Jesus, thy blood and righteousness

Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness my beauty are, my glorious dress; ’midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed, with joy shall I lift up my head. Bold shall I stand in Thy great day; for who aught to my charge shall lay? Fully absolved through these I am from sin and fear, from guilt and shame. The holy, meek, unspotted Lamb, who from the Father’s bosom came, who died for me, e’en me to atone, Now for my Lord and God I own. Lord, I believe Thy precious blood, which, at the mercy seat of God, forever doth for sinners plead, for me, e’en for my soul, was shed. Lord, I believe were sinners more than sands upon the ocean shore, thou hast for all a ransom paid, for all a full atonement made.

When from the dust of death I rise to claim my mansion in the skies, ev’n then this shall be all my plea, Jesus hath lived, hath died, for me. This spotless robe the same appears, when ruined nature sinks in years; no age can change its glorious hue, the robe of Christ is ever new. Jesus, the endless praise to Thee, whose boundless mercy hath for me— for me a full atonement made, an everlasting ransom paid. O let the dead now hear Thy voice; now bid Thy banished ones rejoice; their beauty this, their glorious dress, Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness.  

Words: Nikolaus L. von Zin­zen­dorf, 1739 (Christi Blut und Ge­rech­tig­keit); first pub­lished in the eighth ap­pen­dix to his Das Ge­sang-Buch der Ge­meine in Herrn-Huth.; trans­lat­ed from Ger­man to Eng­lish by John Wes­ley, Hymns and Sac­red Po­ems, 1740, alt.