The Struggle To Get It Right
by Michael Doyle

Getting right with God in every way
Is an explanation made every day
To see what we believe and understand
And what it means to study what God commands

The soundest study is done creatively
As we openly examine humanity's depravity
Pushing toward and forward to how we should be
That is, if, we want the best for humanity

No one is righteous but by God's grace
Instead, conscious of sin, we seek God's embrace
Spreading the gospel of believers as we can
We seek to repent, conforming God inside man

A study of the law reveals our measure
As we live our lives for what we treasure
Still, we come up short, and in need of redemption
Receiving God's grace in our contemplation

Christ came as a living sacrifice to atone
So that God might reconcile humanity alone
To conform our lives to what we believe
Fulfilling our purpose, as best that we might conceive

Growing in our beliefs with solid confidence
We become justified  by Jesus in His providence
This come through our faith, not our performance
This is not by our works, but by our conformance

Not by faith, but through faith's connection
We find the cross provides our direction
To live our lives for what is that Jesus did
And letting this shine and not be hid

Our faith is centered on Jesus's death and resurrection
To cast our lives fully in the righteous direction
We must keep the truths revealed in our contemplation
Knowing that it is through Christ we know redemption

Jews and Gentiles alike must look toward God's light
To bring the clarity of faith to this world's night
We are alike on the level ground at the foot of the cross
This is the universal shift and gain that is never a loss

Sharing the same needs, we respond to our Father's call
As we come to know unity in the righteousness of the law
Bringing justice agree in forbearance and justification
This becomes ushered in as the prevailing explanation

All of scripture and prophecy points in testimony
Toward the messiahship of Christ without acrimony
In all the truths of righteousness that have been revealed
There is nothing in this remaining concealed

In the great wide open of faith we have been given
Is the conduit through which we are forgiven
It is enough that we have come to believe
And that our salvation is justified as received

It's not about me and you that it has been done
But in the atonement provided through God's son
The deed of sacrifice is that which is fully justified
By and through the justifier who for three days died

Shortcomings, sins, and patterns of our own deceptions
Were replaced that we might have our redemption
Punishing the sin, preserving the sinner is God's way
That became fulfilled on the cross that righteous day

There is no boasting of what was given to us freely
There is simply what has been done for you and me
It is not about obedience to God's unchanging law
But only about, instead, responding to God's loving call

Despite this wealth of grace, we are still to follow the law
This then, after all, is the foundation for us all
From baptism to communion, let it not be the least hid
That our belief is based on gratitude for what Jesus did

(c) February 16, 2025   Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved