Are You Washed in the Blood?

Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing pow’r?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Are you fully trusting in His grace this hour?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?

(Refrain):
Are you washed in the blood,
In the soul-cleansing blood of the Lamb?
Are your garments spotless?
Are they white as snow?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?

Are you walking daily by the Savior’s side?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Do you rest each moment in the Crucified?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?

When the Bridegroom cometh will your robes be white?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Will your soul be ready for the mansions bright,
and be washed in the blood of the Lamb?

Lay aside the garments that are stained with sin.
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
There’s a fountain flowing for the soul unclean.
O be washed in the blood of the Lamb!
— Author: E. A. Hoffman (1878)

Hoffman wrote both the words and the tune for “Are You Washed in the Blood?” in 1878 while serving in Ohio. It first appeared that same year in the collection Spiritual Songs for Gospel Meetings and the Sunday School, which he co-edited with John H. Tenney. For reasons that are not fully clear, it did not remain in later editions of Hoffman’s own songbooks, but its reach expanded dramatically when Ira D. Sankey included it in his widely used Sacred Songs and Solos in 1881. From there it spread quickly through revival meetings and congregations on both sides of the Atlantic.

Unlike some hymns that have a dramatic personal anecdote attached to their writing, “Are You Washed in the Blood?” emerged more generally from Hoffman’s lifelong pastoral emphasis on the atoning work of Christ and the need for personal response to the gospel. Its straightforward, searching questions and memorable refrain have kept it in use for nearly 150 years.