Eternal God, supreme in holiness,
whom all our self-made goodness must betray:
from your great majesty
pour out your light, expose our emptiness
and by your judgement, snatching pride away,
give us humility.

What but your holy love’s stupendous grace,
Which knew the outcome, could have left us free,
in disobedience,
to break away, to turn from your embrace,
and choose the shackles of sin’s slavery,
the death of innocence?

Your holy love condemns us all, it slays
the self-claimed virtue that insults your name,
the worthless pride we wear;
your holy love alone has power to raise
our self-inflicted souls from death and shame,
to save us from despair.

Christ, lifted on the Cross for us, you died
to bear the judgement of love’s holiness;
there, having heard Love’s call.
you offered up, in being crucified,
Love’s sacrifice of true obedience,
That would redeem us all.

The unspoiled bliss of Eden could not lift
the heart so high as these dead souls you raise,
nor could we ever grow
to reach the holiness we have as gift,
in which we share a depth of joy and praise
that angels never know.

– Alan Gaunt, May 1997