Catechism 27

This next question from the New City Catechism is a hard pill to swallow. It touches on what for me has long been one of the toughest questions of faith: the doctrine of election. The Bible is full both of invitations for all to come and also clear teaching that not all will come, and indeed that God has chosen for some not to come to Him. It can turn our heads and hearts inside out as we wrestle with it, yet in this poem I have tried to focus myself – and, I pray, you as you read it – on the goodness of God which shines through all these struggles through the gifts of common grace.

Catechism 27

Are all people, just as they were lost through Adam, saved through Christ?

No, only those who are elected by God and united to Christ by faith. Nevertheless God in his mercy demonstrates common grace even to those who are not elect, by restraining the effects of sin and enabling works of culture for human well-being. (New City Catechism)

 

It hurts

            to hear

that some are lost.

It stings

            to know

that grace has cost.

It cuts

            into

our minds to know

that not all shall be saved.

And yet

            this grace

shines through it all:

that God,

            the sovereign,

makes and rules

the work

            of hands

in spite of all

the dirt, the sin we wrought.

To trust

            His grace:

in this is peace.

To seek

            His face

and righteousness

is all

            that we

with broken minds

can hope or need to do.