Musical Notes

Hello OCBC family,
“Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.” (Romans 5:20).

During my Sunday school class, we are abiding in the book of Romans for several months and it has been a wonderful experience, and the passage that I am sharing right now is a very powerful one. Paul is teaching here that while the Law exposed and even amplified our awareness of sin, God’s grace surpasses it entirely. No matter how great the sin, God’s grace is greater still — not to excuse sin, but to overcome it through the work of Christ.

This passage was the inspiration for Julia H. Johnston to write these words,
“Marvelous grace of our loving Lord,
Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt,
Yonder on Calvary's mount outpoured,
There where the blood of the Lamb was spilt.”

Who was Julia H. Johnston? We don’t know too much about her life, just that she was born on January 21, 1849, in Salineville, Ohio. Her father was a pastor, and her mother was a poet. Julia herself became a poet, starting with some simple poems at age of nine, but during high school she became very popular for her writing. She is the author of more than 500 hymns. Her spiritual background was Presbyterian, and her love for missions was big, no wonder why she wrote many hymns about grace, and salvation.

“Dark is the stain that we cannot hide,
What can avail to wash it away?
Look! There is flowing a crimson tide;
Whiter than snow you may be today.”

The song describes the Christian doctrine of grace and justification by faith articulated in the letter to the Romans in Romans 5:1-2 and 14-16. The name of the melody is ‘Moody” because the composer, Daniel B. Towner, was the director of the music department of Moody Bible Institute.

Johnston worked as a Sunday school superintendent and teacher for over forty years and served as president of the Presbyterian Missionary Society. Julia H. Johnston died in Peoria, Illinois on March 6, 1919 at the age of seventy.

“Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace,
Freely bestowed on all who believe;
All who are longing to see His face,
Will you this moment His grace receive?”

This hymn has been a blessing for many believers, and a tool to share the gospel to those who are still in darkness.

“Grace, grace, God's grace,
Grace that will pardon and cleanse within;
Grace, grace, God's grace,
Grace that is greater than all our sin.”

Sola Gratia.
​
In His service,
Israel