Easter is a time for remembering the ultimate sacrifice ever made, the greatest gift anyone ever gave, the biggest boon ever granted to mankind. God came down to Earth in the form of a man, Jesus. He was a humble worker born in poor circumstances. When He reached manhood He began to preach, teach, and heal, thus gathering a following.
But, just as He knew they would, those opposing the love and freedom He taught, killed Him by nailing Him to a cross in one of the cruelest forms of execution imaginable. Yet even in death He demonstrated His message of love by forgiving His captors and comforting the repentant criminal being executed on the cross next to His. In three days He rose from the dead, proving His divinity.
Easter is the celebration of His triumph. It is not the commemoration of His death, but of His life, the life that refused to be stopped by the grave, that pushed back the barriers of pain and suffering and despair, that vanquished the great enemies of man--his own weaknesses and shortcomings.
In our all-too-imperfect human state, we do not deserve to be together with God, who is perfect in every way. So in unfathomable love, Jesus took the punishment for our wrongdoing, and then, as He hung on the cross, said, "It is finished." He had done His job, He had suffered for our sins. Now we could receive His forgiveness, and with it, a new start in life. Jesus went to the root of all the misery and grief and horror caused by the sin of man, and forgave us all. He thus prepared the way for us to spend eternity with Him in Heaven, if we will only believe, and receive His gift of forgiveness and salvation.
Will you believe? Will you let your own sins and failings die with the One who suffered for them, the One who looks deep in your eyes and says, "I forgive"? As the Son of God, Jesus can forgive all your sins and give you a new start through His life, love, Spirit, and energy budding and blossoming inside you.
Won't you give Him a chance? The choice is yours. The time is now; He is waiting. Just open your heart and say, "Jesus, I receive You as my Lord and my Savior. Please forgive my sins and help me make a new start. Please fill me with Your Spirit and life. I want to believe in You and trust You and even love You, Jesus. Please help me in the areas where I am lacking. Amen."
Jesus will never fail you. He'll always be there for you, ready to respond to your needs in an instant. He's there now--yours forever--and He'll never leave you.
On Easter, Jesus did a wonderful thing for us. But just how does this translate into everyday experience? A story told by Gigi Tchividjian in More Stories from the Heart explains what can be yours because Jesus died and rose again on Easter.
In the story, there was a priest who suffered terribly over a sin he had committed as a young man, because he thought God could not forgive him. One day he heard of an elderly lady who had visions and even talked with the Lord during these visions, and finally he gathered enough courage to visit her. Over a cup of tea, he asked if she could ask the Lord a question for him. The woman looked at the priest a little curiously. She had never been asked this before. "Yes, I would be happy to," she answered. "What do you want me to ask Him?"
"Well," the priest began, "would you please ask Him what sin it was that your priest committed as a young man?"
The woman, quite curious now, readily agreed.
A few weeks passed, and the priest again went to visit this woman. After another cup of tea he cautiously, timidly asked, "Have you had any visions lately?"
The woman said that she had, and that she had asked the Lord what sin the priest had committed as a young man. The priest, nervous and afraid, hesitated a moment and then asked, "Well, what did the Lord say?"
The woman looked up into the face of her priest and replied gently, "The Lord told me He could not remember."
The Bible tells us that because Jesus took the punishment for our sins, God does not remember them against us any more. "I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more," the Lord tells us in Jeremiah 31:34. Jesus did a good job, didn't He?
Let's not always picture Christ on the cross--the suffering and the death and the fear that it generates. We don't have a Jesus on the cross--He's left the cross! We don't have a Christ in the grave; we have a live Jesus in our hearts!
He rose in victory, joy, liberty and freedom, never to die again, so that He could redeem us and prevent our having to go through the horrible experience of having to die without God.
What a day of rejoicing that must have been when He rose and realized it was all over! He had won the victory--the world was saved. He had accomplished His mission. He had gone through the horrors and agony of death and Hell for us, all of it, and it was over.
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