Washed in the Word

Over and over again like waves of mercy
Let Your Word break over me
Let Your living Word purge straight through me
How can I live through this fallen world?
How can Your servant keep his way pure and holy according to Your Word?
Your servant loves Your Word, and I also find myself battling against the flesh
Who will save me from this life of sin?
Where can I go to hide away from this world that entices, seduces, lies, and leads to death?
How can I keep my way pure and true according to the statutes of the King?
I return again to the Word
The living Word that can pierce between soul and spirit, flesh and bone
Jesus, You are the only Faithful Witness

Wash me with the water of Your Word
Save me now, oh God, according to Your Mercy
May the Kindness and the love of God towards me appear
It’s not about my works of righteousness
By faith, I now receive Your seal and brand: “Righteous”
How can this be?
What mystery have I stumbled into, and what grace?
How do You love like this?
How could a perfect and Holy God take the sin of the world on His shoulders?
How could You choose sinful man to be Your own?
What manner of love is this?
Salvation was according to mercy, how much so sanctification as well?
Oh Holy One who pours out grace and mercy abundantly
With penitent heart, and hands washed by the King at the laver…
Because of the Cross, I am Ok with God.
Jesus, Faithful Witness, thank You for the Washing of Your Word

Take me past the outer courts and into the Holy Place
May Grace Abound all the more… Oh God.
Let not the dirge of my soul overtake
I can claim no righteousness of my own
I plead guilty and only claim Jesus as my only righteousness
Not my works, not by strength, through faith I claim right standing with God
Not by works, but by Grace, only the Grace of God

Now grace abounds in my life because my own strength is not holy enough
Here is substitutionary atonement!
Here is the only hope I have!
Here is the greatest example of grace in history!

The Righteous for the unrighteous
The Holy for the sinful
The pure for the spotted

Only Jesus is worthy to take the scroll and open its seals
Only Jesus is the One who redeems
Only before Jesus, will every tribe and nation bow
Only to Jesus have we become a kingdom of priests
Here is the only worthy One

Where I have failed, where I come short
Where my actions have paid only wages unto death
Where I have given in to this world…
Where I have chosen my own way…

Now, by grace, I am in right standing with God
Now, by grace, through faith, I approach the Throne

What faith this takes!
What grace is this?
To approach the Holy One, knowing how sinful I am
I look down at the offering in my hands and I gasp
What are these filthy rags in my hands where my offering should be?
Where is my offering and where is my oil?
Where are the crowns and riches I would offer?
And yet this is what I have

Still I approach
I would wish to hide away because of my own sinfulness and say
“Go away from me, Lord! For I am a sinful man”
But still You call, still You draw, still You say:

“Come back again, you cannot escape My love, and you cannot get away. Come and offer what is in your hands to Me, and do not draw back. For you know I Am a Good Father, and you know I Am forgiving and the Great Redeemer. You must believe you can still approach Me, even when you feel sinful and like you have nothing to bring. You still must come to be with me, where I am. You still must press in. Do not draw back and do not give way. Believe by faith in the Great Grace that I give freely and of which I pour freely and abundantly on My sons and daughters. Let faith arise! Believe you are OK and in right standing with Me, because of repentance, because of forgiveness, because of grace, because this is who I AM – the Great Redeemer. Draw nearer to Me now, and receive the Divine Grace of a Loving God.”

What is my response?
I fall down before the Lamb with the 24 elders and the living creatures
I sing a new song with the very great mighty cloud of witnesses
By faith, by grace, believing the Goodness of God is stronger than my weak witness
I sing now a new song. Oh God, who is this King? What manner of love is this?

I’m so unworthy, but still You love me!
And this is why I will sing forever, how Great You Are
Because You forgive, because You redeem
Because no matter how far we go, You still call back and You still say

“Return and put on this ring of inheritance.”

Because even when we are like the prodigal son and stray so far
Because even when we are like Peter and deny three times
Because even when we are like Elisha and flee across the desert
Because even when we are like David and take Bathsheba from Uriah
Because even when we are like Adam and take the forbidden fruit
Because even when we are like Solomon and give our hearts away
Because even when we are like the Israelites and make a golden calf
Because even when we are like the church at Ephesus and leave our first love

Still You say, “I make all things new, put on this ring and robe.”
Still You say, “It is by Grace, through Faith, feed my sheep.”
Still You say, “I took the sin of the world, and I will not take my Holy Spirit from you.”
Still You say, “This is the Gospel, trading your shame for My glory. Believe, receive, accept justification through faith… and be whole. I will always love you, I will never leave nor forsake you. Even if you take up the wings of the dawn and settle on the far side of the sea, still there My love will follow you. Even there, My right hand will hold you fast.”

Grace and Love will always abound more and more.

Romans 5:17…20-21
For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ….Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.