“I Gave My Life for Thee”

by Micky Galloway

Numerous sources give the history of the hymn bearing this name. Underneath a vivid painting of Christ, wearing His crown of thorns as He stands before Pilate and the mob, are the words, “This have I done for thee; what hast thou done for Me?” The painting is displayed in the art museum of Dusseldorf, Germany. When Frances Havergal viewed the painting during a visit to Germany, she was deeply moved. She scribbled down the lines of this hymn text on a scrap of paper. After returning to her home in England, she felt the poetry was so poor that she tossed the lines into a stove. The scorched scrap of paper was preserved by her father. The tune was composed for this text by the noted American gospel songwriter, Philip P. Bliss, and was first published in 1873.

"I gave My life for thee, My precious blood I shed, That thou might’st ransomed be, And quickened from the dead; I gave, I gave My life for thee, What hast thou given for Me?"

Jesus came to forgive sins. “The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28). Sin is not an accident; not a mistake. It is a transgression of God’s law and reaps the consequence of spiritual death, i.e. separation from God (I John 3:4; Isaiah 59:1-2). As the sacrifice of the blood of animals could not take away sins (Hebrews 10:1-4), and “apart from shedding of blood there is no remission” (Hebrews 9:22); it was necessary for man to die, but not just any man. We are redeemed “with precious blood, as of a lamb without spot, (even the blood) of Christ” (I Peter 1:19). We are sanctified “through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:10). Christ was offered once “to bear the sins of many” (I Peter 2:24). Such an offering was necessary that God might be just. We are justified “by his blood” (Romans 5:9). Jesus gave His life that the grace of God and the justice of God could be reconciled. The apostle Paul wrote that we are “justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God set forth (to be) a propitiation, through faith, in his blood, to show his righteousness because of the passing over of the sins done aforetime, in the forbearance of God; for the showing, (I say), of his righteousness at this present season: that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:24-26). “But God commendeth his own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

"My Father’s house of light, My glory circled throne, I left, for earthly night, For wanderings sad and lone; I left, I left it all for thee, Hast thou left aught for Me?"

Jesus prayed, “Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that the son may glorify thee” (John 17:1). The thought is that the Son may be glorified through death and victory over the grave in the resurrection. “Wherefore also God highly exalted him, and gave unto him the name which is above every name; that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of (things) in heaven and (things) on earth and (things) under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians. 2:9-11). He includes in His prayer, “And now, Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was” (John 17:5). The cross was not the only sacrifice Jesus made. He left the glory of heaven to live on this earth in the body of flesh.

"I suffered much for thee, More than the tongue can tell, Of bitterest agony, To rescue thee from hell; I’ve borne, I’ve borne it all for thee, What hast thou borne for Me?"

Can there be any doubt of the suffering of Jesus? Read Matthew 26-27! Hebrews 2:17-18 tells us that He suffered to help us. “Wherefore it behooved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted.” He suffered even unto death that he might offer Himself as a sacrifice once for all that we might be saved from hell. “For Christ entered not into a holy place made with hands, like in pattern to the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear before the face of God for us: nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place year by year with blood not his own; else must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once at the end of the ages hath he been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” (Hebrews 9:24-26). We are to look “unto Jesus the author and perfecter of (our) faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising shame, and hath sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2). Having accomplished the sacrificial offering of His life, He now sits at the right hand of the throne of God.

"And I have brought to thee, Down from My home above, Salvation full and free, My pardon and My love; I bring, I bring rich gifts to thee, What hast thou brought to Me?"

Christ “gave himself up for me,” that I may be forgiven. Regardless of whomever else Christ might have died for, He died for ME! Nothing less than the precious blood of God’s Son could atone for sin. Nothing could demonstrate the horribleness of sin and the tremendous love of God better than the death of Jesus on the cross. No one knows the “exceeding richness of His grace” (Ephesians 2:7), better than the one who has been forgiven! God wants all to know that He is good and loving above what man could ever imagine. Sinful men can rise from spiritual death to sit with Christ in the spiritual realm (cf. Ephesians 1:3).

Paul understood, “that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief” (I Timothy 1:15). Is it any wonder then that he could write, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ living in me: and that (life) which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, (the faith) which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me” (Galatians 2:20)? And again, “Yea verily, and I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but refuse, that I may gain Christ, and be found in him …” (Philippians 3:8-9).

Christ gave it all for you! What hast thou given for Him?