Happy Easter

For three days, the lifeless body of Jesus lay in a tomb. With him lay the expectations of all who had followed him. This wonderful man whom his followers hoped would be the Messiah—the anticipated righteous King sent from God to rule their nation—was brutally seized, tried, tortured and left to die on a cross.

The Bible summarizes the “gospel,” which means “good news,” this way: “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures . . . he was buried . . . he rose again on the third day according to the scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3–4). God shows his love for us in that “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

But the good news means nothing unless it overcomes bad news. The bad news is without Christ you are separated from God, now and forever. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

To God, Easter means that he is satisfied with Jesus’s death in our place.

“Christ also has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust [us], that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). Jesus Christ “is the propitiation [the Satisfier of God’s just punishment] for our sins (1 John 2:2).

To the believer, Easter is the promise of everlasting life.