To Die for Me

Oh mighty God, who in glory
Art maker and master of all,
What foolishness to die for me!
With thy death to stay my dread fall.

Thou lookest upon my great guilt,
My shame for sin but weakly loathed,
But not with wrath, rather sorrow
For my heart not in virtue clothed.

Thou art not jealous of the life
Thou gavest me with love so free,
E’en though my freedom built the cross
That takes the breath of life from thee!

I should have died, for I have soiled
The perfect gift of thine image.
If thou wouldst judge me, I would go
To bear the weight of sin’s damage.

But instead I look up and see,
Upon the hill so grim and bare,
And on that dreadful cross hangs thee!
Thy bounteous love is nowise fair.

“Lord, let me die for thee,” I cried,
“Not thou for me! For I have sinned
Against thy blessed and holy law.
Come down, this foolish fate rescind!”

He looked at me, eyes wet with pain
Though tender with love ever true.
“Let me forgive you with my death,”
Said he, “for you know not what you do.”

I felt I killed my God that day,
And the guilt tormented my soul.
But three days thence he came to me
New in the garden to console.

“Now you see that if thou hadst died,
As rightly deserved from thy sin,
Death would have owned thee. But my love
Cannot die, and so I rise again.”

Oh my God, I was once shamed by
Thine ever pure and perfect love,
Let it now hold my sinful heart
And bear it to heaven above.