Reconciliation

LORD GOD ALMIGHTY,

Thou art beforehand with men
      for thou hast reconciled thyself to the world
    through the cross,
    and dost beseech men to accept reconciliation.
It is my responsibility to grasp thy overtures of grace,
  for if thou, the offended part, act first
    with the word of appeasement,
  I need not call in question thy willingness to save,
  but must deplore my own foolish maliciousness;
If I do not come to thee as one who seeks thy favour,
  I live in contempt, anger, malice, self-sufficiency,
  and thou dost call it enmity.
Thou hast taught me the necessity of a Mediator,
  a Messiah,
  to be embraced in love with all my heart,
    as king to rule me,
    as prophet to guide me,
    as priest to take away my sin and death,
  and this by faith in thy beloved Son
    who teaches me
  not to guide myself,
  not to obey myself,
  not to try to rule and conquer sin,
  but to cleave to the one who will do all for me.
Thou hast made known to me
  that to save me is Christ’s work,
  but to cleave to him by faith is my work,
  and with this faith is the necessity of my
    daily repentance
  as a mourning for the sin which Christ
    by grace has removed.
Continue, O God, to teach me
  that faith apprehends Christ’s righteousness
  not only for the satisfaction of justice,
  but as unspotted evidence of thy love to me.
Help me to make use of his work of salvation as
  the ground of peace,
  and of thy favour to, and acceptance of me
    the sinner,
  so that I may live always near the cross.

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