Wonderful Grace of Jesus -Haldor Lillenas

Grace is the theme of a number of well-known hymns and gospel songs; one of the most popular is “Wonderful Grace of Jesus.” Both the words and music were written by Haldor Lillenas in 1918. He was born in Norway in 1885 but grew up in America. Lillenas was confirmed in the Lutheran church when he was fifteen, but his life felt empty until he trusted Christ as his Saviour when he was twenty-one.

Lillenas soon felt called to the Lord’s work. Through generous donations from caring people and some part-time work, he was able to attend Pacific Bible College in California. He soon became the music director at a local Nazarene Church and led the singing, wrote songs, and did some preaching. During his college years, he married Bertha Mae Wilson, who was also a songwriter.  For many years, they were involved in evangelism across America. In 1917, when they built their first house in Illinois, the couple had almost no money left to furnish it. They needed an instrument to use for composing music, so they bought an old dusty organ from a neighbor for five dollars. It was on that organ that Haldor composed “Wonderful Grace of Jesus,” his best-known gospel song. Ironically, he sold the copyright of the song for five dollars, the amount he had spent for the organ!

After leaving the evangelistic ministry, he pastored several churches, and in 1924, he founded the Lillenas Publishing Company, still a major publisher of church music. While he owned the company, they published more than 700,000 hymnals. Together, Haldor and his wife wrote over 4000 hymns and gospel songs. “Wonderful Grace of Jesus” became popular because it was used in evangelistic meetings by many prominent song leaders and evangelists of that day. After he sold the company in 1930, he worked as an editor and an advisor until his death in 1959.

The first stanza says that however great a sinner one is, God’s grace is greater. It’s this grace that takes away the burden of sin and frees one from all guilt. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound (Romans 5:20). The second stanza expresses the vastness of God’s grace, which is freely offered to “all the lost.” For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. (Titus 2:11) This stanza and the refrain express that grace is sufficient to be “saved to the uttermost.” Christ’s sacrifice was completed on the cross, and there is nothing else for a sinner to do but accept His free gift of grace to be saved. In the last stanza, Lillenas proclaims that God’s grace made “peace and heaven for all eternity” available to even “the most defiled.”

This song has been popular not only because of its simple, encouraging words of praise but also because it’s fun for people to sing. With the stirring rhythm and the refrain, which has the melody alternating between the men and women, the song is always sung with great enthusiasm. However, in his biography Lillenas cautioned that the song not be sung too fast. Fearing that the words would become obscured, he wanted it to be sung slower so that the focus would be on the wonderful grace of Jesus. As this song is sung may the name of Jesus be magnified as it says: “Praise His Name!” For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8).

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