This Sunday as we hide our eggs, put on our Easter dresses, and head to church we need to stop and recognize that this holiday is the most important day of the year. Easter is the celebration of God’s ultimate gift, His son Jesus Christ!
It took me a while to understand why exactly God went to such extremes as to have His one and only son die for us. But the more scripture you read, the more you see how this is the utmost sacrifice God could of ever have made for us.
This act wasn’t just a sacrifice but a gift. We didn’t deserve such redemption, justification, forgiveness, or reconciliation, but because God so loved the world he gave his one and only son John 3:16. He gave us this gift so we would be forgiven of our sins, and one day be in His presence once again.
“…And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:19-21
As we read through today’s article, join me by giving thanks and praise to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for being the ultimate gift we could ever receive!
Easter: God’s Ultimate Gift
Restoring Our Relationship With God
The act of Jesus on the cross means so much for us at this very moment but more importantly for an eternity. Jesus’s death and resurrection physically displayed how much God truly loved His people and wanted to send a message of reconciliation. He wanted to restore what once was, to go back to how we lived in the Garden of Eden, and live in the presence of His people.
God knew well before Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit that there was going to be the fall of man. He knew that Jesus would have to be our lamb, our ultimate sacrifice in order to redeem us and that is because we were made in His image Genesis 1:27. We too would come to know good and evil. Yet our knowledge of evil didn’t exist until the fall of man.
As I read through the Bible starting from the fall of man to the resurrection of Jesus, I picture a huge cycle.With us dwelling in the presence of God, in the beginning, then the fall of man, then us slowly learning from righteous men and women who God had commanded and to relay covenants through, then leading up to Jesus’s death. Although Jesus’ death isn’t the final part of this circle, getting to this point in the cycle would never have happened without the cross; God’s ultimate gift that cleanses us of our sins.
We Are Sinful and Christ Was Sinless
Jesus didn’t deserve any of the ridicule, torture, and evil acts that were inflicted upon him, but because God wanted to show His people how we are supposed to love, His son who He loves was sinless and took on all the sins of the world. I have heard the argument that God should have been able to just have forgiven us without the sacrificing of His son. But it was way more than that!
I can only imagine being in the presence of the crucifixion at Golgotha and watching the soldiers as they nailed Jesus to the cross. With people all around and most of them believing that he was innocent. Even Pilot said three times that he found no guilt in Jesus when the people shouted to have him crucified. And yet a sinless man was put to death for no crime.
We the sinners, the people who stood all around Jesus at his death deserved the cross over him, yet we put him to death. God knew this would happen. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
This is why Jesus’ death will always remain a gift because we didn’t deserve it! God intentionally became the perfect loving and living example of how we should live. Through God’s perfect example we have the ability to appear sinless in the presence of God when we leave this earth for a new one because Jesus’ blood that was shed covers our sins.
“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:6-8
But Jesus’s death covered the sins of the all of us, never before Jesus was this ever possible!
Through His Blood We Are Righteous
Without the atonement of Jesus’s death on the cross, we would never be righteous enough to dwell in Heaven with God. “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace. ” Ephesians 1:7 Through God’s grace He has given us Jesus. And through Jesus, we have been redeemed.
If you picture God above us in Heaven, far away from where we are here on earth, then picture Jesus smack dab in the middle. He isn’t like us, although he did live on earth he is the conciliator between God and us. So the more we sin, the further this gap becomes from our Heavenly Father. But when we turn to him, through the mediation of Jesus and his life being sacrificed on the cross, the division between us and God becomes non-existent.
“For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.” Hebrews 9:15
There isn’t a single one of us that doesn’t need forgiveness of our sins, so there isn’t one us that doesn’t need to recognize Jesus as our Savior. This is why Jesus’ death and resurrection will always be the ultimate gift our loving God could of ever have given us. Without Jesus, there would still be a separation between God and man with no way back into His presence once we have passed from this world.
This Easter Sunday if you have never opened your heart to Jesus this is the perfect time to do so! Take a moment to realize how much God loves you that He has given you the opportunity to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, our sacrificial Lamb, our Redeemer, and the ultimate gift He could have ever given us! Have a blessed Easter!
Leah Lincoln
Hello Friends! My Name is Leah Lincoln and I am the co-founder of Abide and Seek, which is mine and my husband’s Christian Blog. I write articles based on my past experiences and point of view as a Christian woman in hopes to help others find their everlasting relationship with Jesus Christ. Although I am a follower of Jesus, I have a background in science which I feel only enhances my understanding of God’s creation. I am a stay at home mom who enjoys watching our 2 year old son grow and learn something new each day and we just welcomed home our newest child this past December! A sweet little girl! My passions include writing to inspire others, crafting and creating art, tending to and saving animals, gardening, and enjoying a hot cup of coffee with the company of good friends and family.