Grace of God
For a stricken humanity
Whose disobedience brought sin,
Sin in deed and sin in heart,
The Father gave His Son,
Who in death gave life eternal.
So grace is the double cure,
Conferring upon us
Forgiveness and heart purity,
Grace unmerited,
But yet extended freely to us.
In the wonder of grace
We find our redemption.
We become members of a new humanity,
A humanity that mediates grace
To those whom we touch.
Yet the world in its confusion
Cannot sound the depth of grace
And in its ignorance and sin,
Enshrouded in the cloak of darkness
Turns aside the offer of salvation.
But grace is, indeed, amazing grace,
For God, who holds in His embrace
The ninety and nine of His own,
Yet crosses the waters of fearfulness
And reaches into its turgid depth
And enfolds the lost in His bosom.
Cannot we, then, who carry
His love to the lost world,
Do as He does lovingly
Reach into that depth
And lift the lost into
Into His everlasting kingdom.
Copyright © 2012 by J. Prescott Johnson