Hymn History: To God Be the Glory

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TO GOD BE the GLORY

Fanny Crosby was blinded when 6 weeks old due to improper medical care she received for a cold. However, by age 10, she had memorized the first four books in both testaments. We know that she learned everything by having other people read to her. This was 15 years before Braille had been invented. Her mother once sympathized with Fanny about her blindness but Fanny told her mother that if she were offered her sight back that day, she would not accept it. She felt that if she had her normal sight, that she probably would not have written any of her hymns. She also noted that the first face she would see would be Jesus.

"To God Be the Glory" is a hymn of praise and adoration of God. Published in 1875, it was used by Ira Sankey in the British editions of his famous song books. However, was mostly unknown in North America until first used by Cliff Barrows in a Billy Graham Crusade in 1954. Since then it has become one of the most well-known and loved of songs.

Several aspects of this song set it forth as a hymn of praise and a hymn of grace. From the outset, it is clear that Fanny ascribed all credit to God for His work ("great things He hath done"), with no role for man’s efforts in God’s great plan. In the first stanza, it is Jesus alone who opens the life gate of salvation, so that all have the opportunity to be saved. This is a clear message of grace, in contrast to the idea that man must somehow work in order to prove his worth in earning eternal life.

However, it is in the second stanza that Fanny most clearly set forth the conditions for entrance through this gate—faith, and faith alone. Note that redemption is promised to "every believer" and that regardless of the magnitude of one’s sins, even "the vilest offender" who puts his or her faith in Christ, such as the criminal crucified with Christ (Luke 23:43) or Saul of Tarsus (1 Tim 1:15), will immediately receive pardon from Jesus. The third stanza and chorus continues to bring this point of grace home, proclaiming that it is God who has done great things, and the One to whom praise and adoration belong. It is evident here that Fanny Crosby was a woman who clearly understood the importance of God’s marvelous grace in salvation.

Lyrics 

To God be the glory great things He hath done

So loved He the world that He gave us His son

Who yielded His life an atonement for sin

And opened the life gate that all may go in

 

And to God be the glory

To God be all praise

We live for Your glory

All of our days

To God be all glory and praise

 

O perfect redemption, the purchase of blood

To every believer the promise of God

The vilest offender who truly believes

That moment from Jesus a pardon receives

 

And to God be the glory

To God be all praise

We live for Your glory

All of our days

To God be all glory and praise

 

Great things he hath taught us great things he hath done

And great our rejoicing through Jesus the son

But purer and higher and greater will be

Our wonder our transport when Jesus we see

 

And to God be the glory

To God be all praise

We live for Your glory

All of our days

To God be all glory and praise



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