Another Easter!

Another Good Friday! Another Easter! The celebration continues year after year. An opportunity for the Christian community to celebrate just like other religious communities have. Does it have any significance beyond that?

Have you ever wondered what motivated God to sacrifice his own Son, his only begotten Son?

Jesus’ crucifixion reveals God’s hatred towards sin.

I can not fulfill the righteous laws of the Most Holy God. God’s Word calls this condition sin. The Bible says, “There is no difference; all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
(Romans 3:23). The penalty for this is death. “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

I cannot earn forgiveness of my sins by paying money, or by doing good deeds, or by the help of saints, or by climbing mountains, or by keeping vows, or by any other means. The Bible says, “There is no salvation except by shedding blood” (Heb. 9:22).

“The soul that sinneth, it shall die; the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father; neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: for the righteousness of the just shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him” (Ezekiel 18:20).

God the Father was silent when His only begotten son was sweating blood and pleading from the Garden of Gethsemane, “remove this cup from me if you will”. The Father turned a deaf ear to the cry of His beloved son who was hanging on three nails on the cross, bleeding from head to toe, groaning in agony, asking “my God my God why have you forsaken me”. God the Father allowed His dear Son to be tormented up on that cross and that shows how much He hated sin.

Jesus’ crucifixion reveals God’s love for me.

Jesus is God who became a human for us humans. He is the Creator who took the form of His own creation. Because He is infinite, He voluntarily relinquished His glory in order to be a finite man. Since He is eternal without beginning or end, He confined himself to time, human history, and a geographical territory. He, while being sinless, allowed Himself to be tortured and killed for our sins. Jesus did not come into the world to be hailed as a saint, or a spiritual leader, or a teacher, or the founder of a religion, a prophet or a martyr, but to carry the burden of sin of the whole world on His own shoulders and endure the wrath of God, so that we might be forgiven of our sins. Lonely and despised, ignored by the Father, abandoned by all, hanging on that cross, He shed even the last drop of His blood as the sacrifice of sin for you and me.

He did all this out of His love for us. The Word of God says, “Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?”
(Romans 8:32 NLT)

“God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

“But God demonstrates His love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5: 8)

Jesus’ crucifixion reveals my only hope

Because Jesus took away my sins and became the ransom sacrifice for me, I can trust in Him for my forgiveness. No one else in human history has paid the penalty for all the sins of mankind with his own blood. The Bible says, “There is salvation in no one else; there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

In him we have redemption and forgiveness of sins. Jesus calls all who are struggling with sin to come to Him. He is knocking at the door of your heart, hoping you will invite him inside. He will change your life. That is why he came and that is why he died and rose again. Will you invite him in as your Savior and Master?

He promises to be with you forever and never to leave you. (Heb. 13: 5)