“As Barth”: Entry #14

The fourteenth entry comes from Michael Pailthorpe, who lives and studies theology in Australia, and in his spare time writes the blog Intellectus Fidei.

As Barth

Oh transcendent God, welcome me into your arms,

A creature of your grace

Through your work of revelation

Reconcile this creature forever into your embrace

Empower me not to trust, in my own out stretched arms

With tainted body, soul, mind

In a reason that creates an idol

In a knowledge that doesn’t last; truth of a fallen kind

Thank you for your patience, in my grappling with your grace

With the election from your eternal decree

I once held man to be the answer

I was brought before you in someone other, in Christ’s centricity

Illumine my dimly mind, Spirit, enlighten this deathly grip

That I may approach and understand

With faith and then reason

The Word of God and the word of man

Oh transcendent God, by whose grace I need so to be

Though an image lost, moulded in your likeness

A search not within but in Christ

Through your Spirit, a witness

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