Jesus Lord, I come to meet my Savior

You can listen to the full hymn and find the music here. 

Jesus Lord, I come to meet my Savior / Though a criminal, I trust in Thee! / When Thou comest into Thine own kingdom, / By Thy side, O Lord remember me. / On the cross, I met my great Redeemer! / Who has shed His lifeblood for me! / To my spirit, turn and hear Thy whisper: / “You shall be with Me in Paradise.”

And one of the criminals who were hanged there blasphemed Him, saying, Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us! / But the other, answering, rebuked him and said, Do you not even fear God, since you are in the same judgment? / And we justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for what we did, but this man has done nothing amiss. / And he said, Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom. / And He said to him, Truly I say to you, Today you shall be with Me in Paradise. (Luke 23:39-43)

How often do we blaspheme the Lord, placing ourselves higher than Him when we ourselves are wretched sinners and criminals? Do we even see ourselves as criminals or do we strive to live the life of a “perfect and moral” Christian? While the two men were both identified as “criminals” in the Bible, only one of them saw himself as a criminal before God. Only one of them recognized the Lord for who He was. As a believer, our salvation begins with this recognition — a genuine confession of our fallen humanity; we are criminals who by His grace are redeemed through His blood. What a salvation!

We might think, “I would never be like the criminal who mocks the Lord!” Even if we do not think we are the criminal who mocks the Lord, we are still a criminal who steals and murders. Even more, it is not enough for us to say that we are criminals without subjectively experiencing this reality in our Christian walk. Do we really believe that we are murderers and thieves? Unfortunately, most of us read this passage without any feeling or reconsideration of our daily lives. We see this story as altogether separate from us and thus have no real way to enter into the experience of the criminal at His side. But once we realize our true condition before Him, we will fall on our knees and come to meet our Savior; we will submit to Him and say: “Oh Lord, remember me — a criminal, a nobody, a thief and a murderer.”

On the way to Damascus, Paul was exposed and shined on by the Lord, causing him to prostrate himself on the ground. In that moment, there was a very specific recognition; he was no better than a criminal — a wretched sinner. The Lord revealed to him that he was indeed truly blind. And as we know, out of that seemingly weakest moment of Paul’s natural life was the beginning of a powerful service the Lord would do through Paul. For the first time, Paul could see his foolishness and his criminal condition, and with this recognition came a freedom and a power. Where we end, our service can begin.

Fill my hands, O Lord, that I may serve Thee / That when found, ne’er empty-handed be. / All my being, I place upon the altar! / Burned wholly, a savor-fragrant sweet! / I will call upon Thy name, Lord Jesus! / All my Christ, I pour out to Thee! / Overflowing with Thy life within me / Lord, enjoy my consecrated being!

What does it mean to come to our end? It means that our entire being must be offered up and burnt on the altar. It is a recognition that nothing of ourselves is useful in God’s eyes — it must be burnt. After Noah had passed through the death waters in the ark, the first thing he did was build an altar to Jehovah:

And Noah built an altar to Jehovah and took of every clean beast and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. / And Jehovah smelled the satisfying fragrance; and Jehovah said in His heart, I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I ever again smite everything living as I have done. (Gen. 8:20-21)

It was not just the beasts and the birds on the altar, but Noah with them. Noah himself must have undergone a spiritual process during the flood for him to come out with such a precise declaration. He did not immediately rejoice to be on land, celebrate his achievement, or even worry about food and shelter; on the contrary, he did not consider himself at all. He only considered God, desiring himself to be burnt wholly to become a satisfying fragrance for Jehovah. Noah knew he was nothing without God; he knew that he was a criminal, who needed to pass through fire to be renewed.

Interceding for Thy holy nation / Burning fragrant incense unto Thee. / Nothing strange nor natural do I offer / Only Thee, who now lives within me! / In the morn, I’ll rise up first to meet Thee! / Lord Thou art, the one great I AM! / Hidden in my spirit, Thou indwelleth / Ne’er look back, for I belong to Thee!

In the Bible, besides the bronze altar for burnt offering in the outer court, there is reference to another altar: the incense altar located in the Holy Place. Here as priests, we burn fragrant incense unto the Lord and must be careful not to offer anything natural or strange — neither the burnt offering nor the meal nor even drink offering can be offered here. In this place, we should only offer prayers of intercession to God. It is through these interceding prayers, through the interceding of the church today on earth, that we can move from the bronze altar at the outer court all the way into the Holy of Holies — to meet our one great “I AM”! Actually, He Himself is the one who intercedes for us through our service and prayers unto Him — He is the ultimate intercessor! This entire journey through the tabernacle is a wondrous, intimate walk where we find Christ indwelling our spirit. He is everything to us; He is all and in all!

Here fore’er I’ll serve Thee at Thy altars / In complete submission unto Thee! / That by faith, I no more walk a wanderer / In my spirit, I am home with Thee. / From new moon to new moon Thou hast promised! / All shall come and bow down to Thee! / Lord, I serve Thee patiently awaiting / Quickly come, my dearest Savior King!

For as the new heavens / And new earth, which I make, / Remain before Me, declares Jehovah, / So will your seed and your name remain. // And from new moon to new moon / And from Sabbath to Sabbath / All flesh will come / To bow down before Me, says Jehovah. (Isa. 66:22-23)

Our service to the Lord requires a precise recognition and vision. It requires a complete submission so that we can serve people to His altars. We ourselves must undergo such a recognizing and submitting process to serve God as priests. We put ourselves aside to come to His Word seeking returning light and new vision — seeking for the real and experiential Word. Each time and every time, it needs to be powerful enough to knock us down and change our life forevermore. Paul’s experiences are not black and white, Noah’s life is not just a Bible story, and the criminal’s experience on the cross is a genuine, intimate moment of salvation. When we read through these testimonies, we should ask the Lord for tangible moments of our own; for Him to touch us just as deeply as the saints who have gone before us. In His touch, in His shining, we are again reminded of who we really are: mere criminals and murderers. We are those who have persecuted our Lord time and time again and who, through His mercy and grace, have been redeemed. We are those who were chosen and sanctified to serve Him at the incense altar, wholly for His pleasure and ultimate desire.

The Lord is our living hope today, reaching forth across the ages unto the fulfillment of His heart’s desire. Through the church, and through the life within the church, we are patiently awaiting His coming back; we have an ark, safe from the death waters below. Today, we have Christ indwelling us as the life-giving Spirit! In this dark and degraded age, He is the only answer. He is the One who replaces our fallen being. He is the One who gives us newness in life (Rom. 6:4). He is the only One who can save us from the sting of death (1Cor. 15:55-7). Our earthen existence shouldn’t lead us to build up ourselves or become prideful, but rather deeply impress upon us how much life is indeed impossible without the Lord. Without Him, whether we are at our best or our worst, we are invariably criminals. Praise the Lord that we have met our dearest Savior King! Lord, help us to recognize who we are; help us to have a precise vision so that we may serve You at Your altars! 

(Above are reflections by the author of an original hymn written by the church in Toledo in November of 2021.)