So many of the truths of the Christian faith defy our natural human logic and sense. It’s all to God’s glory that this is so. I wanted to explore that reality in the following poem.
Faith is God-given certainty
That holds fast in all sincerity
To every truth he’s given me
Despite the things I think I know
And all the things my eyes can see.
Each fallen, sinful human brain
Enters life spiritually insane
Unable to know or to retain
God’s truths that ever shall remain
And so…I must just say “Amen!”
To illogical truths that God has given…
Like that marvelous mystery
That we have called the Trinity?
That God is both three and also one
The Father, the Spirit and the Son
One single God forever in perfect unity
Is three distinct persons simultaneously!
Our Savior, Christ, is both man and God
Fully and completely to be honored and awed
Born of a virgin—miraculous mystery
Jesus, the Christ entered our human history
All-present, eternal, unchanging, all-knowing,
Even as a child who was constantly growing
Yet he gave up full use of his powers divine
And lived a life like yours and mine
Yet his life was flawless—each and every breath
The only human who never deserved death
And in his person, on a cross
The truth is our God died for us!
Experienced full and eternal hell
God’s sentence of wrath that we each deserved well
He paid the full price for us all on that tree
Each soul that is and has been and will ever be.
God chose before all time began
Each soul who would be in heaven
And yet he did not choose one man
To face eternity already damned.
Yet many choose that wide dead road
And refuse to see God carried their load
They resist the Spirit at work in God’s Word
Just as we all do when first it is heard…
Yet end up condemned and lost forever
Refusing the gift of the most gracious Giver.
But in truth God wants everyone everywhere
To be saved and fully aware
Of all the love he’s shown to them
By living and dying in place of them
And if I believe it, God made it so
And if I refuse it, I chose it so.
And then there’s God’s gracious, marvelous gifts
That he gives in the precious sacraments
That a little water with God’s Word applied
Drowns the old sinful self inside
God’s Holy Spirit gives new birth and trust
In God’s Son who has fully rescued us
And the gift of heaven is given right there
To a new baby girl or a man with gray hair.
And then when the bread and the wine are blessed
And we eat and drink with God’s promise expressed
Jesus’ true body and blood are therein
Powerful, actual forgiveness of sin
Every believer who’s assessed his great need
And trusts this true promise—has forgiveness indeed!
And on and on and on we could go
Marveling at truths that really are so
Even when sin-ruined logic cries out
And Satan himself spreads his poison of doubt
If a creature were made by men
Could that creature fully comprehend
All the deep complexity of men?
We are creatures can we comprehend
The God who formed us with his hand?
Put God in a box, put him on a table
Examine him, if you are able!
Tell your God what he should do,
Tell him that your truth is true.
Can you tell God what to do?
Can you tell him what is true?
And so my faith is a miracle
A gift that baffles every earthly rule
And humbly I must bow my head
And recognize—alone I’m dead
And all my life is in God’s hand
A God who I can’t fully understand
But every truth he’s given me
Is a glimpse of him so I can see
How incredibly he cares for me
How Love has triumphed all for me
How completely undeservedly
My God has given his all for me
And so I’ll thank him, praise his name
Spread his truth and shout his fame
And watch him work his timeless Word
Which humans naturally think absurd
Into their hearts and minds and lives
Awesome miracles before our eyes
As people dead and blind in sin
Are brought by God to life again!
Buy the Book!
