Easter doesn’t make sense. Just think through it with me for a minute: Jesus offers himself as a sacrifice to take on all of the wrath of God to cover forever the sins of a people who hate Him. Not only does He willingly give His life, He dies in the worst way possible, beaten, mocked, nailed to a crucifix, hung and stabbed in the side, left to bleed out and slowly die. Not for anything He did, but for the people who hung Him.
For Barabus, the criminal who deserved death; for Peter, the best friend who denied knowing Him; for Judas, who betrayed Him to the Romans; for me, who was ashamed to be associated with Him.
It doesn’t make sense.
Most of the Bible verses I see around Easter time come from the part of
the gospels, Mathew, Mark, Luke, John, that describe the three days where Jesus died and then rose from the grave. But I think we overlook the verse that Easter is really about, you might have heard it before.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only son, so that whoever believes in Him will not die, but have everlasting life.”
In case you don’t know the reference, that’s John 3:16. And it tells us exactly why Easter is a thing. God so LOVED the world.
Did you catch that? Lemme read it again
God. LOVED.
If I paid more attention in English class I could break the verse down a little better, but as it is I’m just going to do the best I can.
What did God do- gave His son to give us everlasting life
What do we have to do- believe in Him
Why did He do this- because He LOVES the world
God didn’t send Jesus to be a final sacrifice because we were already good, we weren’t. Jesus didn’t willingly die because we deserved it, we didn’t. God gave us Jesus, and Jesus died because He loves us. Period. It wasn’t based on anything we did, because He knows we can never be perfect, so instead of leaving us to be condemned, He gave us a way to be seen as right with Him.
The next verse in John says “God did not send His son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him, might be saved.” Thats grace, because we deserve condemnation, and instead got a free ticket to righteousness.
Before I knew Him, before I loved Him, while I sin: He came for me, He died for me, He sees me as righteous, all for love.
That’s my tattoo, btw. All for love, because it’s why God sent Jesus, why Jesus died, what my purpose is.
BUT WAIT. There’s more (read in your best Billy Mayes voice). God is so extra with His love that not only did He give the sacrifice to make us righteous, but then He was like “oh yeah, death? Imma take care of that too” and He RAISED Jesus to show us that there is NoTHinG that He doesn’t have power over! He’s so extra y’all and it’s great.
Check this out:
“But God is so rich in mercy, and he LOVED us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.”
??Ephesians? ?2:4-6?
HAPPY. EASTER. YALL.
