I Have Decided to Follow Jesus
Who wrote this classic gospel song? A man about to be executed in India? A famous Indian missionary? A pastor at a church in India? A fascinating history lies behind this simple song of commitment. Hear the story, an analysis of the lyrics, and a performance of the song on today’s episode.
Introduction
Today's song is one that I used to sing a lot as a child! I think we must have sung this at Sunday school, or maybe even at school. I've been wanting to feature it for a while, but it's got a fascinating history that I needed to read up on before making this video.
It's such a simple song, but it doesn't have a simple story behind it. I'm going to take you through all the different accounts, and maybe you can try to figure out which one you agree with and share that in the comments below.
If you like the old Christian songs of years past, I think you'll enjoy the series that I'm doing - Friday Classic Hymns. Go back and look through the 100 and something that I've done already. If you enjoy more modern worship, you can join me here on a Sunday afternoon for some worship in my encounter sessions on this channel. If you're just looking for some good Bible teaching, I also have a daily devotions channel that you can check out.
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The Story Behind "I Have Decided to Follow Jesus"
Well, I'm going to try to tell you the history because it seems quite complicated! Perhaps you've heard the common story behind the song. It's been spread around for years, and this is what I thought was the origin of the song.
The story goes that a man living in Assam in India had come to Christ. Some say it was through the teaching of some American Baptists, others say it was some Welsh revivalists who came over to India. But whoever it was, this man - Nokseng, was his name - became a Christian. Nokseng was part of a tribe that was pretty violent and pretty aggressive towards different types of religions.
When he and his family went back as Christians, the chief wanted to get rid of them. The chief brought him and his family out to be publicly executed for their faith. The story is that he said to Nokseng, "Will you denounce this faith that you've come back here with?" And he said, "I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back." Then, terribly, the chief took Nokseng's wife and his children and killed them in front of him and said, "What about now?" Nokseng said, "Though none go with me, still I will follow. No turning back." As they pushed him further to reject this Jesus, he said, "The world behind me, the cross before me." Then he was killed for his faith.
The locals were so moved by what they had seen, by his great commitment to this Jesus, that they all found out more and eventually the whole village was converted to Christianity because of his faithful witness.
I've read this before. I've heard the story, and I always sang the song with that in my mind, thinking how amazing that this man would give his life in such a selfless way, standing up for what he believed in.
But when I started researching this so that I could make sure I had it right, I found that there are some problems with this account. In fact, take a look at Dr C. Michael Hawn's article on the song on the UMC discipleship website. He's done so much great research into what is the true story behind the song. I think you'll really enjoy it.
He suggests that one of the problems with this narrative is that it's not found in any history books. The American Baptists who were there have no record of this. The Welsh missionaries who came - there's no record of this at all. If this were true, those missionaries would have known the story. It would have been a huge part of the stories they told and the records they kept! But there's no sign of the story anywhere in the records. In fact, this whole story of this man dying for his faith doesn't seem to have an origin. Nobody quite knows where it came from.
Now, some believe that it was a man named Sadhu Sundar Singh, an Indian convert to Christianity who was known as the Billy Graham of India. He did such great Christian work around that country and actually ended up travelling the world doing missionary work himself. A lot of hymnals have got his name attached to the song. In fact, his was the name that came up when I started to look for who wrote this song. I think on our app that we use for the chords, it even has his name as the author.
It's really getting confused because some people think that name represents the man who died for his faith, but that wasn't him. In fact, he lived quite a long life, did Mr Singh. Plus he was never a singer or a writer. There's no record of him ever writing any music, so that just seems to have been connected to him because he was the big famous Indian missionary of the time.
In fact, the most documented research on this is done by a man named Singbad Mawon (I don't know if I got that right), who's a Baptist layman, and he wanted to find out about this. He conducted a bunch of interviews with family members and people who were around at the time when this legend started.
His research seems to suggest that a man named Simon Marak is the actual author of the song. He was born in India in a place called Assam. Born in 1877, died in 1975, and he was an assistant pastor of a Baptist church in the 1930s.
Interviews with this man's children suggest that he used to sing the song as he went about his work, and his children have these fond memories of this song being like his life's song before anyone had ever heard of it - before this tale of the man dying in front of the tribe came out. This pastor in India was busy singing the song, and he used it to help him get through difficulties in his life.
One of his daughters has said that she remembers him singing this, and she believed that he wrote this as his own pick-me-up sort of song, as he tried to live the Christian life. The reason this is a more compelling story than the others is because his name is attached to the song in the hymnals that were published in that part of the world a little bit later in the 1960s. But there's no printed version of that song before this, and so that seems to point towards this being the most accurate account. He wrote it in Khasi, his native language, starting with the two verses and then expanding it to four later.
Now, how did this come to the Western Church as we know it today? It has been quite popular for many of us in Western countries. Well, it was an American hymnologist, William Johnson Reynolds, who found this song and published it in 1959. He took the original tune, which Marak wrote in a very traditional Indian style, and reworked it into a more Western tune and named the tune "Assam" in the 1960s. Then Billy Graham discovered this song and he started to use it at his revivals. Those were so popular, and next thing, everyone around the States was singing I Have Decided to Follow Jesus.
It's thought that perhaps one of Marak's daughters brought the song over to America, and that's how Mr Reynolds got hold of it. Could be. But whoever wrote it and whatever the story, it's a great song and it's catchy. It's easy for us to get the tune and to sing it. Even today, these years later, it's still sung in many churches.
How do you sing the song in your church if you sing it, or if you have sung it? If you have a story or a memory attached to the song, please put it in the comments below. I'd love to read that.
What Do the Lyrics of "I Have Decided to Follow Jesus" Mean?
Let's go through the lyrics now, which are quite simple but quite profound.
Verse one is I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back. This is an interesting line, because those of you who are Calvinist (if you even know what that means) would reject this immediately. I've got some very close friends who are Calvinists, and I know that a song that emphasises our personal decision to follow Christ will be rejected by them. They would say, "No, God, through Christ, draws people to Himself and He brings them to life. You can't decide to follow Jesus at all."
I understand their point of view. There are scriptures that seem to point to us having no power to do that. But on the other hand, I come from a Wesleyan background. I believe in prevenient grace, which means before you've even understood or thought about God, He's been pursuing you, wooing you, and drawing you to Himself, revealing Himself to you, but without forcing you, without doing it for you. You still have to respond to His invitation. It doesn't mean that you saved yourself, but it did mean that you heard His invitation and you said yes.
I'm happy to sing I have decided to follow Jesus. It didn't mean I saved myself, but it means that I heard His gracious invitation, and it was only His grace that made that invitation which I could grab on to.
Think about in Joshua 24 where Joshua says, "Choose for yourselves. Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve - the God of your ancestors, or the one true God." In the end, you've got to decide. I wonder if you've made that decision, or if you're still not sure, if you're still wondering about this Jesus thing. Do it! Christ has got His hand stretched out to you, saying, "I want to save you. I want to impact your life. I want to show you the truth. Come, let's walk together."
And of course, no turning back - a phrase that comes up again and again in the song - makes me think of that warning of Jesus where He said, "No one who puts their hand to the plough and then turns back is fit for the kingdom of God." If you're in, you're in, then stay in! I wonder if you need that boost today, if you need that encouragement to say, "Come on, put your eyes forward, put your energy forward, follow Jesus and don't turn back."
Maybe you've been turning back and it's time to stop and to properly follow along after this God who has loved you so. In fact, remember how when Jesus' teaching got a little bit difficult, some of the disciples left, or some of the people who were following left in John chapter six, and He says to Peter and to the rest of them, "Are you also going to leave?" Peter says, "To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life." They followed Him along. Don't turn back. Keep following along.
Verse two says, Though none go with me, still I will follow. No turning back. I'm not doing this to try and make friends, although the best friends you'll ever find are other people who are committed to Christ. Truly. But even so, you don't follow Jesus so that you can get friends. You follow Jesus. If nobody in your circle goes with you, if no one in your family goes with you, if no one at your work wants to go with you, still you go on because in the end, Jesus comes first. You'll follow Him even if nobody else gets it.
Has that been your story? I've been lucky enough to grow up in a very Christian environment, and it hasn't been difficult to follow Jesus. What about you? Have you had nobody with you as you've sought to follow Jesus? Please share your comments below. I'd love to hear your stories.
Now, Dr Hawn's research seems to suggest that Simon Marak wrote those two verses and only those two in the early 30s or the mid 30s. As he was preparing for his sermons, he would sing them.
The third verse comes along, and it seems as if this was a verse that was added later by the American man, by Mr Reynolds, who put together the hymnal with the song in it. It goes like this: My cross I'll carry till I see Jesus. Remember Jesus saying, "If you want to be my disciple, you need to take up your cross and follow me." This is a statement of commitment. I will do it. I'll carry my cross until I see Him, until I'm gone from this world, and I see Him face to face.
Verse four seems to have been one of Marak's additions that he wrote later on. Now that this hymn had become popular: The world behind me, the cross before me. I've rejected the things of the world, but I'm going towards the cross, going towards Jesus. Reminds me of Paul saying, "Everything that I once held dear, I now count as loss." I've put that all behind me and I'm now moving towards Jesus and with Jesus. This is convicting stuff, isn't it? It's such a simple song and it's such a happy song (as you'll hear when we sing it just now) that sometimes we may forget how deep these lyrics are and what deep commitments we're promising as we sing these words.
Now the fifth verse is another one that only came up later, and it seems as if publishing companies around Billy Graham's time added this in, because it's got a great invitational feel to it, and that was his whole thing - inviting people to the altar to make a commitment for Christ. Will you decide now to follow Jesus? You can imagine in those revivals singing that so that the people could be convicted and say, "Yes, you know what? I will do it."
Perhaps that's where you've come to today. Maybe this question is going to be pointed for you and hit you somewhere here in your chest. Will you decide now to follow Jesus? Because He is the only one who can bring you peace. He is the only one who can wash away the shame and the guilt of your past, and enable you to live the life that you're called to live. Of course, He's the only one who can bring you life eternally - life after death.
Will you decide to follow Jesus? It's the best decision you'll ever make.
Conclusion
Thank you for listening. As we sing the song now, I hope you'll join me. But first, again, I want to say thank you to those who support my ministry on my Patreon, where I always upload my piano versions of the songs and the recordings, and on PayPal. Thank you for just being so kind and donating to this studio work that I do.
References
Hawn, C. Michael. "History of Hymns: 'I Have Decided to Follow Jesus'." UMC Discipleship Ministries, July 15, 2020.
Hymnary.org. "I Have Decided to Follow Jesus."
Wikipedia. "I Have Decided to Follow Jesus."
Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology. "Simon Kara Marak."
Hymnology Archive. "I have decided to follow Jesus."