An Easter Message
This weekend we celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Does that hold any significance to you? Does this move you to doxology?
Whether you put your trust in God long ago or have never put your trust in Him, I invite you to reflect on Christ’s work on the cross and the great impact it has on your life today.
May we never lose joy in the hope of the Gospel!
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. (John 3:16-17)
He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5)
This is the reason we celebrate Jesus’ death and resurrection: God the Father sent His Son Jesus Christ to perfectly satisfy the wrath stored up for we who rebelled against Him. Through His death we who put our trust in Him will be justified, and through His resurrection we will have a relationship with Him for all eternity.
This is the climax of God’s steadfast love! This is the ultimate display of His glory, and the reason for the hope that is inside every person who has repented and put their faith in Jesus.
But there are those — even Christians at times — who believe even subconsciously that we don’t always need Jesus. We decide we don’t need to put our faith in Him, that He will make us well.
Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. (Mark 2:17)
This is a freeing joy that Christ would come for we who are so unworthy of Him! Jesus isn’t saying here that some people are righteous and some aren’t — He’s saying that some people think they’re good enough, and therefore don’t see a need for Him. He’s also saying that there are people who know they’re sinners, that they desperately need Him, and those are the people He calls to Himself.
Friends, I hope you find yourself in that latter category. It’s uncomfortable to call yourself what you are: a sinner in desperate need of a Savior. But to have need of a Savior is much better than struggling on your own, only to die a painful death in the end.
Our sinful nature is starkly contrasted by the God who became a man to gloriously display His love for us by dying the death we justly deserved.
Only in coming to terms with this can we rightly rejoice in who Christ is and enter into the right relationship He graciously invites us to have with Him.
We know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. (Galatians 2:16)
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)
We must remember what the prophet says, that “we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6 NJKV). So how much more, knowing we cannot become righteous on our own, does this gift radiantly shine and reveal how deep the Father’s love is for us! How could we ever give ourselves credit for what Christ did entirely?
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. (1 John 3:1)
Friends, rejoice in the Lord with me! He is good, and He offers us the free gift of becoming one of His children. God has no unrighteous children, but because of Christ’s righteousness imputed on us when we repented and believed Jesus is God, we are seen by the Father through Christ’s righteousness!
Put your faith in Him — trust that Christ’s righteousness is enough, that it fully satisfied the wrath of God and fully covers us when we stand before the Father, so that He only calls us children.
This is the blessed joy of the believer — this is why we celebrate Him this Resurrection Day.
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people. training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives int he present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession who are zealous for good works. (Titus 2:11-14)
Jesus came to be both your Savior and Lord. Don’t miss that: Jesus came to be your Savior, to pay the penalty for your sins so that you could be declared righteous by the Father — you didn’t have to work to be called righteous! And, Jesus came to be your Lord — once the Father has declared you righteous, you now get to obey and live in righteousness.
Don’t miss that sequence of events, or that call: it is because of Christ that you are justified before God the Father, and it is Christ in you that you get to learn a new way of living.
If you’re struggling to believe this today, go back to the gospels! Go to Scripture. I pray that God opens the eyes of your heart to put your faith firmly your Lord and Savior. Your salvation is not dependent upon you. Nothing can take your salvation away, so even when you fail to live up to the calling to do good works (which you will), Christ is more powerful than your sin. He has fully covered you with His blood. He is now fully transforming you into His image as you spend the rest of your life walking with your Savior, listening to your Lord.
Now, you may not have yet put your faith and trust in Jesus. God’s Word says, “‘Yet even now,’ declares the Lord, ‘return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning’” (Joel 2:12). While you have breath in your lungs, God has graciously given you time to acknowledge your need for a Savior — your need for a Lord to love you and instruct you in the way that you should go, which is ever-closer to Himself.
This is your invitation to celebrate Resurrection Day!
More Reading:
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