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What does it mean to celebrate Easter?

For some it might include a meal with family, candy, egg hunts, or attending church (or all of the above) depending on what you understand the season to mean.

While I miss the days of waking up to an Easter basket filled with candy from my family…I mean from the Easter Bunny…there is so much more to Easter than colored eggs, Peeps and jelly beans. (Please don’t let that discourage you from gifting me with jelly beans and peanut butter eggs if you feel so inclined.  I will gladly accept.)

Easter has profound significance to our faith for those who follow Christ and, even though you may not realize it yet, also for those who don’t.

So what’s the real story behind Easter and why is it so important to Christians?

During Easter, Christians are celebrating is the death and resurrection of Jesus and the significance of that event.

A Divine Plan

If you read a passage of Scripture like Matthew 26-28, you’ll find the account of the death and resurrection of Jesus.  Jesus had spent the last three years of His life teaching, working miracles and healing the sick.  He proclaimed that God’s promised salvation had come and was available to all who would repent of their sins and turn to Him.

At the end of His life on this earth, Jesus was crucified under the Roman government, incited by an angry crowd of His fellow Israelites who mistakenly believed He was a blasphemer against God instead of God’s promised Savior.

There was a bigger story-a God story-behind what on the surface just looked like a mess of religious-political scandal that ended in the death of a good teacher.

“The Father loves Me because I sacrifice my life so I may take it back again.  No one can take My life from Me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For this is what My Father has commanded.”  (John 10:17-18)

What happened to Jesus was God’s plan all along-and it was for our benefit.

Jesus knew exactly what was going to happen to Him and why.  On multiple occasions He told His disciples that He would suffer mistreatment at the hands of the religious leaders of the day, that He would be killed and on the third day He would rise from the dead. (Matthew 16:21; 20:17-19) He told them that He came to give His life as a ransom for many. (Matthew 20:28)

Jesus came to give His life so that people could be reconciled to God.  He gave His life so that anyone who would believe in Him would be forgiven of their sin, restored in relationship with God as His friends, and granted eternal life with God.

Healing Our Brokenness

Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes.  God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. This is what He wanted to do, and it gave Him great pleasure. (Ephesians 1:4-5)

Even before He created anything, God had a plan to fix the brokenness that would shake up His good world.

When Adam and Eve sinned against God in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 1-3), sin and its consequences entered this world and affected every person born after that.  Why?  Adam and Eve were God’s designated progenitors of the human race, His first representatives in this world.  When they disobeyed God the effects of their rebellion got passed on to all of us.  (Romans 5:12)

And now, every human being born, although physically alive, is spiritually dead.  We are dead because of our disobedience to God and our rejection of Him.  We follow the desires and inclinations of our sinful nature instead of following God, and that makes us subject to the penalty for our sin. (Ephesians 2:1-4)

Each of us, apart from Jesus, is destined to spend eternity separated from the presence of God, enduring the punishment for our rebellion and rejection of Him. (Romans 6:23; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9)

Here’s the thing.  God doesn’t want that for anyone.  The penalty for sin is the just judgment of God because He is completely righteous and therefore cannot allow sin to go without consequence.  However, He also loves everyone and wants everyone to be saved.  He wants everyone to repent (turn from sin) and turn to Him so that they don’t perish eternally. Like every person He created, God loves you-He always has-and He wants you to be a part of His family.

Reconciled To God

So here’s what He did.

God sent His Son Jesus to earth (God Himself, in human form) and He put the penalty of sin that we deserved on Jesus instead.

Jesus died in our place, taking the penalty for our wrongs against God upon Himself.  He is the only one qualified to do this because He was both fully human and fully God enabling Him to meet God’s righteous standards completely without ever sinning.  He was able to offer His life as the perfect sacrifice in our place when we were the guilty ones who couldn’t measure up.

Because of His sacrifice, when we turn away from sin and turn to Him with our lives, our sins against God are forgiven.  The penalty is removed.  We get to experience eternal life in the presence of God after we die. Our ability to have a friendship with God-in this life and in eternity-is restored.   (Romans 5:6-11)

What a story.  Imperfect humans, completely unable to save ourselves from the consequences of rebellion against our Creator, rescued by the very same Creator because He longs to forgive us, to have personal relationship with us and have us with Him where He is for eternity.

Receiving The Gift

This incredible gift of salvation is made available by God to every person, but we each have to decide to accept it.  How?

Acts 17:30-31 tells us that God commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to Him.  Ephesians 2:8-9 further explains that we can be saved not because of any good works of our own but because of God’s grace (His undeserved kindness toward us) when we put our faith in Jesus and what He did for us.  If you put your faith in Jesus, turn away from sin and turn to follow Him with your life instead, this gift of forgiveness, relationship with God and eternal life can be yours too.

Receiving salvation through Jesus isn’t just a one time, “say a prayer and escape eternal judgment and then I can move on with my life” decision.  It’s the first step of a daily, lifelong journey of following Jesus.  The life of following Jesus is walking with Him every day and getting to know Him.  It’s giving up your own selfish and sinful ways, learning from Jesus how to believe and live and letting Him transform you into the person He wants you to be. (Matthew 11:28-30; Luke 9:23)

Celebrating New Life

So that’s what Christians are celebrating during Easter time.  We’re celebrating the sacrifice Jesus made for us so that we could be forgiven and know God personally.  We’re celebrating the mercy and kindness of God that took our spiritually dead hearts and made them alive.  We’re rejoicing in the fact that we are loved and wanted so much by our God that He sent His Son to die and rise from the dead for us.

If you’re not a Christian, and this intrigues you or you want to accept God’s gift of salvation for yourself, head to my contact page and shoot me a message.  I’d love to talk with you more.

Enjoy your Easter celebrations!

Your Turn: Spend time this week reading through the Scripture passages in this blog and consider the story of Jesus and His sacrifice.  If you are a Christian, let it inspire you again to live each day for the One who died and was raised for you.  If you aren’t a Christian, let it provoke you to think about what you believe about Jesus.  Discuss this post in the comments below.

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