The story behind the hymn
Elvina Hall was sitting in the choir of the Monument Street Methodist Church in Baltimore one Sunday in 1865, her mind wandering during the pastoral prayer, when the words came to her. Having no paper, she wrote them on the flyleaf of the hymnal in the pew. Unknown to her, the church organist John Grape had just composed a tune he called All to Christ I Owe. The pastor put the two together.
The hymn's whole weight rests on a change of accounts: I hear the Saviour say, thy strength indeed is small; child of weakness, watch and pray, find in Me thine all in all. Human effort is dismissed not as unnecessary but as insufficient — and the refrain states who covered the shortfall: Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe; sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.
The last stanza looks past the ledger to the throne: and when before the throne I stand in Him complete, Jesus died my soul to save, my lips shall still repeat: Jesus paid it all. It is Isaiah 1:18 — though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow — sung as personal receipt.
The lyrics
I hear the Saviour say,Thy strength indeed is small;Child of weakness, watch and pray,Find in Me thine all in all.
Refrain
Jesus paid it all,All to Him I owe;Sin had left a crimson stain,He washed it white as snow.
Lord, now indeed I findThy power, and Thine alone,Can change the leper's spotsAnd melt the heart of stone.
And when before the throneI stand in Him complete,Jesus died my soul to save,My lips shall still repeat.
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The Scripture behind it
Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
White as snow — the refrain is this promise, word for word.
And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:
Complete in Him — the standing the last stanza claims before the throne.