He Has Risen

"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

Easter is tomorrow.   A day when the world recognizes and celebrates that Jesus Christ rose from the dead.  I will go so far as to say this was, and still is, the most important day in the history of the world.

When I was younger, Easter meant new clothes, hunting for Easter eggs, going to Granny's for lunch.  I had no idea what Easter meant.  Oh sure, I knew it was the day Jesus was resurrected, we even sang a song about it, "Up from the grave he arose, with a mighty triumph o'er his foes, He arose."  That was number 145 in the old blue songbook.  Some of you will know what I mean, but in reality, for way too long, I had no clue what this day meant.

Christmas is celebrated as the day Christ was born, and that's nice.  I will never complain when the focus is on Christ.  Praise God that it is for a few days each year.  But Christmas was the culmination of what was prophesied in the Old Testament; it was the beginning of a new chapter.  The best and the most incredible was still yet to come.  It was all part of God's plan.

There are a lot of men and women who can do a better job of explaining all of God's plan to you.  Perhaps I should have had them write this blog, but I didn't.  So I am going to try to keep it short and stick to the main points.

It is so important to realize that God loves us and he wants us, all of us, to spend eternity with him.  The apostle Peter writes in 2 Peter, "He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."

We are all sinners.  All of us.  Simply put we are not good enough to get into heaven, so someone had to pay the price for our salvation.  That was Christ. That is why he came, that is why he died and that is why he arose on the third day.

I love that final line Paul uses.  Read it carefully.  "While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."  That is the most important sentence you will read all day, or tomorrow or this week.  Christ died for us, so we would have the opportunity to spend eternity with him.

If Christ died, then why is the Resurrection so important?  By rising from the dead, He is triumphing over death, he is conquering the Evil One (Satan).  He is loudly proclaiming death is not the end and it cannot hold me.

If Christ doesn't rise from the dead, everything in the Old Testament and his life to that point is for naught, it's useless.  The Apostle Paul really nailed it on the head toward the end of 1 Corinthians, "If we have hoped in Christ only in this life, we are of all people most miserable. "This means that if the resurrection is not real and our hope is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone else."

If Christ doesn't come back from the dead, we are all just wasting our time.

That is why I believe, Easter, the morning Christ arose on the first day of the week, is the most important day in the history of the world.

May God bless you.  

Thank you for reading, be nice to each other.