The Only Respectable Hope

If you can believe there is goodness in you,

Then any of many religions will do.

In every religion that man ever made,

It’s all about getting a high enough grade.

But Jesus has showed us a narrower path,

Where He is the only remover of wrath,

For only the merit of Christ will attain

The righteousness needed salvation to gain.

He only has satisfied all the demands.

He only has broken the strongest of bands.

There’s no other man who was sinless and pure.

There’s no other name that is perfectly sure.

In every religious persuasion around,

The answer for man in himself must be found;

And if you can do all the things you must do,

Then God will accept and be happy with you.

It only is Jesus who died in our place.

He bore all the wrath and He gave us the grace.

There’s no other message where God became man,

With substitute death at the heart of his plan.

There’s no other name that was given to men,

To reconcile them with the Father again,

But only by Jesus, the heavenly Bread,

Who died in our place and then rose from the dead.

If you can believe there is goodness in you,

Then any of many religions will do,

But when you have come to the end of your rope,

Then Christ is the only respectable hope.

Ezra Brainard, March 2013