If the Son Sets You Free

O that day when freed from sinning,


I shall see Thy lovely face;


Clothèd then in blood washed linen


How I’ll sing Thy sovereign grace;


Come, my Lord, no longer tarry,


Take my ransomed soul away;


Send thine angels now to carry


Me to realms of endless day.

This final stanza was another with which I was previously unacquainted.  I guess that's not surprising.  Death isn't nearly as popular a topic for worship songs as is was 150-200 years ago.  But I think it's still a perfectly valid topic.  Isn't eternal life, even when this poor lisping stammering tongue lies silent in the grave, what our hope is?  This stanza doesn't impress me as being at all morbid.  Rather, the author is again looking forward, as he has mentioned before, to being released from this body of sin and death. 

It does certainly go against our cultural grain to think of death as a consummation devoutly to be wished.  I know that I certainly don't think that way. I want to see my children grow up. I want to have grandchildren.  I want to see my grandchildren grow up! I want to accomplish this or that.  And those aren't bad at all.  Obviously the Lord wants us to live our lives and do things and bless people and glorify him.

But thinking about this stanza, in combination with some other things I've read in recent days, has brought me to the realization that there is something in me that wants the Lord to wait until I've become a better person.  There is something in me, apparently, that still clings to the idea that I can improve myself and get good.  Clearly, I need delivered.

So for right now, though I would love to be finally and completely freed from sinning and to see His lovely face, I can't say that I'm truly eager.  I hope I will be.  I hope I'll be able to truly echo Paul:

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far;  -- Phillipians 1:21-23

Even so, come!