Hosea 6:6 says: “I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.” God is telling the people: “I don’t want your empty deeds; I want your heart.” Jesus died for your sins. God’s ultimate goal: to bring us into intimacy with Him and, thus, save us from eternal punishment. He did not desire to give His Son, but rather to show mercy to a rebellious people. His heart is for us. The moment Adam and Eve sinned, God counted the cost to reconcile our relationship with Him. He was ready to pay it and spent millennia preparing us for His sacrifice. We frown at God’s request of Abraham when He asks him to sacrifice Isaac. We quicken our compassion for Abraham’s situation and fail to see the Father’s heart. He rescued Isaac from Abraham’s hand. He did not rescue Jesus from His own. God desires mercy and not sacrifice. Jesus repeats this to the Pharisees instructing them to go learn what it means. He is telling them to have compassion on their brethren. It’s a hard thing for men to do, but how so, when a holy God has compassion on a fallen people? We stand in false righteousness believing ourselves not to be in as bad a state as the other. The truth: sin is sin, and nothing can satisfy God except a pure heart. But wait, how can this be when our understanding of purity is tainted by our own filthiness? We have no knowledge of good without God, and our righteous acts are as filthy rags. We are but dust, pitiful in our greatest exploits even when compared to the weakest moment of God.
“He is despised and rejected by men. A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief…He was oppressed and afflicted. Yet He opened not His mouth, He was led as a lamb to the slaughter…” Isaiah 53:3, 7
Why is it that we only need a pure heart to satisfy God? Because He already paid the price for our sins. He gave the sacrifice that wounded His heart. I often think of the pain of my Lord praying in Gethsemane. He was afflicted. He prayed for the cup to be taken from Him, but He knew there was only one way His beloved bride had the chance to enter into His arms. He had to die. He knew the depth of His suffering. He replayed it again and again as He prayed for strength. And, amazingly, with the full knowledge of the price He must pay, He remained silent and bore the cross. The Father saw His Son’s plight for it was His own: that the bride may be restored to truth and purity and His children may be set free to love Him. The Father’s heart ached as Jesus prayed in agony, but both knew what was necessary. They knew the cost from the beginning, and it was time for the payment. Jesus’ walk towards His death was painful, but the most traumatizing of His experience was the moment in which there was a break in the eternal fellowship of God with Himself. There was not a moment in all eternity in which God the Father and God the Son were not in complete communion as the One True God. In that moment, the omnipresent God was both in heaven and on earth orchestrating the greatest rescue in all eternity. He saw Himself on the cross and, in His anger towards the sin-ridden Being, He turned away. Oh, the heartache of both Father and Son as they endured the greatest suffering imaginable. Both sacrificed heart and life. Why would the God of the universe suffer so much when He has angels in constant worship of His magnificence and holiness? Because He loves you. It’s that simple. He loves you. To Him, you are worth the sacrifice. He forsook His holiness, clothed Himself with sin, and died for you. He is only asking for you to acknowledge your sins and recognize His sacrifice. He is asking for you to examine your heart and come to Him with pure faith in His love. A heart of purity is His desire. I was a sinner who gave myself to the lies of the world. I lived in deception and believed in a false notion of God. One day, He opened my eyes to the truth of His sacrifice and how He rescued me. Then, I saw and received His sacrifice without loving Him in return, and so I was not completely free. I knew my Savior, but I didn’t understand how He was my Lord until I began to walk down His path. It is a hidden path, and only few find it.
