It Is Well with My Soul

“Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.

“Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.

“Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.

“But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at the last your care of me hath flourished again; wherein ye were also careful, but ye lacked opportunity. Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”

—Philippians 4:4–13

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Paul the Apostle left the Philippians with this near the end of his epistle, which is often the epistle that is often known as the epistle of joy.

Even starting with that first verse — “Rejoice in the Lord”.

But when one is down, whether in a “funk” or in a depression, whether it could be labeled as “clinical” or otherwise, just saying to rejoice might elicit worse feelings rather than better.

Before starting I do want to make clear, that what I am going to get into here is directed to the saints. Those who are unsaved would not benefit from this because there are other things that would need to be made right first. Namely, to be saved. To “rejoice in the Lord” is foreign to one who does not have “peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1), having not been “justified by faith”.

Since we touched on Romans 5:1, we need to be clear from the start that this is objective peace. It is what you as a saint have as a present possession, and not a feeling of peace. It is truth that is real because of the reality of the changed relationship described previously by Paul the Apostle in chapters 3 and 4 leading to this. It is brought to a close in verses 9–11, where he says:

“Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.”

“Reconciled” is a “make peace” word, as is “atonement”. The peace that we have with God is because of this atonement that we received. What is being talked about here is how the present new relationship of peace with God was made. In Colossians 1:20 it is “by the blood of His cross”, and it is the same here.

The atonement here is the peace that is made with God, objectively. It is because of the propitiation that Romans 3:25 speaks about. As a Christian you HAVE peace with God as an objective fact. For the Christian, it is a wonderful truth that we need to really appropriate to ourselves by faith and for those outside of belief in Christ, it is where you need to be first before the rest of this will have any bearing on you. “Getting right with God” is not a change of behavior for you or by you making peace with God. It is coming to God and receiving His righteousness by faith of Jesus Christ “unto all and upon all them that believe” (Romans 3:22). It is by believing the gospel of Christ that He died for your sins and rose from the dead, all “according to the scriptures”.

God then justifies you by faith, and in this state, you have peace with God. It is then, that you can have the peace of God rule in your heart, and not before.

Having that said, as I titled this lesson after the hymn that I love “It is well with my soul”, I’m going to go through that hymn expressing some theology from it, according to the Scriptures. Remember that we do learn theology from hymns, so the hymns that we sing should have good theology. It is greatly retained through songs, so use care in the psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs that you sing!

The first verse of Horatio Spafford’s hymn says this:

When peace like a river attendeth my way
When sorrows like sea billows roll
Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

That is the real concept taught in Philippians 4:13 which we read to start this. In discussing this as “mental health”, the real concept that I want to discuss about it is “soul-health”, or we might say psychological health.  At its root, psychology is the study of the soul. The problem with much of it is that it is not rooted in the truth of God, but only in the best of this world’s, or man’s wisdom, which, as the Apostle said in 1 Corinthians 1:20 that God has made foolish.

Philippians 4:12 speaks of knowing how to be abased, and how to abound. I can be brought low — “abased”, and I can be on top of the world. I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me. When peace like a river is my lot, meaning life is going well, I can say it is well with my soul and remember that I need to trust in Christ. During this time of “peace like a river” is when to cultivate the soul-health that verses 4–8 express. Rejoice in the Lord, and thank Him for the good times. Think on things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report. What you fill your mind with is what is going to shape your thinking.

Going to the other side of this, there will be times when “sorrows like sea billows roll”. That which our minds and souls are filled with will help to sustain us during those times. Spafford wrote the hymn not during good times, but as the result of horrible times. It was written as the result of losing all four of his daughters in a shipwreck in 1873. It was during the worst of times. But from the words of the hymn, we can learn that his comfort was in Christ and in Christ’s accomplishments. Both what He has already accomplished, and what He will yet accomplish.

The next verse reads like this:

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come
Let this blessed assurance control
That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate
And hath shed His own blood for my soul

That is touching on that objective peace, and turning it into practical peace. The truth of “peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” is controlling the peace in my own soul. Satan buffeting, or beating us down, is real in our daily lives. The answer that Spafford gives is to lean on the objective reality of the child of God — that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died for me! When I was at my lowest, in my helpless estate, Christ died for me. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. “The peace of God that passeth all understanding” rules in these lyrics by going back to the objective truth that you as a Christian have “redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Ephesians 1:7).

Assurance is not based on our feelings and life’s ups and downs. It is based on this objective truth, that Christ died for our sins. Because of this we have peace with God, and this is our assurance. With this as fact, we can say with Paul in Romans 8:35–39:

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

It is with this mind that we can trust in Christ though a messenger of Satan should beat us down. We can hear the Lord say through Scripture that His grace is sufficient for us and believe that with greatest of hope and not just as a consolation prize.

The peace of God that will keep your heart is brought to you by the God of peace and starts with the objective reality of peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ. It is appropriated by dwelling on Christ, not on circumstances. It is also incumbent on the believer to cultivate this during the good times, so that we can appropriate it during the bad. It is like learning to swim before you need to swim so as to not drown.

The third verse touches on what theology would call hamartiology, or we might say the doctrine of sin:

My sin — oh the bliss of this glorious thought
My sin not in part but the whole
It is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, oh my soul

The “hamartiology” of a healthy soul has come to terms with this fact, as we can express from Colossians chapter 2:9–15:

“For in [Christ] dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power: In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, HAVING FORGIVEN YOU ALL TRESPASSES; BLOTTING OUT THE HANDWRITING OF ORDINANCES THAT WAS AGAINST US, WHICH WAS CONTRARY TO US, AND TOOK IT OUT OF THE WAY, NAILING IT TO HIS CROSS; And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.”

The forgiveness of our sins is according to the riches of God’s grace as we spoke of earlier. It is not based on our ability to stop doing them or on our remembrance to confess them[1]. As Christians, our dealing with sin on a practical level should be understood as we read in Ephesians 4:28, “Let him that stole steal no more”, and 1 Timothy 2:19 — “Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity”.

This is again though, acting on behalf of what is objectively true. Your sins are forgiven, nailed to the cross and remembered no more. It is complete forgiveness on the basis of Christ’s finished work. We too often will deal with sins in an “Old Covenant” way rather than in the “New Covenant” truth that we have in Hebrews 10:12–18:

“But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.”

We are not living under the Old Covenant of where there was a yearly Day of Atonement that the build-up of sins for the last year were pushed forward. We are living as those with the objective reality that they are nailed to the cross.

The healthy soul knows of fully forgiven sins. If you are saved, then this is true. Dwelling on your sin brings great condemnation. John Newton, the author of “Amazing Grace”, is remembered to have said this:

“Although my memory’s fading, I remember two things very clearly: I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior.”

Christ, the great Savior as propitiation for our sins is what we need to keep in remembrance for that healthy soul life, in which we can say, “It is well with my soul”.

The fourth stanza of our hymn addresses an even greater concern:

For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
If Jordan[2] above me shall roll,
No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life
Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.

This can only be said by one knowing his place with Lord by the finished work of Christ. The only way that one can say “for me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” is to first be in Christ, and second, to find subjective peace in the objective reality of peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Facing death of loved ones, and eventually our own selves can be met with peace as our souls are stayed on him. Again, this was not written by someone from outside the situation. He lost his son to scarlet fever earlier, and then his four daughters in a shipwreck. But it is knowing Christ that we can feel the peace of God from the God of peace, because we objectively know that we have it.

The fifth and sixth verses speak regarding the future hope of the reality of the Christ who will come again:

But, Lord, ’tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,
The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
Oh, trump of the angel! Oh, voice of the Lord!
Blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul!

And Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

This should remind us that as an elderly man in a congregation I was once a part of said “I am not looking for the undertaker, but for the upper-taker!”

We are looking for the Lord! In our celebration of “the Lord’s Supper”, we do show the Lord’s death “till He come” (1 Corinthians 11:26). The Christian is instructed under grace in Titus 2:11–14 how to live:

“For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; LOOKING FOR THAT BLESSED HOPE, AND THE GLORIOUS APPEARING OF THE GREAT GOD AND OUR SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.”

All of this should be taken together. The sober and righteous and godly living is also accompanied by a life looking for the Lord Himself. Not in a fanatical way forgetting about the first part, but in the way that remembers the great hope in Him. We do grieve in death, but we do grieve in hope, because of the coming of the Lord.

The Apostle Paul’s teaching in 1 Thessalonians 4 answers this very issue. The coming of the Lord is our hope in life and in death.

1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 — “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”

The healthy soul knows his future. He believes the Word of God and looks for Christ.

The victories of life are not our source of joy nor should the defeats of life rob us of it. We have Christ, and hope in Him as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast (Hebrews 6:19). Remember that you as one in Christ have that hope and rest in Him. Say with our brother Spafford of time past:

“It is well, it is well with my soul”

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[1] I am not forgetting 1 John 1:9 here. While it is assumed, and mostly in a right way that 1 John is written to believers, it does have a message to those who are not as well. Starting with verse 8 and going through to 2:2, the point is about arguing with God your sinlessness rather than agreeing with Him about it (confessing), and taking His gracious way of dealing with it, forgiving it by Jesus Christ the righteous as propitiation for them. I see this as about how an unbeliever enters into forgiveness admitting sin and falling on the Savior rather than arguing his righteousness to be OK with God. It starts by the propitiation offered by Christ for those who have sinned, agreeing with God that you need it.

[2] Theologians often speak of Jordan representing death and Canaan representing heaven. That is kind of the thought pattern here of the hymn writer. While I have not seen this and think Jordan in the Bible represents Jordan the river and Canaan represents the promised land promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because it is exactly that, lets just go with the thought here.