Victim Divine, Thy Grace We Claim
Charles Wesley pictures the communion service as the unfolding of the courts of heaven and the living presence of Jesus Christ.
Charles Wesley pictures the communion service as the unfolding of the courts of heaven and the living presence of Jesus Christ.
In this poem, Charles Wesley turns to the Epistle to the Hebrews, where St Paul describes Christ as a sacrifice presented everlastingly before God in a heavenly Temple. In the communion service, says Wesley, we are admitted to that heavenly sanctuary for a blessed moment.
For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.
VICTIM Divine, thy grace we claim,
While thus thy precious death we show:
Once offer’d up, a spotless Lamb,
In thy great temple here below,
Thou didst for all mankind atone,
And standest now before the throne.
Thou standest in the holy place,
As now for guilty sinners slain;
The blood of sprinkling speaks, and prays,
All-prevalent for helpless man;
Thy blood is still our ransom found,
And speaks salvation all around.
The smoke of thy atonement here
Darken’d the sun, and rent the veil,
Made the new way to heaven appear,
And show’d the great Invisible.
Well-pleased in thee, our God look’d down,
And calls his rebels to a crown.
He still respects thy Sacrifice;
Its savour sweet does always please;
The Offering smokes through earth and skies,
Diffusing life, and joy, and peace;
To these thy lower courts it comes,
And fills them with divine perfumes.
We need not now go up to heaven,
To bring the long-sought Saviour down
Thou art to all already given,
Thou dost even now thy banquet crown:
To every faithful soul appear,
And show thy real presence here!