This song was written by Erdmann Neumeister, pastor of a Lutheran Church in Hamburg, Germany, in 1718. He wrote about 650 hymns, but wrote this hymn to be sung at the end of a sermon on Luke 15:2. That verse tells about the Pharisees and scribes grumbling, “This man (meaning Jesus) receives sinners and eats with them.” About 150 years later, Emma Bevan, a British woman who was the wife of a prominent banker and was fluent in German, translated this old hymn into English. Though this hymn has gone through a few changes since it was first written about 300 years ago, the message has remained the same¹. Jesus still receives sinful men; what a glorious hymn to meditate on this Lord’s Day!

Sinners Jesus will receive;
Sound this word of grace to all
All who languish dead in sin,
All who linger, all who fall.

Refrain
Sing it o’er and over again;
Christ receiveth sinful men;
Make the message clear and plain:
Christ receiveth sinful men.

Come, and He will give you rest;
Trust Him, for His Word is plain;
He will take the sinfulest;
Christ receiveth sinful men.

Refrain

Now my heart condemns me not,
Pure before the law I stand;
He who cleansed me from all spot,
Satisfied its last demand.

Refrain

Christ receiveth sinful men,
Even me with all my sin;
Purged from every spot and stain,
Heaven with Him I enter in.

Refrain

¹thescottspot.wordpress.com/2016/01/13/christ-receiveth-sinful-men-written-in-1718/