Easter Means Jesus Paid for Our Sins
"Through the blood of His Son, we are set free from our sins. God forgives our failures because of His overflowing kindness" (Ephesians 1:7).
Jesus' death and resurrection paid for our sins.
There have been a lot of great religious teachers throughout history. They've all had good things to say, but what makes Jesus different from every other religious teacher throughout history is the fact that He died and rose again.
That's of critical importance because it's not the life of Jesus that saves you; it's not the teachings of Jesus that save you; it's His death and resurrection that open the door for your salvation.
Jesus died for your sins. The Bible says we've all blown it. We've all made mistakes. None of us is perfect. That's pretty obvious; I don't measure up to my own standards, much less God's. We have all sinned.
The Bible says that justice demands punishment. If you do the crime, you pay the time. If you break the law, you pay the fine. If you get caught speeding, you get a ticket. If you break God's laws, you pay God's penalty and, according to the Bible, "The wages [for our] sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:23).
In other words, somebody has to pay for all the things you've done wrong in life: either you pay or somebody else pays for you. And this is where God says, "I'll do it!" He steps up to the plate. Jesus Christ is sent to earth—God in human form—and He says, in effect, "I will pay for your sins."
Here's the good news: Everything you've ever done wrong, everything you're ever going to do wrong, things you haven't even thought of yet, all those sins have already been paid for by Jesus Christ as He died on the cross: "Through the blood of His Son, we are set free from our sins. God forgives our failures because of His overflowing kindness" (Ephesians 1:7).
When Jesus died on the cross for you, it showed two things:
1. It showed how much your forgiveness cost. The highest price you can pay for anything is to give your life for it. And that's what Jesus did. He gave His blood. He gave His life. It was extremely expensive. Grace is free but it is not cheap. It cost Jesus His life, but He paid for your sins.
2. It shows how much God values you. It shows how much you matter to God. Jesus died for you on the cross. It shows the highest price possibly to be paid was giving a life.
How much are you worth? Jesus says, with His arms stretched out on the cross, "This much I'm willing to die for you." You may think that you're worthless because of things you've done wrong. But Jesus says, "No. You're priceless. And I'm willing to give My life in order to pay for your sins."
Easter Means We're Acceptable to God
"God gave Jesus to die for our sins, and He raised Him to life, so that we would be made acceptable to God" (Romans 4:25).
Jesus' death and resurrection make us acceptable to God.
Would you be surprised to know that most people do not accept themselves? I've been a pastor now for over 30 years and I've talked to tens of thousands of people, and I've found that most people really don't like themselves inside. They wish they were different. They wish they looked different. They wish they acted different.
We don't accept ourselves and so we spend our lives trying to find acceptance among other people; but even more important than being accepted by other people is being accepted by God. That's a problem. Why? Because God is perfect and you're not. And neither am I.
God lives in a perfect place called heaven, so God has a problem. How does He get imperfect people into a perfect place where He is perfect? (Because, obviously, if He allowed imperfect people in a perfect place it wouldn't be perfect anymore.) God has to come up with a plan for imperfect people to be able to live in a perfect place.
God's plan is what I call "The Great Exchange."
The Bible says, "God took the sinless Christ and poured into Him our sins. Then, in exchange, He poured God's goodness into us!" (2 Corinthians 5:21).
I don't know how to make it any clearer than to say it like this: You're never going to be good enough to get into heaven because it's perfect and you stopped being perfect a long time ago. It is Christ's goodness in you that makes you acceptable. You're not perfect, but He is. So God says, "We'll do a little switcheroo here. Jesus will take your sins and you get My goodness in your life." That's quite a deal!
A lot of people feel trapped by their past. They say, "If you knew what I've done, you'd know I'd never be acceptable to God." I don’t know what you've done, but God does and He still accepts you: "God says He will accept us and acquit us—declare us 'not guilty'—if we trust Jesus Christ to take away our sins. And we all can be saved in this same way, by coming to Christ, no matter who we are or what we have been like" (Romans 3:22).
No matter who we are or what we've been like! We can all be saved. He makes us acceptable to God.
Easter Means We're Released From Judgment
"Those who...believe in Him...will not be judged" (John 5:24).
Jesus' death and resurrection release us from judgment.
You may imagine a day of judgment where you're standing outside the gates of heaven in a really, really long line, and you're slowly moving forward, one step at a time. As you get closer, you start to sweat and wonder, "Am I going to get in? Am I going to make it? Is God going to use a giant TV screen to show every dumb or evil thing I've ever done? Will my every sin be exposed?"
I have good news for you; it's a promise of Jesus Christ. The Bible says that those who believe in Jesus—His death and resurrection—will not be judged (John 3:18).
So, here's the real picture: You're standing in line waiting for the judgment. Jesus sees you and he says, "I know you. We've been friends for years. You put your trust in Me back at Easter 2009. Come with Me. You come get in the express lane. You get the fast track. You get to bypass the judgment." Is that good news? Oh, yeah!
I've got a friend named Buddy who says, when he was a little kid, his Sunday school teacher taught him that God was sitting in heaven writing down every bad thing that Buddy ever did. Writing it down! She actually made the class sing a song every week that went: "My Lord is writing all the time. Writing, writing, writing all the time." Buddy says, "It scared me. I just thought, 'I'm never going to make it to heaven. My list is getting longer and longer.'"
Is that the way God treats us when we come and put our faith in Christ? No! In fact, God is erasing, erasing, erasing all the time. Forgiving, forgiving, forgiving all the time. He's sitting in heaven hitting the delete button.
Why? Because the Bible says, "God is love" (1 John 4:8); and "Love...keeps no record of wrongs" (1 Corinthians 13:5). If you put your trust in the love of Jesus Christ it's wiped out, "There is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ" (Romans 8:1).
Easter Offers Us a Fresh Start
"Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we've been given a brand-new life, and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven" (1 Peter 1:3-4).
Evidently, a lot of people would like to have a fresh start in life. Yesterday I typed the phrase "Fresh start" into Google on the Internet. It brought up 485,000 links! A lot of people would like a fresh start. They think, "I've blown it, I've messed up, I've really made a mess of things in my life. I'd like a fresh start."
Jesus is in the business of giving people a fresh start. The apostle Peter says, "Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we've been given a brand-new life, and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven" (1 Peter 1:3-4).
Several things happen once you give your life to Christ:
1. You open up your life to God and get to know Him.
2. You're given a brand-new life, which gives you everything to live for.
3. You get a future in heaven.
The way I say it is this: You get your past forgiven, you get a purpose for livin', and you get a home in heaven. What a deal! Your past, present, and future are taken care of as you put your trust in Jesus. A fresh start!
"Everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 1:30).
Easter Shows Us God's Amazing Love
"God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners" (Romans 5:8).
Everything that Jesus did for you He did out of love. The Bible says that God made you to love you. The only reason you're alive is because you were made to be loved by God.
If God didn't want you alive, your heart would stop instantly; you wouldn't even be breathing right now. God made you and wants you alive so He can love you and so you can love Him back.
God didn't just say He loved you, He showed it. The Bible says, "God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners" (Romans 5:8). It says while we were still sinners. Before I even knew God, before I even knew I needed God in my life, Jesus died for me.
There's a myth that says I've got to clean up my act before I can come to God. "I've got to get it all together. There are a few things I've got to get right in my life first, and then I'll come to God." No! You come to God with your problems—the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Why do we do this? It's like when we brush our teeth before we go to the dentist to have a teeth cleaning; or when we wash the dishes before we put them in the dishwasher; or when we pick up the house before the maid gets there! Why do we do this?
God says, "No, no! You don't have to clean up your act. Just bring it all to Me. Bring Me all your problems. I have the answer. I have all the answers." You don't wait. Jesus says, "Come as you are."
The Bible says, "He will send down help from heaven to save me because of His love" (Psalm 57:3). That's what Jesus did on Easter. He sent down Himself from heaven to save us because of His love. So you bring your problems to God because He has the answer.
If you don't act on this news then the death of Jesus Christ and His resurrection is wasted for you personally. It makes no difference in your life. You may recognize the gift, but you still have to receive it.
The Bible says, "You will be saved, if you honestly say, 'Jesus is Lord,' and if you believe with all your heart that God raised Him from death. God will accept you and save you, if you truly believe this and tell it to others" (Romans 10:9-10).
God is not asking you to make a promise you cannot keep. God is asking you to believe a promise that only He can keep.
"But Jesus remained silent and gave no answer. Again the high priest asked Him, "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed one?" (Mark 14:61)
What's so important about Easter? It's important because it proved that Jesus was who He claimed to be. He was God in the flesh, and He came to earth to save us.
Three events occurred in dramatic succession on that Easter weekend: the trial of Jesus, then the death of Jesus, and finally the resurrection of Jesus.
Jesus actually went through six trials. In that one night, he was brought before Annas (the father-in-law of Caiaphas), Caiaphas (the high priest), the Sanhedrin (the religious Supreme Court), Pilate (the governor of Jerusalem), Herod (the governor of Galilee), and then back to Pilate.
At the end of those six trials, what did they find to accuse Him of? Nothing. He had done nothing wrong. They brought in people to make up phony charges, but those didn't stick. Finally they convicted him on one count: claiming to be the Son of God. That's the sole reason Jesus went to the cross.
Everyone who has ever been presented with Jesus has already made some kind of decision about who He is. You either believe He's a liar, or you believe He's a lunatic, or you believe He's the Lord. It can't just be "I believe He was a good teacher." He couldn't be just a good teacher, because a good teacher would not say, "I'm God, and I'm the only way to heaven." A good person would not say that unless it was the truth.
Jesus claimed to be the Savior of the world. In John 12:47, He is recorded as saying: "I did not come to judge the world, but to save it." He allowed Himself to be put on trial so there would be no doubt about who He was. He could have stopped the trial at any moment; he knew He would be proven guilty and put on the cross—but He allowed it to happen. It was all part of the plan.
"That's what Christ did definitively: suffered because of others' sins, the Righteous one for the unrighteous ones. He went through it all—was put to death and then made alive—to bring us to God" (1 Peter 3:18).
Easter celebrates an event that proved Jesus was who He claimed to be. He was God in the flesh, and He came to earth to save us. And that meant He had to die for us.
After a night of beatings and mocking, after being crowned with painful thorns, Jesus was crucified. Crucifixion is probably the most brutal and torturous death penalty ever devised by men. His hands were stretched out wide against the cross and nailed through the two bones in each wrist. As the nails went through this part of the flesh, they would strike the nerve that travels up the arm and cause excruciating pain.
If you hang this way for any period of time, the muscles around your chest cavity become paralyzed. You can breathe in but you can't breathe out. Death on a cross is really a simple matter of suffocation, except the Romans didn't want to make it that easy. They'd take a person's knees and bend them a little bit and nail the feet to the cross.
So a man would hang there in absolute agony until the pain in his chest was about to explode, and then he would lift himself up on his nailed feet to grab a breath. When the pain in his feet grew unbearable, he'd let himself back down again until the pain in his lungs became unbearable. It was an incredibly torturous event.
Eventually, the soldiers would break the legs of the criminal to hasten death by suffocation.
In the case of Jesus, they didn't have to break His legs, because He had already died. But just to make sure, they stuck a spear in His side. Water and blood came out of the chest cavity, which, doctors say, only happens if the heart rips. You can call it what you want, but Jesus died of a broken heart.
Why did Jesus have to die? Because He alone was able to pay for your sins. You deserved punishment, but Jesus paid the penalty for you: "For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God" (1 Peter 3:18).
"The Good News is about His Son. In His earthly life He was born into King David's family line, and He was shown to be the Son of God when He was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit. He is Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 1:3-4).
Although we study the passion of Jesus, His death on the cross, Easter is a celebration of His resurrection: God brought Jesus back from the dead, proving He'd broken the power of sin and death.
After Jesus died, they took His body down and put Him in the tomb, and a giant millstone was set in front of the cave. The religious leaders, worried that Jesus' body might be stolen, asked for Roman guards to be posted in front of the tomb. They didn't want Him coming out!
But of course, He did.
You know the story. But it's important to remember that Easter is not some memorial to a nice, good religious teacher who lived 2,000 years ago. It's a celebration of the fact that He is alive today!
I'm living proof—and so are the approximately 1 billion Christians who celebrate Easter. Jesus "was shown to be the Son of God when He was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit. He is Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 1:4).
Easter is the good news about God's Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who came as a human baby, born into King David's royal family line. Four historical records say that after His resurrection He showed Himself to 500 people at one gathering.
Can you imagine witnessing His death and then seeing Him walking around Jerusalem three days later? What an amazing thing!
When Jesus was hanging on the cross, the skeptics and critics mocked Him and said, "If You're the Son of God, why don't You just pull yourself down from that cross? Why don't You just come down and show that You're really God?"
Jesus had something more spectacular planned. He said, "I'm going to let you bury Me for three days, then I'll come back to life to prove that I am who I say I am."
"'What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?' Pilate asked them" (Mark 15:12).
Two thousand years ago, in the Middle East, an event occurred that permanently changed the world. Because of that event, history was split. Every time you write a date, you're using the resurrection of Jesus Christ as the focal point.
What does this mean to us today? In one sense, Jesus Christ is still on trial. He's on trial in the heart and mind of every person who has not yet acknowledged Him as the Son of God, the Savior of the world.
Was Jesus a liar, a lunatic, or Lord?
Jesus claimed to be the Savior of the world. In John 12:47, He is recorded as saying: "I didn't come to judge the world. I came to save it." Some people say, "I believe Jesus was a good teacher." But, He couldn't be just a good teacher because a good teacher would not say, "I'm God, and I'm the only way to heaven." A good person would not say that unless it was the truth.
What's your verdict?
- Is Jesus who He says He is? Is He God? Or is He a lunatic or a liar?
- If He is who He says He is, when will you start following what He says to do with your life?
Today, you sit in judgment of Jesus Christ. Just as Pilate asked, "What shall I do then with Jesus who is called the Christ?" you also must decide whether He was who He said He was or not.
Purpose Driven Connection by Rick Warren
'Spirit > e—The Purpose Driven Life' 카테고리의 다른 글
| Love Is A Choice (0) | 2009.05.16 |
|---|---|
| Every Nation: Don't Trade Your Life for Temporary Things (0) | 2009.05.02 |
| Fear and Grace (0) | 2009.04.04 |
| The Barrier of Pride (0) | 2009.03.29 |
| May the Lord Smile On You (0) | 2009.03.22 |
