This small devotional could be looked at in several ways depending on the day, depending on the struggle, depending on the circumstances. Some days, we might read this and easily pour out praise and smile in joy toward God with thanksgiving and delight. On other days, we might read this as a reminder and give God thanks for His mercy more out of obedience than childlike faith. And still on other days, it might go against everything in our being to say, "Yes," to God's way of salvation and truly just trust Him at His Word. But, no matter the day and no matter the circumstance, I like this small devotional because it captures the very essence of everything we're holding on to. And it's true. God's love has collided with our sin and by the blood of Jesus Christ (AMENNNN!), He did not devastate us. We were not ruined, because the blood covers us. It's all about the blood. It's all about the final sacrifice. It's all about God providing the way (though I don't know if I'll ever understand why He chose such a messy and painful way of all ways) to walk toward unity with Him again. What a merciful, faithful, loving God we serve...
So, enjoy this small devotional from "My Utmost for His Highest" with the understanding that the work on the Cross has in fact been finished and it very much so applies to us.
The Collision of God and Sin
"...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 judgement 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 rightstanding 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 (italicized) 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 int he 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 all the pain of the collision was absorbed by the heart of God.
Oswald Chambers
