On a warm Sunday morning in 1865, 47-year old Elvina M. Hall sat listening to a sermon from her chair in the choir loft at the Monument Methodist Episcopal Church in Baltimore, MD.

This particular sermon was lengthy and Elvina’s mind began to wander. Behind the pastor,  Rev. George W. Schreck, was a large wooden cross, fastened to the wall. She thought about Jesus and the fullness we can have only through His death and resurrection.

She reached into her small handbag for a pencil and began jotting down a poem on a blank flyleaf of her hymnal.

“I hear my Savior say,
thy strength indeed is small;
Thou has nought thy debt to pay,
find in me thy all in all.”

Imagery came to her of the Savior paying the price to cover all of her sin, and through His blood washing her white as snow. Oh how blessed she was to know the saving grace of Jesus Christ!

“Yea, nothing good have I
whereby thy grace to claim;
I’ll wash my garments white
in the blood of Calvary’s Lamb!”

Elvina gave the lyrics to Rev. Schreck, at the end of the church service. Coincidentally, that same week the church organist, John Grape shared some new music, entitled “All To Christ I Owe,” with the reverend who thought the lyrics and song fit well together.

Elvina’s poem was set to music and has become one of the most widely sung and arranged songs in our Christian hymnal, “Fullness in Christ” or “Jesus Paid It All”.

FULLNESS IN CHRIST

I hear my Savior say,
“Thy strength indeed is small.
Thou has nought thy debt to pay
Find in me thy all in all.”

Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.

Yea, nothing good have I
whereby thy grace to claim;
I’ll wash my garments white
in the blood of Calvary’s Lamb!

And now complete in Him
my robe His righteousness,
Close sheltered ‘neath His side,
I am divinely blest.

When from my dying bed
my ransomed soul shall rise,
Jesus paid it all,
Shall rend the vaulted skies.

And when before the throne
I stand in Him complete,
I’ll lay my trophies down,
All down at Jesus’ feet.

JESUS PAID IT ALL

I hear the Savior say,
“Thy strength indeed is small,
Child of weakness, watch and pray,
Find in Me thine all in all.”

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 find
Thy pow’r and Thine alone,
Can change the leper’s spots
And melt the heart of stone.

For nothing good have I
Where-by Thy grace to claim;
I’ll wash my garments white
In the blood of Calv’ry’s Lamb.

And when, before the throne,
I stand in Him complete,
“Jesus died my soul to save,”
My lips shall still repeat.