From Debts to Love - A Battle Cry

The following poem emerged as a hymn from my heart echoing the cry of my Christian brother's heart (Derry Prenkert) to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength BECAUSE, though we did not and do not keep that greatest commandment, JESUS DID AND DOES, and He took on our punishment so God's wrath toward us (because we did not and do not) might be satisfied, making known to all His glorious and gracious mercy, unsurpassed in degree. AND, in doing so, His righteousness has been imputed to believers, and we are declared worthy because of Him. Such is one of the richest and deepest truths with which we've been graced. In amazing wonderment and awe, let us repent and follow in thankfulness and unhindered joy.



Luke 7:37

Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little."


Raise the battle cry:

Let our eyes be clear to see our state.
Remember the infinite debt He paid!
Jesus Christ, the Holy Son,
Took on flesh, suffered, died and then was raised.
Took our debt and drank the wrath to us,
That we might love Him because
He deserves our highest affections of all our being.
And for that joy Jesus paid the price supreme.
Killed our foes, and more than conquered.
Freed captives, raised an army, and leads it onward.
We love because none else could pay,
With a priceless gift like God's body slain.
But He paid in full, and was still too rich,
Took back up His life, beamed light in pitch.
So raise His banner and gather low,
To the cross's base where our treasure's sown.
And bear fruit from that Vine in which we're in-grafted.
We are but clay by the Potter crafted.
That part of Him we do well and good;
Apart from Him no man has stood.
No man has lived who has loved Him well
Who has not first known he deserved hell.
But O the blessed Lamb healed our fell,
When crushed in our placed like a tender shell
Underfoot the fury of God's fearsome wrath.
So in repentance we'd be strong to walk the narrow path.
Not to earn, but to receive what we ought not,
Declared righteous because of the death of God.

But more than that,
Because in righteousness He was raised.
For His Father would not let Him see decay.
And so He showed just His Father's long-suffering,
In delaying the just wrath we had earlier gained,
Realized JUST when under that wrath was Jesus slain.
And so more than declared, we hope for more.
When raised one day from this blue ball's floor
We will ascend to meet Him Most Fair.
The saints dazzling in His light across the air.
O to see from whence we came,
That for eternity we would be crushed like grain,
And then another, and more and more,
We would never see the end of such horror.

But in hours the value of the Son was seen
To far outweigh the debt of all man's sins
Which were surely nothing small.
But each single earned the whole price of Fall.
For to not love perfectly is to hate Him fully.
And no man has ever kept the Law.
At all.
Except Jesus.

And so His love was priceless beyond all man's debt.
But to think He suffered even hours is amazing yet.
Such evil we have incurred
To have on our behalf placed hours upon the Word.

But for joy He did what none else could do.
To show forth His worth and make all things new.
But the plan was old from eternity, past.
To save wax figurines from the furnace blast.
No other god saves from fire so,
But our God has, so let us bow our hearts low.
And remember that none could stand to pay the debt
To face God's wrath, and so His Son was sent.



"In this is love, not what we loved God, but that He loved us
And sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins."
1 John 4:10