The Cross

Can anything be worth such pain?
What on the Earth is worth this cost?
For these God's spotless Lamb was slain,
How greatly He must love the lost
Gethsemane's prayer, it echoes still
No other way but Calvary's hill

The blackest day this earth has seen
Dark as the night before the dawn;
So dark this world had never been
E'er since the day that it was born.
When on the cross of Calvary
The Lamb was slain to set men free.

Beyond the power of finite mind
To plumb its ocean depths and see,
Why Christ should die to save mankind
Why He Himself need come and be
Made sin for us and take our place,
Such love for all our sin sick race

Double-dyed millenniums of sin
Woe upon woe and deepest pain
The whole foul debt was paid by Him
Our freely given love to gain.
Nought we can do to make amends,
Our sin, His blood alone can cleanse.

True justice would have set Him free,
No crime or sin in Him was found.
Freely He went to Calvary
Only by cords of love was bound.
Hold back your vast angelic host
This Christ has come to save the lost

This poem was a finalist in the August 2009 poetry contest