What Would You Be?

This topic has been in my head for a while now, due to some situations in life, but it decided to take verse this morning during Sunday School. I scrawled a few lines down so I wouldn't lose them and then came home and finished it after lunch. I couldn't decide which name to use, so that's why the title of the poem and the title of the blog differ.

What I Would Be

Can you see what I would be,
If God had no mercy on me?
Can you hear the words I'd say
If He'd not come to me that day?
See the look and hear the tone
Watch the deeds done when alone
In the dark - even in light!
Too proud and base to hide til night.
So lifted up in my own view
The things I'd do would change the hue
Of the purest flower of white
To deepest blush of red in sight
I can see it in my mind
As if it happened years behind
Oh great depravity of man!
How to my sins I clung and ran
As far from God as I could be
Ev'n to drown in the deepest sea.
And once in Hell, my bed all made
I'd look afar and see them laid
The bride of Christ bowed at His feet
And Him upon the highest seat
Down far below as anguish tore
I'd watch as His white robes they wore
The robes of Christ, His righteousness
And I would burn righteous-less
For all the deeds I'd done in life -
Steal and lie and stir up strife
Hate and kill, no love within
Except for self and my dear sin
All my guilt would stay on me
For ever and eternity
There in the dark and endless doom
There in the fire and heavy gloom
Oh I can see what awaited me!
For I know what I would be
If not for the grace of God
I'd die forever under the rod
Of punishment, my just reward
For not accepting Christ my Lord
For rebellion, I would pay
On that terrible judgment day
But in His mercy, Jesus came
And I have never been the same
His love has changed me thru and thru
By His grace, I'm made anew
Do you know what you would be?
That crumbling path, can you see?
The one you walked before He came?
The one you'd crawled when you were lame,
And sick, infirmed, and deeply blind
Before Christ was ever in your mind?
Do you know where you would rest?
Still on earth, or in fire's crest?
Would you have died long ago?
If not for God's protecting you so?
I think at times we lose this sight
We think we would have been alright
We forget the change He's worked within
We forget the bondage we'd had to sin
And then because we're thinking wrong
We have no joy and inner song
We speak to those who's lives are torn
And without love we speak in scorn
Forgetting that we'd be alike!
If Christ had not accepted the spike
If He'd not taken me from that path
I, too, would be inciting His wrath
And so would you, my Christian friend
We would have met that same dark end
We would have lived and died accursed
Don't think the lost are the worst.
Who can tell if I'd not have been
Hitler or Stalin, murderous men
And what of you, do you know
The depths of sin that you can sow?
What new twisted way you may have gone?
God's prophet assunder you might have sawn.
So think it through and when you're done
I hope you'll see and to Christ you'll run
Reminded that you couldn't be good
Without God's help, burn you would.
And to the lost, who can't abstain
From sinning, imbuing their lives with pain
Take pity, be kind, share God's gift
Perhaps He'll decide them to lift
Up to Heav'n, adopting them
And together, we'll bow at His hem.
Children of God, every one
Bound together by the death of His Son.