the gospel. It certainly won’t stop me.
“Lies silent in the grave, I’ll sing thy power to save!”
In my eyes, this is the most beautiful part of the song. It can be read three ways, all of which are correct.
From the moment of one’s conversion to the moment of their last breath, the Christian praises God and spreads the gospel.
From beyond the grave, the Christian will sing God’s praises through the life they lived on Earth. A Christian’s testimony is their most powerful tool in spreading the gospel and Jesus’ gift of salvation. After death, the only thing that will exist, on this side of eternity, will be other people’s memories of us… and what will they be? Good? Bad? The Christian is called to follow Christ’s example. Beyond the grave we can still help win souls through the memory of our actions during our time in this world. The Christian life is an impactful life.
Avoiding eternal weeping and gnashing of teeth and entering paradise simply because of God’s love and grace, what better activity would there be than to sing God’s praises?
In summation:
God is just.
Because He is just, He cannot overlook sin.
We sin.
Sin separates us from God.
We can’t square the debt from our sin.
God paid our debt through Jesus’ work on the cross.
He did this because He loves us.
Maybe you consider yourself Christian but haven’t paid much attention to your faith. Maybe you’re interested in Jesus, but don’t know Him. Maybe you’re an atheist and have been your entire life. Maybe you call yourself an atheist, but in reality you hate God… like I once did.
To reiterate, whatever your case may be, my goal with this article is not to convert you but to inform you. Like Philip to Nathaneal, or like my best friend to me, I’m simply inviting you to come see for yourself.
May God bless you.
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Jesus changed my life and He did so through Motor City Church in Detroit, MI. To learn more about them, click the links to their website, instagram, and YouTube.
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