Only Christ

This is another from my third book, Learning to Lean:
----------------------------

For it is I, the LORD, your God, who brought you out of the land of the Egyptians and freed you from their slavery, breaking the yoke they had laid upon you and letting you walk erect (Lev 26:13).

Sin is a merciless master.

It binds us with chains
tighter than titanium.
It takes us
where we do not want to go,
keeps us
longer than we want to stay,
costs us more
than we want to pay.

And only Christ –
not our virtue,

Only Christ –
not our character,

Only Christ –
not our works,

Only Christ –

with His blood,

can rescue the penitent
from sin’s mastery,
break its miserable chains,
to let us walk erect.

Only Christ.

And only to the penitent.