Regarding Merit

Regarding merit: absent, missing, void Of all redeeming qualities, save one, The apple of His eye, His "very good.” Was He, in pleasant garden, much annoyed When they His one divine decree did shun To taste forbidden fruit because they could? And did He not foresee that such an end Would come of gift of choice, of their free will To exercise dominion o'er the realm And bear the Name above all other names? And if He saw that they his law would rend And bring about the dreaded curse, the ill That banned them from His presence, overwhelmed Their clarity of sight, should we bear blame? To question first, yes, divine wrath was roused, Though not a self-control replaced by rage, But rather a repulsive force; there is  No room for evil in a perfect core Of good. Of two, yes, in His plan was housed, Eternal, 'fore the dawn of time, a page Unfathomed by the wise, but not by His Great mind: that those forgiven most love more. And three, yes we who claim with pride our choice, Do bear our yoke most voluntarily; Corrupted clay rejecting Potter's throw. Yet Scripture, with a univocal voice Does call for ears to hear and eyes to see A God who loves and wants us Him to know. A woeful state, a seeming paradox! Cut off by choice, estranged, in trespass dead As Laz'rus tombed are we, our outlook grim. But God did call him forth; unbound he walks From dark to light of day! And why? Instead Of us, that wrath was satisfied by Him The son, both lamb and Shepherd of the flocks The Father gave to him, the manna, Bread Hard broken on the cross to set us free. Yet surely there’s a catch, a caveat? For grace, our pride finds hardest to receive, Salvation's surely earned by ‘should' and 'ought'! A bitter pill to swallow, to believe In Him who suffered, died, was raised to prove In fact, that his atonement did suffice, That faith, itself a monergistic move From God to man requires no further price. How then does one respond to sweet release? Is it as simple as "Go sin no more,” As Jesus said to her, was caught in sin? Shall sin abound that grace might more increase? A gift so great is not one to ignore, For this is just a start, where we begin. His will for us is found within his Word, With our new eyes, they do not bind but free Us to discern the marks that he has set, Of old eschewed, with new heart now preferred. Our arrows fly, but soon dismayed are we; Some short, some wide, old fetters remain yet. In even this, our Archer makes things right, For if contrite, we come with quiver, bow, He's gracious to instruct our errant flight; Adjusted slight, we once more homeward go. ---------- FIRST PLACE WINNER for the Throwback Challenge Poetry Contest sponsored by Natasha L Scragg written perhaps in 2015? I am not sure why I could write this one, nor I am sure I will pen another like it. I think it is an a/b/c/a/b/c, but also drops into an a/b/a/b, and maintains iambic pentameter throughout, so I don't know what the proper form name is.