While a couple of hymns celebrating their 250th birthday in 2026 were written in England (“Rock of Ages, Cleft For Me” and “Thy Mercy My God”), there are also some influential hymns written in America that are celebrating important birthdays this year, specifically the 150th anniversary of their publication. One of those is “Nothing But the Blood of Jesus.” I thought an appropriate birthday gift to this song would be learning more about its writer and then reading and pondering its words.
The Writer
Something fairly unique about this song compared to many other Christian hymns is that both its words and its music come from the same person: Robert Lowry. He was a Baptist minister who lived from 1826-1899 and served churches in Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey. He also served as a professor, teaching rhetoric, at what was then known as the University of Lewisburg and now is called the University of Bucknell – the same college that, many years later, Pastor Timothy Keller attended – from 1869-1875 while also pastoring a local church in the Pennsylvania town. In 1875, Lowry left the college and the church in Lewisburg (though he was still an honorary chancellor at the University of Lewisburg) to pastor a church in Plainfield, New Jersey, serving there for 10 years before briefly retiring due to poor health in 1885. After some rest, he would resume his ministry and appears to have continued to minister until his death in 1899.
Lowry also was an editor of hymnals, as his era was a time in which many new hymns were being written in American and many new hymnals were published. The reason he was asked to be involved in the editing of hymnals is that he was also writing hymns himself, doing so from his early days as a pastor all the way until the end of his life. Among the 500 hymns that he wrote are “Shall We Gather at the River” (1864), the music for “I Need Thee Every Hour” (1872), and “Christ Arose!”, also known as “Low In The Grave He Lay” (1874).
By and far the best known and most sung hymn he wrote was “Nothing But the Blood of Jesus.” He wrote this while serving as pastor in New Jersey and seems to have “premiered” it at a camp meeting held in 1876 in Ocean Grove, New Jersey. The hymn was well-received there and became popular, in part because Ira Sankey, who led music for the evangelist D.L. Moody, is believed to have been in attendance at that meeting and was struck by the words and the response to the song and helped to spread it to other places.
Ironically, while hymn-writing in general and this hymn in particular is what Lowry is best known for, it was not necessarily what he was most passionate about nor what he would have desired to be remembered for, as he is said to have loved preaching more than music, writing sermons even more than writing songs. Perhaps this is a good reminder that sometimes God uses not what we are most passionate about but rather what is most needed or useful to others.
The Words
The song is inspired by Hebrews 9:22, a passage that Lowry himself seems to have connected with the hymn. This verse says, “According to the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” (CSB). While that verse may be the primarily inspiration, the hymn also reflects truths found in many other Scriptures, such as Ephesians 1:7 and 1 John 1:7 in discussing forgiveness and cleansing through the blood of Jesus as well as Isaiah 1:18 and Psalm 51:7 about our sins becoming white as snow.
Unlike older hymns but like many other hymns in its era (1800’s), it includes a refrain that is repeated after each of the verses. While I suspect some readers might know it by heart, here are the words that I would invite you to read and reflect upon yourself before reading some of my personal reflections upon these great words.
Verse 1
What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Refrain
O precious is the flow
that makes me white as snow;
no other fount I know;
nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Verse 2
For my pardon this I see:
nothing but the blood of Jesus.
For my cleansing this my plea:
nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Verse 3
Nothing can for sin atone:
nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Naught of good that I have done:
nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Verse 4
This is all my hope and peace:
nothing but the blood of Jesus.
This is all my righteousness:
nothing but the blood of Jesus.
There are also a couple of additional verses that Lowry wrote but aren’t sung as often.
Verse 5
Now by this I’ll overcome—
Nothing but the blood of Jesus,
Now by this I’ll reach my home—
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Verse 6
Glory! Glory! This I sing—
Nothing but the blood of Jesus,
All my praise for this I bring—
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
I suspect the reason this song quickly connected with people 150 years ago and has been sung ever since is the combination of its simplicity and use of vivid imagery to highlight important and amazing truths. The song is relatively simple, both in terms of its repetition of phrases in the verses and also the use of the refrain. It is also simple in terms of its focus; while other hymns can cover a whole span of truths, this one really hones in on the meaning and significance of Jesus’s death for us.
It uses many images to speak about sin. Sin is a stain that needs to be washed away and it tears apart us so that we are no longer whole. The blood of Jesus, amazingly, is even stronger than bleach in terms of washing these stains away so that they are white like snow. It makes us whole again. Jesus’s blood brings pardon, freeing us from our guilt so that we are now innocent. We have been cleansed.
The song is clear that it is Jesus’s death that has these effects and only his death. That is found in the repeated words “Nothing but the blood of Jesus.” There are not many ways to achieve this, but one and only one way. Verse 3 rules out one in particular that we are often drawn to thinking, that the good that we do might bring this atonement by making restitution for the wrong that we have done and reconciliation to the broken relationship we have because of sin. Our good works can’t! Nothing but the blood of Jesus can – and it does!
The song does not just talk about the removal of our guilt and the stain of sin, though, as verse 4 moves to talk about the gifts that we also receive: hope, peace, and righteousness. The verses that we don’t usually sing – verses 5 and 6 – build a bit more on what that means, looking at the fact that we will overcome and be led home by Jesus. It does not say what we will overcome, but it would seem to point to the way we overcome not just the penalty of sin but also its power in our lives and ultimately the pain of death. Because of the blood of Jesus, we have a home in heaven. The final verse then shows the only proper response to these truths, as we sing glory and praise to God.
The refrain speaks about the preciousness of the “flow.” I think the word “precious” could be taken two ways. One is to speak about how precious Christ’s blood is in that he was the Son of God; the gift of his life is a precious gift. It also is a reminder of the preciousness of what we have received; we should love and cherish the forgiveness we have through Christ and the hope, peace, and righteousness we have in him.
The Wrap-Up
This song has been loved by many over the past 150 years, but it has also been criticized by some, especially in more recent years, because of its focus upon the “blood” of Jesus. Some people find such a reference creepy or distributing, reflecting a barbaric and outdated view of things in which blood is demanded of others. This imagery, though, does not come from the hymnwriter but rather from the words of Scripture and points to a truth that is at the essence of the Christian faith – that our forgiveness and righteousness comes about because of Christ’s death on our behalf and that there was no other way to do so.
We might not sing the last verse of this song today, but when we sing this song, we should be offering praise and glory to God, reflecting on what it is that has been accomplished for us through Jesus’s death and what is given to those who trust in Him. It might be an oldie, but it is definitely a goodie, and one that we might still be singing 150 years from now, if Christ doesn’t return before then.
Questions about the Bible or theology? Email them to Pastor Brian at Theology@WeAreFaith.org. You can also email to be added to the list that receives weekly emails with our blog posts.
