The Collision of God and Sin
April 6, 2014
. . . who Himself bore our sins
in His own body on the tree . . . —1 Peter 2:24
The Cross of Christ is the revealed truth of God’s
judgment on sin. Never associate the idea of martyrdom with the Cross of Christ.
It was the supreme triumph, and it shook the very foundations of hell. There is
nothing in time or eternity more absolutely certain and irrefutable than what
Jesus Christ accomplished on the Cross— He made it possible for the entire
human race to be brought back into a right-standing relationship with God. He
made redemption the foundation of human life; that is, He made a way for every
person to have fellowship with God.
The Cross was not something that happened to Jesus— He came
to die; the Cross was His purpose in coming. He is “the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8). The incarnation of Christ
would have no meaning without the Cross. Beware of separating “God was manifested in the flesh.
. .” from “. . . He made Him. . . to be sin for us. . .” (1 Timothy 3:16 ; 2 Corinthians 5:21). The purpose of
the incarnation was redemption. God came in the flesh to take sin away, not to
accomplish something for Himself. The Cross is the
central event in time and eternity, and the answer to all the problems of both.
The Cross is not the cross of a man, but the Cross of
God, and it can never be fully comprehended through human experience. The Cross
is God exhibiting His nature. It is the gate through which any and every
individual can enter into oneness with God. But it is not a gate we pass right
through; it is one where we abide in the life that is found there.
The heart of salvation is the Cross of Christ. The reason
salvation is so easy to obtain is that it cost God so much. The Cross was the
place where God and sinful man merged with a tremendous collision and where the
way to life was opened. But all the cost and pain of the collision was absorbed
by the heart of God.
(Taken from Oswald Chambers – “My Utmost
for His Highest” April 6)