Saturday, May 9, 2009

Legalism is a Real Killer

You all know I love poetry.  It really doesn't matter whether it's a child's poem (Jonathan Jo has a mouth like an "O" and a wheelbarrow full of surprises) or a sonnet, I love the twists and turns poets create with words, and the pictures that flow through my head as I read them.  By far the best poetry, however, has the attributes of God or the truth of His Word as its subject.

Lynn at Indelible Grace has written one such poem.  She gave me permission to copy it here:


My righteous deeds are but a trap. 
They never can erase
My sin; these filthy rags just slap
The sacred scars of grace.


Completely filled with pride and self
I strive to make sin less,
But what I count as gain is pelf*;
In bondage I regress.


On God alone I must depend;
All pride confess, forsake.
These hellish bonds my God must rend;
This legalism break.


Christ broke my bonds and set me free!
His work, not mine, I sing;
Whose pain and scars at Calvary
Accomplished everything.


*pelf–noun
money or wealth, esp. when regarded with contempt or acquired by reprehensible means.

1 comment:

Remember that you will give an account for every word. Respond with wisdom and grace, please.