The Collision of God and Sin
The collision that changed everything happened not in the heavens, but on a hill called Calvary—where mercy and justice met in love.
Based on Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, “The Collision of God and Sin”
Verse: “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness. —1 Peter 2:24
Image Credit: Unsplash
Oswald Chambers urges us to recognize the cross not as a tragic interruption in Jesus’ mission, but as its triumphant and eternal centerpiece. It was not the story of a martyrdom, but the deliberate act of God’s love and justice colliding with the full weight of human sin. Jesus didn’t happen upon the cross—He aimed for it from before the foundation of the world. He was the Lamb slain from the beginning, and His sacrifice was not merely substitutionary but victorious.
Chambers highlights that the cross wasn’t just a moment in history—it is the cosmic center of all time and eternity. It shook hell, shattered sin’s dominion, and opened a living way for us to enter into union with God. But Chambers also clarifies something crucial: we do not “get past” the cross. We do not pass through it as if it were a doorway into another spiritual phase. We abide in the life it provided. We are always living on resurrection ground because the crash that absorbed our judgment happened at Calvary—on the heart of God, not ours.
Salvation may seem free and accessible to us, but it cost the Father and the Son everything. It is the staggering gift of union with God made possible only through the holy violence of love expressed on a wooden beam.
Journal Entry – In the Voice of the Holy Spirit
You live because I bore the unbearable. The cross was not an accident; it was My answer to your captivity. Before the first sunrise ever warmed the earth, I had already purposed to be the Lamb slain, the Son given, the way opened. I didn’t come to display power or to seek acclaim—I came to take away your sin and give you Myself.
At the cross, justice kissed mercy, and judgment collided with love. I bore your shame and crushed it with My righteousness. The sting of death was broken when I laid down My life and took it up again. You now stand, not as a soul striving to survive, but as one raised with Me—alive to God, dead to sin, hidden with Christ in Me.
So remain where I’ve placed you—inside My finished work. Do not try to graduate from the cross as if it were only the beginning. It is the ongoing place of abiding. You now live because I died. You reign because I was rejected. You have peace because I endured wrath. Every moment you draw from Me, you draw from a fountain opened by My wounds.
And the world may call it foolishness, but to you who believe, it is the power of God. You are crucified with Christ, and now I live in you. The life you now live is Mine, and I will be seen through you as you yield, moment by moment, to the life I gave at Calvary and the Spirit I poured out at Pentecost.
—1 Peter 2:24, Revelation 13:8, Romans 6:6–11, Galatians 2:20, 1 Corinthians 1:18, Colossians 3:3
Prayer of Trust and Confidence
Father, I rest in the staggering grace of the cross. You did not leave anything unfinished or undone. I’m not living to complete what You began—You finished it at Calvary. I now live in the fullness of Christ, raised with Him and seated in Your presence. I walk in righteousness because Christ has become my righteousness. I don’t need to ask for Your acceptance—I have it. I don’t plead for Your nearness—I dwell in it.
Today, I gladly abide in the life You made possible at the cross. May I never treat lightly what cost You everything, and may the weight of that love fill me with joy and awe. Let my thoughts, my words, and even my stillness declare: “It is finished.” And so I walk on—not carrying the cross, but carried by the One who bore it for me.
Amen.