The Quill and Me—Devotional Blog•Oswald Chambers Reflections  
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June 23
Today's Reading: My Utmost for His Highest
Isaiah 53:3
"He is . . . a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief"

The Cost of Sin

The fall of Adam plunged humanity into sin. We all face the inherited corruption of the fall.  

When we are young, we do not deal with the reality of sin. We grow up thinking we will control our own lives. We get educated, we mature, and we assume we will grow out of our wicked ways. 

As we grow older, we do not confront the sin in our lives. We joke about it. We condone it. We join others in it. We look at it as something to be covered up or hidden. We do not address it as sin. We make less of it and brush past it with the tendency to excuse it. 

Sin can creep into every facet of our lives. Many things that do not look like sin contain sin — but we do not realize it until it has taken root. 

Chambers teaches: "Sin is a fact of life. Sin kills. We must bring ourselves to terms with this fact. Sin makes the foundation of our thinking unpredictable, uncontrollable, and irrational."

All sorrow in life is rooted in sin. 

Jesus Christ was — and is — a Man of sorrows, intimately acquainted with grief. 

He bore the weight of the world's sin on the Cross at Calvary.

The Cross is where God revealed the true nature of sin.

The Cross shows what sin really is and what it really costs. 
The Cross reveals the seriousness of sin, 

the devastation sin brings, 

the grief sin causes, 
and the price required to deal with it.

God provided the only remedy for sin.

Sin is the reason Jesus came.

The remedy for sin is death.

The culmination of sin in this world was the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

Sin is real, deadly, and destructive. 

If sin is left to its own devices, it will destroy us. 

Sin is not a natural part of who we were created to be.

Chambers states: "Sin is blatant mutiny against God."

It is almost impossible to grow as a Christian with sin as the ruling force in our life. 

Chambers said, "What was true in the history of God on earth will also be true in your history and in mine — that is, sin will kill the life of God in us." 

But if God rules in us, the sin in us will be killed.

If we put God first, He will deal with the sin in our life. 

Jesus defeated death and sin. His Holy Spirit dwells within us. 

If we want a life freed from sin... 

we must surrender our will, our self, and our sin 

to the only One who can defeat it for us — 

the Holy Spirit. 

Prayer of Surrender

Lord, You see the sin I cannot see,
the sin I excuse, the sin I hide, 
the sin that quietly steals life from my soul.

I come to You in honesty.
I cannot fix myself.
I cannot cleanse myself.
I cannot overcome sin in my own strength.

Rule in me, Lord.
Let Your Spirit expose what is hidden
and heal what is broken.
Kill the sin that tries to rule my heart
and make me alive to You alone.

Teach me to surrender —
my will, my ways, my sin, and self.
I place my life beneath the Cross, 
I surrender my all to You, Lord...  
trusting You to do in me
what I cannot do for myself.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

Selah,

~ Quil 

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Scripture References

Isaiah 53:3 — Jesus is the Man of Sorrows, fully acquainted with human grief.
Romans 5:12 — Sin entered the world through Adam, and death through sin.
Romans 6:23 — The wages of sin is death, but God offers life through Christ.
1 Peter 2:24 — Jesus bore our sins in His body on the Cross.
2 Corinthians 5:21 — Christ became sin for us so we could become God’s righteousness.
1 John 1:8–9 — We must acknowledge sin; God is faithful to forgive and cleanse.
James 1:14–15 — Sin begins subtly but grows until it brings forth death.
Galatians 5:17 — The flesh and Spirit war against each other; sin resists spiritual growth.
Romans 8:13 — By the Spirit we put sin to death.
John 1:29 — Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.