April 6 — When God Came Near

The Quill and Me—Devotional Blog•Oswald Chambers Reflections 
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Apr 6
Today's Reflection from My Utmost for His Highest
1 Peter 2:24
"... who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree ..."

When God Came Near

There are moments in Scripture that feel too vast for human language, and the Cross is one of them. Chambers pulls back every curtain we try to hang over it — sentiment, martyrdom, sympathy — and brings us face to face with the truth: the Cross is God’s judgment on sin, carried in the body of His Son.

Isaiah 53:5-6 
"the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all" 
2 Corinthians 5:21 
"He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us"

Jesus did not stumble into death.
He did not become a victim of circumstance.
He came to die.

John 10:17–18 — “I lay down My life… No one takes it from Me.”
Mark 10:45 — “The Son of Man came… to give His life as a ransom for many.”
Luke 9:51 — “He set His face to go to Jerusalem.”

"He is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8) — meaning the Cross was not an interruption in His mission, but the very center of it. Everything in His incarnation points toward this moment where God Himself would bear the weight of human sin.

Chambers refuses to let us separate the manger from the tree.
The incarnation has no meaning without the Cross. 
Hebrews 2:14 — He took on flesh "so that by His death He might destroy the one who has the power of death." 
1 John 3:8 — "The Son of God appeared... to destroy the works of the devil."

God did not come near merely to comfort us — He came near to redeem us. 
And redemption required a collision.

Romans 3:25-26 — God publicly displayed Christ as the propitiation.

Isaiah 53:10 — "It pleased the Lord to crush Him."

Not a meeting of equals.
Not a negotiation.
But the full force of sin striking the holiness of God — and all the cost, all the pain, all the judgment absorbed into the heart of the One who loved us.

The Cross is not something we pass through and leave behind.
It is the place where we abide — the place where fellowship with God is restored, where life begins, where every human being is invited into oneness with Him.
Romans 5:10-11 — "We were reconciled to God through the death of His Son." 
Ephesians 2:13 — "you who were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ."

Salvation is simple for us because it was unspeakably costly for Him.
Ephesians 2:8-9 — salvation is a gift
1 Peter 1:18-19 — purchased "with the precious blood of Christ"

At the Cross, God and sinful humanity met — and only God bore the impact.
Isaiah 53:4-5 — "He was pierced for our transgressions."
Galatians 3:13 — "Christ redeemed us... by becoming a curse for us."

This is the foundation of our life.
This is the certainty we stand on.
This is the triumph that shook hell and opened heaven.

Breath Prayer

Inhale: Grace carried my sin
Exhale: (silent awe)

~ Quil

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