Happy Easter from Nancy Pettit, Board Member of Global Faith!
Every Easter season, we celebrate that Jesus Christ is risen, alive forever, and ruling over everyone and everything as King of the universe. Think about it. Jesus is in heaven with a beating heart, lungs expanding, sitting on a throne, and ruling with perfect love, justice, righteousness, and control. But do not forget the big picture here. If you are a believer in Jesus as your Lord (King) and Savior, you too will be raised from the dead to live forever in a glorified body and soul with Jesus when He returns to earth. What hope that our best life is yet to come! (Hebrews 1:1-13, Romans 6:5, 1 Timothy 2:11, John 11:25)
Sadly, many people do not care about celebrating Easter because they do not see a need for Jesus in their lives. Some think they are self-reliant, independent, powerful, in control, and prosperous on their own. Others think they can get into heaven to be with God the Father in their own power by being good and doing enough good works. But the bad news for all people is we cannot please God on our own, nor gain heaven on our own powers. God the Father expects perfection from us. We are to be perfect like our heavenly Father is perfect (Matt 5:48). God is completely perfect, pure, and separate from sin (Deut. 32:4). Plus, the Bible explains God is good in everything He does. In fact, no one is good except God alone (Mark 10:18b). Unfortunately, all humans (except Jesus) have sinned and failed to give God the Father the glory He deserves (Romans 3:23). We must understand God never compromises the perfection of His own being or character. He would cease to be God if He compromised His perfect character of love, goodness, justice, righteousness, and holiness. God exists in Himself eternally and our lives depend entirely on His existence. “In Him we live and move and have our being” (Act 17:28).
John Piper, in his book 50 Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die, adds “Let us not trifle with God or trivialize His love. We will never stand in awe of being loved by God until we reckon with the seriousness of our sin and the justice of His wrath against us.” In fact, the Bible explains we deserve everlasting spiritual and bodily death due to our sins which insult and dishonor God. We deserve hell where we experience God’s anger forever (Matt 21:1-4).
But the good news is God the Father sent His perfect Son Jesus to save sinners (Luke 19:10), to forgive sinners (Matt 26:28), to give His righteousness to sinners (Matt 20:28), and to give eternal life to sinners (John 11:25-26). Jesus, being both fully God and fully human, was able to live a perfect sinless life on earth. Jesus was tempted in every way we are but did not sin (Hebrews 4:11). All of his earthly life, Jesus kept all of God’s commands and laws perfectly. Then Jesus willfully went to the cross to die in our place as sinners. Jesus became our substitute to receive the punishment of death and experience God the Father’s fierce anger at sin. And finally, because God the Father was satisfied with what Jesus had done, Jesus rose from the dead and later ascended to heaven (Phil 2:8-11).
So, we can only stand before our perfect, holy, pure Father only on the good works and merits of His perfect son Jesus. There is no other way; Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Our righteous deeds will not earn us a place in heaven (Titus 3:5). God the Father and Jesus are offering us a free, gracious gift to escape eternal punishment. If you are not a believer, by the power of the Holy Spirit repent of your sins and believe and trust (faith) in God’s plan of salvation (Mark 1:15). With humbleness and gratefulness of God’s mercy and love, accept Jesus as your Lord (King) and Savior. With the help of the Holy Spirit, you will be given the strength to obey God’s commands and start a new life, being transformed into a Christlike character. As believers we are being prepared body and soul to live with our beautiful, loving, majestic, holy, and just God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit in the new heaven and earth.
The best is yet to come! Happy Easter!