Which got me thinking...what is the heart of God? Is it fair to compare the cross to God's heart like the song does?
So I went back to what I know about God. He is love, mercy, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, goodness. He is the ultimate example of agape love, of love without equal, of love without compare.
But simultaneously, God is also justice, righteousness, holiness, divinity, truthful. And the Holy God despises sin. He hates it with a passion that burns hotter than I will ever know.
Yet, at the cross, as Jesus died, God's character was brought into focus. His loving mercy and His righteous judgment perfectly united in the stripes running down Jesus' back and brow. He destroyed sin's power and made a way for us to be forgiven.
See, if God had stopped at creating the world...I would have no reason to follow Him. Sure, He's powerful (I mean, he created the world) but my sin would condemn me where I stood. Why follow someone you never could please?
It's not because of Creation that I'm a Christian, it's not because of the flood, or the plagues in Egypt...no, I follow Christ because as Jesus died upon that cross God did the impossible. He perfectly satisfied His holiness and justice while fully demonstrating His love and mercy.
Let that sink in for a second. The events around the death of Jesus are some of the darkest moments in human history. Man condemning God to die...can we sink further into sin than that?
Yet God the Almighty Lord used our basest, depraved sin to accomplish and bring about the perfect revelation of His heart on the cross. Love and justice, mercy and holiness, goodness and righteousness united perfectly.
So yes, it is fair to compare God's heart to the cross. For it was at the cross that we saw the beautiful plan that God had created revealed. Maybe not fully revealed but truly revealed.
As you sing "lead me to the cross," remember that the cross is where sin's greatest attack was thwarted by the loving, perfect, holy, righteous, divine God. When we remember the cost of our sin, we can't forget the heart of God as He died to save us.
Lord, lead us to Your heart.